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*** FINISHED *** Helmut Wick's Bf 109E4, October 1940 (Tamiya 1/72)


jrlx

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Hi again,

I've been slowly progressing on Wick's Bf 109.

After glueing the fuselage halves and the wing parts together, I glued the closed fuselage to the wings. To ensure to correct dihedral, I applied masking tape bands between the fuselage and the wing tips:

IMAG2954_zpscoy2bi4k.jpg

I let the glue cure for 24h and then sanded and polished the joins. This is the result:

IMAG2955_zpsehnvlzpb.jpg

I had to rescribe the longitudinal panel lines along the spine and the lower aft fuselage, which were a characteristic of the Bf 109. As a guide I used labelling tape:

IMAG2956_zpsw4nfsgyq.jpg

This is the result on the spine:

IMAG2957_zpscdefnerk.jpg

And this is the result on the lower aft fuselage:

IMAG2958_zpsotyolnn2.jpg

I really don't like rescribing...

Next, I had to remove some raised detail on the lower area of the tail, which represents the rudder control cables. These will be replaced by PE parts. Here's the original raised detail (left) and the result of the removal (right):

IMAG2959_zpsdd22l1ul.jpgIMAG2960_zpsgd8m8hv6.jpg

The next step will be deciding whether to paint the engine upper and lower covers separately from the fuselage or glueing them first and painting them using masking.

That's all for now. Thanks for looking,

Jaime

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Last night I did some more work on the Bf 109.

While test fitting the lower cowling, I found the part had a small step in relation to the surrounding fuselage:

IMAG2961_zpssav58wcm.jpg

IMAG2962_zpsh1up3329.jpg

So, I sanded it with a sanding stick:

IMAG2963_zpshod5iodg.jpg

After a few iterations, the fit improved a lot:

IMAG2964_zpsxkm7xkp7.jpg

IMAG2965_zpsrk3wt4lk.jpg

The part is a bit wider than the surrounding fuselage, however. That I don't think I can solve but pictures show that the fit of the cowlings wasn't perfect.

Next, I glued the horizontal stabilisers in place:

IMAG2966_zpsbgeujgn5.jpg

I tried to make them horizontal as much as possible, by aligning them and the tail fin with perpendicular lines on the cutting matt while glueing the parts in place.

It seems the results are not too bad:

IMAG2967_zps7xgpjc6j.jpg

IMAG2968_zpsnmvnif5b.jpg

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

Jaime

Edited by jrlx
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Hi again,

Last week-end I finally managed to get some time and energy to get back to my on-going builds.

First, I glued the engine air intake in place, right above the wing leading edge in the picture:

IMAG2969_zpstqr5xq2a.jpg

Next, there were two metal handles to apply to the front fixed canopy part. These are PE parts. The first picture shows the front fixed canopy and one of the PE handles. The extremities had to be bent and the handles were glued in place in a diagonal position, as shown in the second picture. This was quite difficult to do:

IMAG2970_zpsaywgt6f7.jpgIMAG2971_zpsojrpzjks.jpg

After this, there was a radiator grid to apply to the air intake on the aircraft's chin:

IMAG2972_zpsoflzlpwk.jpgIMAG2973_zpsbpyx8cdm.jpg

On the undersides of the wings there were ring-shaped pieces of metal, which the kit represents by plastic "spikes" (on the first picture). These were cut off and replaced by more detailed PE parts (second picture):

IMAG2974_zpswwqltl2p.jpgIMAG2975_zpst1tvdgt4.jpg

To complete the instrument panel, there were still two PE levers to apply. These had yellow tips, which were painted with the parts still in the fret:

IMAG2976_zpsfr9342yj.jpg

The levers were applied near the side walls, as shown in the following picture:

IMAG2992_zpsluxvfnuj.jpg

The gun sight was also glued in place:

IMAG2993_zpspztnozzo.jpg

Next, the fixed front canopy part was glued in place:

IMAG2994_zpsjmcfmkq6.jpg

Frontal view:

IMAG2996_zpsg1lrlcwn.jpg

This is how the instrument panel and the handles on the canopy ended up:

IMAG2995_zpsh42yfcgc.jpg

The masking of the windscreen was removed, because this Bf 109 version had a frame of armoured glass applied over the windscreen. I still have to apply that, but this is how the windscreen now stands:

IMAG2997_zpsrrp9twg0.jpg

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

Jaime

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