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Gunthar Rall 109 G-2; On to the Cockpit!


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Update with something other than the engine!  Well, there is one shot of the engine, but the rest is all cockpit.  I added some more different sizes of wires to represent the various pipes that are fairly prominent. 

 

port engine finish 1

 

Right now, I am not happy with the way the exhausts turned out.  I probably will redo them as I don’t like the finished product.  But until the engine is mated with the fuselage body and firewall, I get to move onto something else; the cockpit.  I can tell I am going to be saying some bad words throughout the rest of the build.  Look at these pin marks!

 

pinmark 1

 

pinmark 2

 

I can’t believe there is a pin mark in the center of that little bitty box that takes up most of the box!  Oh well, I just should resign myself to having to clean most every part of either seam lines or pinmarks and get on with it.  Which is, what I did with these parts.

After cleaning up all the parts, I put the base cockpit assembly together along with the cowl assembly.

 

base cockpit 1

 

base cockpit 2

 

cowl 1

 

There is some nice detail on the cockpit parts.  The rudder pedals are very done quite well.

 

rudder pedals

 

The only thing I will need to add is the strap that goes across the pedal.

I gave the base cockpit, the cowl assembly and the clear instrument panel a coat of paint.

 

base cockpit paint 1

 

ip paint

 

Since the IP is clear plastic, I painted the base interior color on the back side of the IP.  On the front side, I will paint the details.  I think this might work out better visually.  I also gave the panel film insert a coat of white on its backside so the dial faces will show better. I really am not too sure how accurate this IP is for a G-2, but I am going to make the best of it.  There is more detail painting to do, along with some weathering.  Curiously, I have two clear sprues that are identical so if I mess up, I have a spare IP!.  Also, included with the kit is a complete clear fuselage assembly, along with clear engine panels and for some reason clear tail planes.  I have no idea what this is about?  Seems like a waste of molding and plastic as if you use the clear fuselage parts, there will be an immense amount of scratch building that will have to be done to represent a complete interior stem to stern including all the risers, formers, wiring, etc.  Would have rather liked better wheels and a canopy mask.  Oh well, as always, all comments are welcome.

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Nice progress on the engine and the cockpit. Maybee I am jumping the gun, but the cockpit should be painted RLM66 (like stated in the manual).

RLM 02 was for the earlier 109's like the E version. I am not a guru, but If I am not mistaken then the interior colour for the cockpit was changed from the F model onwards. There will be someone who will correct me (probably).

 

Cheers,

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The correct color is RLM 66. This is just the base paint coat. By the time it is weathered, the grey will be darkened down to RLM 66. At least, that's the plan!

1 hour ago, Arniec said:

Nice progress on the engine and the cockpit. Maybee I am jumping the gun, but the cockpit should be painted RLM66 (like stated in the manual).

RLM 02 was for the earlier 109's like the E version. I am not a guru, but If I am not mistaken then the interior colour for the cockpit was changed from the F model onwards. There will be someone who will correct me (probably).

 

Cheers,

 

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Sorta an update, more of a mini-rant.  Seems as if the photo gods are not pleased with me today.  I did some work on the cockpit and the engine on this kit and on the engine for the Avenger.  I begin to take pictures to post and my camera battery dies.  Do I have spare batteries in the house, sure lots of them all different sizes and volts.  Do I have the particular battery I need for my camera; well there is an empty carton that used to contain such batteries in the spare batteries box.  I suspect children are to blame as they have raided the last of the batteries and “forgot” to tell me we were out.  No worries, I go to my trusty IPhone to use the camera feature.  I get one photo and that battery dies.  I now decide today is not the day for pictures and tomorrow when I go into town, batteries will be bought and pictures will be taken.  For now, I have these few.

The first shows the starboard side of the engine that is woefully not as built up as its port brother as no one will ever see this side.  However, the exhausts will show, so these are painted and weathered.  I tried a different technique on the exhausts on this side as I was not happy with the finish I achieved on the port side.  I like the starboard finish much better. The first picture is with the rust wash applied, but not yet touched up.

 

Port Exhaust wash

 

Then after removing some excess wash, along with some tonal changes, I get this result that I think looks much better.

 

Port Exhaust finish

 

So, I redo the port side exhausts and apply the rust wash and this is w\here my cameras died.

 

Starboard exhaust redo wash

 

I will post more pictures tomorrow of the finish port exhaust and the work done on the cockpit.  For now, that’s it.  As always, all comments are welcome.

 

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Minor update.  Really, it is the missing pictures from yesterday.  I redid the port exhausts as I did not like the way they turned out.  I had posted a picture with a rust wash, but not the one where the wash had been toned down.  Here is that picture.

