Bonkin

That is a good point... I did think about this when building the 109 but it seemed to be OK. I recall when building the P51 years ago though that it never looked right on its legs... this was probably why. Thank you Dov. I'm enjoying it so far. @!%# George!?!! You have amazing perseverance. I would have never have gotten that far with such brittle plastic. You did an amazing job. Thanks for sharing that... whenever things go wrong in my plastic adventures I will be reminded of your tenacity and dedication it getting that model finished. . Cheers. Your welcome.

Haven't had much time on the bench but I did think I needed to see what all the fuss was about with the engine being too long on this kit. So first up, I did a very rough clean up of the engine parts and then stuck them together with white glue. The idea being that I could later separate them and glue them properly once I decided on the course of action: Using tape to pull the fuselage together I measured the distance to the back of the engine bay to the front... ... and found it to be 75mm. Now the engine, if assembled as per the instructions, seems to be 70mm from the front of the fan blade to the rear of the engine. Meaning that there should be a 5mm gap between the firewall and engine rear... However, when the engine is mounted as per the build instructions, this gap (on my model) is more like 8mm. I think there will be plenty enough places to reduce the width... and ultimately, I think the most obvious place will be in the support arms joining it to the firewall. Looking at the wings I'm thinking that they may pull into shape with a correct dihedral when they are glued in, but to play it safe I may need to add my own wing spar. In actual build work I've corrected the height of the tail wheel. The model has it sitting like this: ... but all photo references show that the assembly sits much lower... so I added some mounting points... ... and have adjusted the tail wheel to sit like this: The rest of the work has been hacking stuff away... the radiator flaps were opened up... ... and I've started cutting away the moulded in exhausts - which I hope to replace with some metal tubing. Build wise I'm thinking that I'm going to take the rather unorthodox approach of casting the instructions to the side and assembling it from the tail forwards. I'm fairly convinced that there are some other issues to resolve - like the instrument panel being too far forward and the wheel well covers which should not be fitted up to the firewall. If I build it this way then I have a reasonable chance of correcting the fit issues as I go. Thanks for looking.

Cheers Bob. At the moment I'm thinking I'd like to have the engine cowlings open - but we'll see how it goes. With you on the work thing... it would just be nice to get to retirement with a pension still intact. Thanks Johnson. Kind words. Some great info there Troy. Thank you. You'll see in follow on posts that I've done just this (tape and white glue though). To be honest, my gut feeling is that this is a bad fitting kit and not necessarily cack handed modellers. I'm saying this now of course so that if I make a pigs bottom of it then I have an excuse . Cheers Matt. I've purchased the Airscale instrument panel... and following your suggestion made a post on the wanted section. Lovely build Ratch. Is there a build or RFI thread anywhere? Cheers. Indeed I've seen that part 36 post before. I believe it is the carburettor though... so if I do have the hatches open I think it would be an important part to retain.

Looking good. I'm sure this build thread will inspire me to build my "Car Door" version of this kit.

I've been puzzling over some of the parts in the kit... in particular parts 43, 44, 45 and 46 which don't feature in the build instructions - not my version at least. But after a while I think I've figured it out... I've probably put part 45 the wrong way around but I'm guessing it is so that you could fit one of those little Airfix motors and then half the front cylinder block to the front of the circular part (hence the offset pins)... ... in any case, it gives me an option if I decide not to bother with the engine. I will need to check whether this would also result in the fan being 5mm too far out though.

Hello all. Having recently completed my Airfix 1/24 scale Bf109E I thought it only right to build its fighting companion - the Fw-190. I know a lot of bad things have been written about this kit... in all the pre-build reading I've been doing I'm aware of the issues with the engine (fan) being too long, fit issues with the wheel wells and cowlings, plus the tailwheel not sitting correctly. I'm also aware of the current lack of after market parts - which is a shame because I would really like to add some metal legs and resin wheels at the very least. I've not decided which variant to do yet, or what approach I'm going to take to overcome the issues... but will decide along the way. As an example, I may decide not to show the engine and just close it all in instead. This was an auction site purchase - and important to me that the original bag was still sealed. Thankfully it was as described. Not clear from this picture but the decals have yellowed quite a bit. I've hung them up in a south facing window to see if the yellowing reduces over the build time. The instructions seem reasonably clear... Obligatory sprue shots... Anyway... as always I would welcome any advice or sources of after market parts which could be considered. Thanks for looking.

Nice work. Going to follow along with this if you don't mind... and one day/month/year I may get around to staring mine!

Thank you all for the kind comments. At first I was wondering what you meant Joachim but then I understood... yes, I totally missed it because I'll be displaying it with the covers on. If there are any reference shots of this side of it then I probably will craft something in time.

