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

[jrlx]

Thanks, Mish! I left it almost finished last night. I only need to install the antenna wires and apply the pigments.

Cheers

Jaime

[sean]

Outstanding Jaime, excellent modelling shown so far, I'm looking forward to seeing the final result,

Sean

[jrlx]

Thanks for the very kind words, Sean Much appreciated.

[GREG DESTEC]

Thats amazing Jaime! I can't wait to see it finished

[jrlx]

Hi,

Contrary to my intentions, I didn't manage to finish the build over the week-end. I have another German test on Tuesday and had to study a bit. However, I'm now very nearly there.

I started the week-end work by applying a dry-brush of silver paint on the cockpit edges:

Then, I applied the PE break lines on the main gear legs, which was quite a fiddly job:

Next, I installed the armoured plate inside the moving part of the canopy, followed by the PE opening lever:

The canopy was then glued in place, in the open position, using CA:

The antenna mast and the propeller were installed and the aircraft now looked almost finished. The antenna wire and pigments still needed to be applied. Here's a walk-around:

The next step was finishing the weathering by applying pigments. Here's the set-up, showing the black pigment for exhaust and blast stains, and the brown pigment for earth and mud dirtiness. I used a nº 1 paintbrush and no pigment fixer, otherwise the pigments would turn into ink.

I didn't want to overdo the pigment application because almost all period pictures show very clean aircraft (none or almost none exhaust stains, none blast stains). Perhaps because the pictures were taken just before take-off or when the aircraft were parked after maintenance and cleaning. Anyway, when shown, the landing gear and wheels were quite dirty, so the undersides could be more heavily stained.

Here are the exhaust stains:

The cannon and machine gun stains:

The underside, more heavily stained and dirtier:

The landing gear and wheels:

With the weathering concluded, then followed the installation of the antenna wires. For this I used elastic finish line.

I started by glueing the line to the antenna mast with CA:

Then, the line was extended and glued to the top of the tail fin. This is how it looked after two or three tries... quite a fiddly job to do:

Next, I drilled a 0.3 mm shallow hole on the spine, to glue the vertical antenna wire:

The lower tip of the vertical wire was glued in place and left to dry:

Meanwhile, I installed a piece of elastic wire to simulate the cable holding the canopy in the open position:

I didn't progress further than this. I still have to finish the antenna and paint the elastic wires with a very dark grey (RLM 66). Then I'll paint the navigation lights on the tips of the wings and call it finished.

Thanks for looking.

Jaime

Edited January 20, 2016 by jrlx

[GREG DESTEC]

Brilliant job Jaime, well done!!

[jrlx]

Thanks Greg:) Really very kind of you!

[CedB]

Very nice Jaime - tiny tiny PE work is excellent and the weathering's just right IMHO.

[jrlx]

Thanks Ced! Very kind, as always

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looks the bizz, nice work Jamie

[jrlx]

Thanks, Mish!

[jrlx]

Hi again,

Last night I finished the build

First, I glued the vertical antenna wire to the horizontal wire:

Next, I cut the excess:

This wasn't simple to do and I managed to loose the wires a few times before everything was glued in place with the right lengths.

While a few reinforcing drops of CA were drying, I painted the navigation lights on the tips of the wings. I used a nº 0 detail brush and Gunze's clear blue and clear red paints.

Blue light on the starboard wing:

Red light on the port wing:

Next, I had to paint the antenna wires but, before that, I masked the spine of the aircraft, to avoid last minute mishaps:

The wires were painted with a nº 0 detail brush. I used Tamiya's XF-63 German Grey (equivalent to RLM66) because it is matte, thus avoiding the need to apply matte varnish after painting.

After removing the masking, this was the result:

The cable holding the open canopy in place was also painted:

And this concluded the build

Here's a flavour of the end result:

I'll post a few pictures in the gallery and more detailed pictures in the aircraft RFI section.

In summary.

• This took me about 6 months to finish (from the end of July 2015 to almost the end of January 2016) but it was built in parallel with several other models (which are still to be finished, by the way...)
• It's the first model I finish using PE and I'm happy with the results, though working with PE can be really fiddly
• I'm happy with the paint finish, though the stippled camouflage should be denser
• The canopy paint finish and varnish of the transparent areas is not perfect
• Use of Micro Sol over Alclad Klear Gloss doesn't work, which combined with thick decals caused some difficulties in making the decals conform to the panel lines

Thanks all for looking and commenting, it was really appreciated

Cheers

Jaime

Edited January 20, 2016 by jrlx

[CedB]

Very nice Jaime - finished at last! You should be pleased with that.

I admire your ability to keep many models on the go at the same time... but at least you can perform the tasks you 'feel like doing' - a change from the usual drudge.

Good job!

[jrlx]

Thanks for the kind words Ced, and for the continued interest along the build

I've found that too many models being built at the same time can also be a cause of stress... I wouldn't recommend more than two or three different models. If models are very similar, then you can have more going, since there are gains of scale in terms of the building and painting steps to do.

Cheers

Jaime

[vppelt68]

Wow. It´s incredible how wonderful models some of us produce from the same plastic I build my kits from. It´s the skills, dedication and patience, or in my case lack of them, that make the difference! Beautiful little Emil, congratulations! V-P

[jrlx]

Thanks for the kind words, V-P! Much appreciated

[philp]

Nice to see this one done.

She came out looking great.

[jrlx]

Thanks philp! very kind

Edited January 20, 2016 by jrlx

[nimrod54]

Jaime

That's a fantastic result. Very nicely detailed and well painted, especially the mottling.

[jrlx]

Thanks, John! Much appreciated!

[AnonymousDFB1]

Love it Jamie

[jrlx]

Thanks Mish! Much appreciated!

Thank you as well for your continued support

Cheers

Jaime

[sean]

Superb Jaime, what a great Bf109, the time and effort has been well rewarded.

I've enjoyed the wip as well, some lovely modelling in here,

Sean

[jrlx]

Thanks Sean! That's very kind :)Much appreciated.