 

port engine finish 1

 

port engine finish 2

I have begun the weathering process of the cockpit parts.  The base coat of grey was too light, but I knew the wash to dirty up the cockpit area would darken the color to what it needed to be.  Here is the base paint with the wash added to darken the cockpit color.

 

dirty cockpit

 

Next up will be the detail painting in the cockpit area, plus work on the IP.  I am not too sure how accurate the Trumpeter IP panel is, but that is what I have to work with.  As always, all comments are welcome.

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Not an engine update!  Got a chance to do some modeling on this Memorial Day as I remembered too many people that are longer with me.  It has been a sad day.  I thought some quiet time spent modeling would help and it did.  So, moving on to the cockpit, I did some detail painting and initial weathering of the cockpit.

 

cockpit innards 1

 

cockpit inards 3

 

cockpit inards 2

 

I added some wire to the boxes on the cockpit floor that need to be painted, plus a few more details done to the cockpit.  Also, somewhere I think I have some seatbelts.  Need to find those and get them installed.  I also think the seat should have a cushion.  Maybe I’m wrong on that.

I also started the work on the IP panel.  The panel itself was painted again as I did not like the first go around.  I have also removed some of the detail so the Eduard PE can be applied.

 

ip weather 1

 

The start of the PE is cut off and bent in place. 

 

cockpit pe 1

 

For 1/24, it is really small.  The tip of an exacto blade is there for scale reference.  This I think will be a big challenge for me given my hand situation.  Will be interesting to see if I can pull it off.  So far, I have been able to bend the first piece, although I dropped it probably 5 times in the process.  That little sliver of a silver piece is not slag from the PE fret.  It is a piece that needs to be bent prior to placement.  I keep telling myself I build bigger scale kits to avoid having to work with small pieces; somehow it isn’t working out the way it should be!  As always, all comments are welcome.

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Have you conciderd useing some cockpit placard decals . They would look excellent in 1/24 scale 

Airscale AS24SCH 1/24 WWII Luftwaffe/German Cockpit Placards Decals

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airscale-AS24SCH-1-24-WWII-Luftwaffe-German-Cockpit-Placards-Decals-/332098676409?hash=item4d529fa6b9:g:Xy8AAOSwjDZYgznO

 

I expect you could use some in the engine bay aswell .

 

cheers

Alistair

 

 

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4 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

Have you conciderd useing some cockpit placard decals . They would look excellent in 1/24 scale 

Airscale AS24SCH 1/24 WWII Luftwaffe/German Cockpit Placards Decals

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airscale-AS24SCH-1-24-WWII-Luftwaffe-German-Cockpit-Placards-Decals-/332098676409?hash=item4d529fa6b9:g:Xy8AAOSwjDZYgznO

 

I expect you could use some in the engine bay aswell .

 

cheers

Alistair

 

 

I have the Eduard set that I'm about to start adding. However, it does not have anything for the engine.   I will look at the airscale set. Thanks. 

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More work on cockpit update.  I had some spare time, so I went back to the cockpit and painted the wire bundles and added some straps to hold the wire bundles down. 

 

cockpit detail 2

 

 

cockpit detail 3

 

Now it is time to drive myself crazy with small PE parts and work on the IP.  I’ve added some Eduard cockpit details to the IP.

 

Ip PE 1

 

Then I attached the IP to the gauge plastic sheet for the gauges.

 

IP with acetone sheet

 

I still have some knobs to put on the IP.  Also, while rummaging around the aftermarket stash for some 1/24 German seatbelts, I found these two after-market sets

 

AirScale Placards

 

Airscale cockpit details

 

INSERT airscale sets

One sheet is decals for the cockpit and other nooks and crannies on German planes.  The other is brass fittings.  I need to do some research to determine just what goes where for this 109 G.  I know I will be able to use some of this stuff, just don’t know what and where. Now the bad news is I found 2 Eduard 1/24 German seatbelt packages, but both have been used and there is not enough parts left to make an entire set for this build.  Looks Iike I either order some new ones or make the belts out of tape and use the leftover buckles from the used Eduard packages.  Research and spending money on parts, such is the exciting life of a modeler!   As always, all comments are welcome.

 

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Tiny update as today seemed to be take one step forward two steps back.  The last update ended with me using PVA glue to fasten the instrument face acetone sheet to the back of the IP.  I did not cut out the instrument faces from the acetone sheet as I thought it would be easy to just run a scalpel blade around the IP panel and get rid of the excess.  That, my friends, was a mistake.  I am not quite sure what Trumpeter uses for the acetone sheets, but the stuff is tough.  I nearly ripped the instrument face sheet off of the back of the IP trying to trim it to fit.  In the process, a few of the PE pieces became dislodged from the IP.  The lesson learned today was to always, always, trim the instrument sheet prior to attaching it to the IP as I spent about an hour repairing what shouldn’t have to be repaired.