Hello, here is my representation of a JG26 5th Staffel Bf109E - using the Airfix 1/24 109 kit. Along the way I made modifications to the cockpit, wheel wells, and flaps but it goes together well and I think has pretty good proportions for such an old model. I've used custom decals since there are no after market sets for the markings I wanted to represent - and critiquing my own work I'd say that for starters, the canopy cable needs to look taught and secondly the gunsight clear part is too thick. For some reason Airfix don't supply this as a clear part and I didn't spend long enough making a suitable replacement. Anyway, here it is: Build thread can be found here: Thanks for looking.

I've been waiting to get some time at the bench in order to get this one over the line and this weekend I finally managed it. Using some oils I started on the underside and added some sooty gun smoke on the wings and an oily stain down the underside of the fuselage aft of the radiator. I also added a bit more subtle weathering around the wheel bays. Also, around the top mounted MGs I dirtied up the area (again with oils), to give the impression of a lot of use. Taking the masking off the canopy I was relieved to find that it was all ok... so after fitting the seat and staging the straps, it was on to making the cable stay. For this I wound some 0.3mm wire around a brass rod and then snipped it to length... ... and with a very small amount of CA glue I fitted the canopy and cable. I then used a darker grey in an attempt to dull it down a bit. You can also see that I used some oils to add exhaust stains down the sides. And then finally... it was adding the antenna cable using Mig 0.03m fine rigging cable... which is the first time I've used and I have to say is great stuff. So finally I think that's it. I could keep tweaking it but I think it would better to just call it finished. So next up I will create a RFI post and add some more pictures in there. Overall this has been a very enjoyable build. I'm extremely pleased with the way it has come out and I'm thankful for the comments and support along the way. Thanks for looking.

Stunning build and pictures. Fantastic. Well done. Bravo.

Progress has been a bit slow of late but I finished the brake lines and then worked on the repair of the nose: For some reason when I re-glued it I ended up with a slight step which then had to be sanded out. Following a re-spray it hasn't come out too bad - but will need to be weathered to be more blended in. I also finally added the wheel covers. I also completed all of the decals, opting to go for "Black 4": As I've mentioned previously, these were decals made to my own design. The company I chose was "Custom Model Decals" and I couldn't recommend them enough. When I submitted my design, they called me to discuss different options and concerns they had with the size of the decals and their fragility if not handled correctly. They print white and CMYK colours at 1440 dpi - and the backing I opted for was 8 micron film ‘ultrathin’ decal paper. For comparison, Airfix decals are around 18 microns. A link for their site is below: https://custom-model-decals.com/. Finally one of the reasons I have not made much progress is because (despite vowing I'd always finish a kit before starting on the next one), I've actually started on this: Think I'm glutton for punishment... lots of bad things written about this kit and a number have ended up never being finished or in the bin. Think I'm going to enjoy it though (despite a lack of after market parts). Thanks for looking.

Looking good so far . I'm going to build the Airfix 1/24 version soon and because of the lack of after market parts for that scale it looks like I will be doing it as an OOB build - i.e. the same paint/markings scheme as yours.

Fantastic. What a great build!

Well she's on her wheels at last and the decals, aside from the number, are complete. It didn't go all perfectly though... being somewhat ham fisted I unfortunately dropped it on the table whilst I was doing the decal work. The nose took a smash and opened up the forward fuselage - an area that I spend a good deal of time sanding and filling . Obviously repairable but frustrating nonetheless. In other work I've fitted the pitot probe, underwing tie-down rings and wingtip lights. The decals are custom-made... I'll post about those later but they seem to be coming out well. I put on the engine number and the 5./JG26 diving crow. Anyway, here are a few pictures of her sitting proud: Think I'm on the home stretch now. Work remaining includes: Brake lines Fuselage number (think I'm going to go for 4) Wheel covers Another coat of varnish Dressing the cockpit (seat fit) Canopy fitting (inc. wire) Radio mast and antenna cable Rudder wire Oil Weathering (something I've not done before) Thanks for looking.

Whilst waiting for my custom decals to arrive I've be contemplating and working on the seat and harness arrangement. It isn't clear to me whether a back cushion was fitted or not. First of there is this picture I found (with cushion fitted): And there is this (which is from a museum aircraft) - which I guess is possibly not original due to there being a seat cushion also. I did find these very useful reference pictures however: ... which when compared to the instructions reveal that a mismatch with part 8, i.e. it should be on the opposite waist strap to part 9 - which is the way I determined to construct them. Fiddly little blighters - I've no idea how people manage these at the smaller scales. This is how they turned out anyway... and the more eagle eyed will observe that one of the shoulder straps is ever-so-slightly longer than the other (). The honest truth is that I made a blunder and in my clumsy attempts to unpick what I'd glued the strap broke . I'm hoping that with some correct "posing" I can hide this. So looking at the seat there are some nasty injection marks to sort out... ... and there is this puzzling extrusion at the rear which isn't in the reference pictures. I decided to take this off - just leaving a couple of pieces of it over in case they are needed for the fixing. I then added some scratching... ... and attached the straps at the back with wire. Leaving me with this... Everything is lose at the moment and I'll "pose" it all when the seat gets fitted. I'm also thinking that the straps themselves need to be given a worn look. Not sure how I'm going to manage this yet but will figure something out. Thanks for looking.