Then I dripped Future/Klear to make the glass for the instrument faces

 

IP with future glass

 

And that dear fellow modelers, is all the progress made today.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I did spend some time reviewing the Airscale cockpit placard and cockpit brass sets to determine what, if any, I will use.  There are some placards that do look as if they will help, but the brass is much harder to determine what to use.  Oh well, as always, all comments are welcome.

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Just a small update as most of the work today was on the Avenger.  I messed around with the IP some more adding levers and some more detail painting.

 

IP work more

 

There was also some work done on the gun sight, but I forgot to take a picture of that.  Some more PE, detail painting and placards to be added to the IP.  Oh yeah, I did attach the IP to the instrument cowl, something I should have done much earlier.  The IP is much easier to handle with the cowling attached; should have thought of that sooner.  As always, all comments are welcome.

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17 hours ago, SimonT said:

That IP is a model in itself, looks awesome.

 

Thanks for the compliment. I am not too thrilled with the finish, but I may be able to cure it at the finish gloss coat stage. More to come on it. 

17 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Nice work with all the tiny details.

 

Looks great!

 

Cheers Greg

The tiny details are about to kill me. My fingers are much too big for some of the PE!  

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Cockpit update and more of, "Will I ever be able to comprehend instructions?"  Yesterday’s update was full of bonehead mistakes that I will not repeat and I will be more on my game, right?  Yeah, not so right!  I just discovered that way back, I may have made a major goof by just not paying attention to the instructions.  (Those are those funny, printed things that I thought their only purpose was to protect the decals from harm.  Seems they offer good suggestions and heads up on how to build the kit as well.  Probably should read them more.)

I did some more work on the IP.  First a bit of a rant.  Is there anyone that, completely  uses an Eduard PE fret?  Between the ones I lose as they ping off into the sunset, and those that seem far too small to even be seen by the naked eye, I don’t know if I have every completely finished an Eduard PE set.  For instance, look at this photo:

 

PE bits

 

To the naked eye, some of the bits to be put on just look like colored dots.  Seems a drop of paint would be much more effective and easier to do.  And, that is precisely what I did instead of use the colored dots.  When I took the above picture in a macro setting, it was only then that I realized there is some teeny tiny printing in the middle of the paint dot.  No one is ever going to get that close to my model to notice that printing!  But, I carried on and installed PE and decals that I doubt will ever be seen again after these pictures.

 

Gunsight 1

 

Gunsight 2

 

PE Control Column

 

Now you can barely make out the decal on the port side of the gun sight.  Many of you will have difficulty in seeing the huge piece of PE that was attached to the starboard side of the gun sight.  (Yeah, I know it’s there, you know it’s there, but how satisfying is that given the effort to place them there properly.)  There is also a PE piece on the side of the control column that once in the fuselage, I don’t know how it will be visible.  But, I put that on too.

I have done as much damage to the IP panel as I possibly can with PE, decals and homemade bits.  I am stopping now.

 

IP w gunsight

 

There are still some more bulkheads to add to the cockpit.  Two more pieces are added to the fray.

 

Added cockpit bulkhead

 

At this point, the instructions would have you attach the IP to one of the bulkheads.  Somehow, with one attachment point, and the bulk of the IP with cowl assembly hanging over the attachment point, the IP/cowl is supposed to magically stay parallel to the cockpit floor.  I don’t know how that works.  I think the best bet would be to attach the cockpit to one of the fuselage halves and then attach the IP/cowl so I can insure it is in the right position.

Now prior to doing this, the engine assembly needs to be attached to the cockpit firewall.  This is where I discover my major goof in a prior assembly.  The nose cannon juts out from the back of the engine with the breech extending a good two inches from the engine block.  Now look at the firewall where the engine bearers should attach.

 

Oops 1

 

That wonderful center console has been put in backwards!  When I was building the center console, there is a second smaller piece that juts out from the center console.  For some reason, I thought the smaller piece fit inside of the larger center console.  When I assembled the two pieces, I thought this is not exactly great engineering as there is no positive method for insuring the smaller piece is attached to the larger center console correctly.  That’s because I attached the smaller piece to the wrong end of the center console.  The hole should have been facing the engine as the nose cannon breech slides in the hollow space in the center console, much like the real aircraft.  I, however, have built the center console where it has a solid front facing the engine.  This is not going to work.  I attempted to pry the console up from the cockpit floor, but apparently, I glued this part rather effectively and it wasn’t going to budge.  What to do?  Well, what any good ole redneck from Texas would do, cut the sucker out!  My coping saw comes out and the end of the center console is removed.

 

Oops 2

 

Now if I just leave the console like this, there is going to be a large gap with the firewall bulkhead and this will not do.  I take the section I just cut off, then eyeball how big the opening should be and proceed to make a hole in the cut off section.  Essentially turning the cut off section into a U-shaped piece of plastic.  This is then glued back to the center console and now there is no gap that needs to be filled! 

 

Oops 3

 

Some touch up paint, a quick test to see if the nose cannon will now slide in the hollow space and everything is back to normal.  I really need to pay more attention to the instructions as this was an unnecessary sidetrack step in building this kit.

The firewall seems to be where is should be with the correct spaces opened for the engine nose cannon to slide into.

 

Corrected Bulkhead 1

 

Corrected Bulkhead 2

 

Correted Bulkhead 3

 

I must finish weathering the firewall as the two nose machine guns fit on the top of the firewall and extend across the IP/cowl section.  Hopefully, I will quit shooting myself in the foot and creating more work than is needed on this kit, through no fault of the kit, just my ineptness!  As always, all comments are welcome.

 

 

 

 

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Well done resolving the problems George.

 

We are all guilty of ignoring the instructions from time to time or not paying close enough attention. I know I have found myself in that situation before. Good think is you have overcome and can carry on. 

 

A lot of fine PE details will not be seen on completion so it's more satisfying to the modeller building the kit than someone viewing the completed model. At least those of us following your build can appreciate your efforts.

 

Good work :wink:

 

Cheers

Greg

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5 hours ago, SimonT said:

Looking good, all your effort is paying off!

Thanks. You are too kind. With this size, it seems, without adding more detail, it just looks vacant. 

4 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Well done resolving the problems George.

 

We are all guilty of ignoring the instructions from time to time or not paying close enough attention. I know I have found myself in that situation before. Good think is you have overcome and can carry on. 

 

A lot of fine PE details will not be seen on completion so it's more satisfying to the modeller building the kit than someone viewing the completed model. At least those of us following your build can appreciate your efforts.

 

Good work :wink:

 

Cheers

Greg

Thanks Greg. Seems here lately, like this entire past week, half of my valuable modeling time is spent correcting foolish mistakes on my part; almost all of them entirely avoidable.   I guess with some of the PE, all you can do is take closeup photos and with each completed kit, have a photo album next to it with all the details that were done that will never see the light of day!

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47 minutes ago, BerndM said:

Lots of "busy" looking details, well done.

The Trumpeter kit is not the cleanest kit on the market.

 

It does have more than its share of molding lines and injection marks in the wrong locations. But, if I would learn to follow directions (A statement that has plagued me since 1st grade, lo those many decades ago.), you really can't fault their engineering of the fits of parts. Accuracy problems aside, I don't think I have ever had a poorly fitting trumpeter kit. They really have the engineering of their parts fitting together down. Now, I'm about to begin construction of the different flaps and this attitude may change when I reacquaint myself with their crazy metal rod and PE hinges for movable control surfaces. 

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18 minutes ago, Kahunaminor said:

Nice progress George,

I must admit to a grin at your misadventures as they mirror so many of my own! It is nice not to be alone in the world!

 

Keep the faith and onwards!

 

Regards,

Sometimes, I tend to be my own worst enemy by not paying attention to the finer points of instructions (or bother to read them as they all have pretty pictures that cuts out the necessity of reading; doesn't it?).  Luckily, for the great majority of goofs, I catch them prior to the glue completely drying so mistakes are corrected somewhat easily. It's those where the glue has set for days, and the plastic has truly bonded together that necessitates "creative"problem solving. Rest assured, you are not the only one who makes gaffs as they build. I bet 95% of the members here go through the same type of mistakes; they are just smart enough to fix them and not describe them!

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20 hours ago, georgeusa said:

It does have more than its share of molding lines and injection marks in the wrong locations. But, if I would learn to follow directions (A statement that has plagued me since 1st grade, lo those many decades ago.), you really can't fault their engineering of the fits of parts. Accuracy problems aside, I don't think I have ever had a poorly fitting trumpeter kit. They really have the engineering of their parts fitting together down. Now, I'm about to begin construction of the different flaps and this attitude may change when I reacquaint myself with their crazy metal rod and PE hinges for movable control surfaces. 

George, i got the same kit as G-6 ( early ) in my stash and i agree with you, there is nothing a modeller can stop in inside the box. Trumpeter has also improved since these kits came on the market.

Looking forward to your progress.

 

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