How did I miss this thread? I'm stunned by the incredible amount of detail and your build skills Fritag. The Hawk is also close to my heart. I remember first seeing the Reds in their brand new T1s overflying the beach at Lowestoft when I was just I young kid - maybe around 79 or 80? Never then did I realise that the aircraft would be my whole career... I've worked on all variants from Mk102 up, have had the pleasure of flying XX191 out of RAF Valley and the displeasure of witnessing the retirement of 100Sqn and their Hawks at RAF Leeming. Being a larger scale fan, I'm hoping someone (Airfix?) will come along and produce a 1/24 scale one . I figure now would be a good time for such a kit... especially with so many variants that could be created. Now following along with interest .

Many thanks Steve. I'm also enjoying the build and haven't even once considered binning it (I have read about a number of horror stories with these old Airfix kits). Lol. Yes, there are a few after market parts available for this kit. No so for the 1/24 FW-190 sadly. Interesting. To me I've always thought there was a problem with the cockpit glass area. Can never put my finger on it exactly but it just seems to be a little too high (maybe?). But yes, it does look like an Emil. Cheers. ACG is a great group and if you ever fancied online air combat (with an historical context) I couldn't recommend them enough. No previous flying skills necessary... it is all about the experience. I think one of the more senior members is in his 80's now. Thank you Charlie.

Thank you AJ.

Lol. Very true. Plus, I've not had to pay for a haircut for some 30 years (one of the positives of being a baldy!). So I decided that masks are not for me right now. First is the cost of the cutter and second is the fact that I've gone too far already, i.e. if I wanted to make a half decent job of it then I should have done the markings before the camo. Also, the masks a friend made for me (to my design), I thought might just be too tacky and would lift off my paint work. Not her fault. I just hadn't learnt enough about the different vinyl's to buy her the material when she offered to do it. If I had, I would of bought a roll of Oramask 810 for her. No matter anyhow... I found a supplier of custom decals and sent my design off to him. From what I'd read on various forums, the font to use for LW markings is DIN1451 Mittelschrift. I did my design work in Adobe Illustrator and for the scale, used a height of 28mm for the numbers. Also, having found the picture below, I converted the fonts to paths and slightly altered the 4 to have an angled slope. This is how they came out... Unfortunately I noticed other differences in numbers only after I had confirmed the design with the decal printer. Not only is my vertical bar of the 4 too long but see how in the picture below the upper part of the 3 is straight rather than curved. And in this picture, the 1 has a longer upper bar. Shame... had I noticed these earlier I could have done something about it... however I'm sure I can live with it. As I said earlier, there will need to be some "artistic license" in my build as a "representative" 5th staffel machine anyway.

Impressive attention to detail. Loving this build.

After having experimented with the different software I must admit that I'm leaning towards a Silhouette product. Somebody may come along and correct me, but it seems to me that the Cricut software is aimed squarely at assembling pre-designed shapes rather than any design work. I struggled to import my Adobe Illustrator work (looks like you have to upload and share it) and I couldn't understand exactly what it would cut. Also, it seemed I had to pay to download a font to use in their Design Space even though I already have the font on my computer. Indeed there is. (I'm guessing you meant inspirational?) I also have a friend with a Cricut and although she offered to produce some masks for me, she really struggled to import my work into the Cricut Design Space as well. That was with an .svg file. I don't really think I can use what she produced.

Many thanks. To be honest it isn't too quick... I've just had some time off work and no DIY to do . To be honest I'm leaning towards the Silhouette but in the UK a Portrait is upwards of £300 at the moment and I really don't feel like I can justify the price (not at least to my better half). I favour 1/24 scale builds so I would guess that anything I wanted to produce, either cutter should be able to cut it (pun intended) - but I have to wonder whether I'd be happy with OOB builds or after market decal sets? The only build I know for sure that I want custom markings would be my 1/24 Hurricane - which will be a 501 Squadron aircraft. I do agree though, it would be good to have freedom of choice. I read through that full build. Amazing work - and a great showcase for masking! Not an easy thing to disguise from the wife. She'd be bound to ask me what it was . Now if I could encourage her to have an interest in card making...

A work of art! Beautiful.

Magnificent! Definitely one to be proud of. I'd be very happy with that as well. Thank you for sharing your build.