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Gunther Rall 109


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I had originally started this build in the 109 group build, but was sabotaged by Photobucket and some personal things that didn't allow me to complete it in time. Here is the link to the first part of the build.  Gunther Rall 109 group build  I hope to have all the photos replaced shortly and will update what's been done since the Phorobucket fiasco. 

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So much has happened since the last update.  First, Photobucket decided to lose their corporate mind and without warning decided to hold their customers hostage and see if there would be any fallout.  I have since changed photo services.  But, that entailed transferring all my photos to another service and learning how to use that service.  I am barely in the process of updating all my posts to return photos to their respective posts.

The second and more important to me is two months ago, on a Saturday night, at midnight, I was trying to make it back home in time to meet my “favorite”, my sweet Mattie, who was coming home from a date.  About 2 miles from the house, I came across an overturned pickup truck that had just rolled across the highway.  When I got next to the truck and saw the front, black brush bumper and my stomach sickened as I knew it was Mattie’s truck.  As I approached the truck, I was trying to think of how to tell her mother her little girl had died in a traffic accident as the cab was partially crushed, the front windshield was gone, one of the wheels had broken off and the frame was twisted.  To my great delight and joy, I saw Mattie’s face looking up at me, panic stricken of course, as she was going into shock, complaining about her leg hurting.  She was alive, coherent, and had feeling in her legs; all positive signs.  I knew her mental facilities were okay as the first words out of her mouth was it wasn’t her fault!  She was twisted in her seat belt and her left leg was obviously broken.  A county sheriff appeared on the scene and called in an ambulance and firetruck as she needed to be cut out of the cab.  People make fun of me because all my vehicles are quite large; the smallest being a Ford F150 pickup truck.  Mattie was in a F250 diesel truck and because of its size and the fact it was old, I feel that is the only thing that saved her from being crushed and killed.  She had a compound fracture in her lower leg as both bones were through the skin, a complete break in her upper thigh region and another complete break in her arm.  Three operations with a nice long recovery period and she should be back to her old self with maybe a limp and a lot of metal fittings inside of her.  She was released home yesterday.  I have modeled some as when I came home from the hospital I could not sleep; just couldn’t take the time to post, nor did I feel like doing so.

What is so ironic is I have a reconstructed right inner ankle joint from a motorcycle accident 40 some years ago.  The accident she had was also to her right leg.  So, I can sympathize with her concerning the pain she is experiencing due to the reconstructive surgery and can help her with her recovery/rehabilitation process.  She still is not able to use crutches as her arm cannot bear the weight yet, and her leg cannot have any weight placed upon it for at least another 2 months.  Anyway, very thankful for her recovery and her doctors.  So, now that my pressing personal trauma is now not so pressing, and I have learned a new photo posting program, some updates are due on this build.  I am just sad I could not finish it in time for the 109 group build.

The last part of this kit I put together was the rudder with Trumpeter’s pin and hinge system.

 

rudder

 

The cockpit and engine have already been assembled and were awaiting the installation of the two cannons and then insertion into one side of the fuselage.  So, the next step would be to finish the cockpit sidewalls so the fuselage halves can be put together.  The starboard side was first up.  The kit parts were glued in place for this look.

 

kit starboard side

 

Now I know Trumpeter does not have Eduard profipak style interiors, nor do I expect such.  However, in a 1/24 plane, you would think there would have been at least an attempt to portray the very prominent fuel line that runs along the top of the fuselage side.  Nope, not there.  So, some very basic additions need to be made to this side of the cockpit to busy up that area.  I took some insulated wire, bent it to shape and then used small pieces of fine wire to represent hose clamps.

 

Oxygen hose 1

 

That needed to be painted a yellow color (although I have also seen it as blue).  Somewhere in the middle of the tube is a piece of clear section to allow inspection of the fuel flow.  I should have found a suitable piece of clear plastic and spliced that between the pieces of insulated wire, but I wimped out and just painted a section of the wire bright silver to represent the inspection section.  So, while the yellow paint was taking forever to dry, I added some various size wires to go from there to here.

 

starboard upgrade 1

 

Painting and detailing of the starboard additions was done, along with the use of some placards.

 

update starboard 2

 

Finally, the yellow paint dried and the gas line was installed.

 

starboard update 4

 

A quick check of the fit of the cockpit to the fuselage sides showed me where there were to be issues with fit when the halves would be put together.  These issues were sorted out and then work began on the port sidewall.  The kit details are here.

 

kit port side

 

The most prominent item missing on the port side is some sort of representation of the chain for the trim wheel and a large electronic box at the front of the cockpit.  Some “hubs” were installed and then some wire was wrapped around the hubs to represent the chain.  Not real high tech, but when the rest of the cockpit will be installed with the dark grey interior, it will be adequate as a representation.  Some plasticard and wire was used to portray the electrical box.

 

update port 1

 

After painting, washes and detailing, the port side is a little more busied up!

 

port update 3

 

The tail wheel was then constructed so it could be put in place prior to sealing up the fuselage halves.

 

tail wheel

 

It was now time to join the engine with the cockpit and install the top mounted cowl guns.

 

 

engine cockpit assembly

 

With the rudder and tail wheel put in place at the back, then engine/cockpit positioned, the fuselage halves were joined together and, much to my surprise, everything actually fit and the halves closed up with a minimum need for rubber bands.

 

fuselage together

 

With the fuselage closed up, visibility drops in the cockpit.

 

installed cockpit 3

 

installed cockpit 2

 

installed cockpit 1

 

Now, only one side of the engine will be exposed (port), while the starboard engine cover will be glued shut.  The port engine looks very plain and pitiful as it will not be seen.

 

installed engine 1

 

The starboard engine side looks a little more passable.

 

installed engine

 

As I undo the rubber bands the next day, confident the halves were quite securely glued together, I noticed something didn’t seem quite right.  Did anyone else notice a gaping hole behind the pilot’s seat in the above installed cockpit pictures?  Yeah me neither. But, this piece was supposed to be attached to the rear of the cockpit prior to joining the fuselage halves.

 

missing oops

 

I bet it would have been much easier to install prior to the halves being put together.

Next up, all the miscellaneous pieces that still need to be attached to the fuselage, like the supercharger intake.

 

supercharger intake 1

 

Now, I have been known to mess up the alignment on kit parts before, but the fit of the supercharge intake halves leave a lot to be desired.  Out with the filler!  The drop tank was put together, along with the lower engine cover and intake scoop.

 

drop tank

 

lower engine cover assembly

 

These were dutifully glued in place and then all the fuselage seams that needed filling (as I can’t build a kit that doesn’t need filler!) had putty applied.  While the fuselage putty dried, I moved over to the wings.  To keep with the sub-theme of this build, I started with filling the various and different injection pin marks on the cooling vents.

 

cooling vents 3

 

cooling vents 2

 

These were then put in the upper and lower wings.

 

cooling vents installed 1

 

All the various wing flaps were put together with the pin and hinge system.

 

wing flaps

 

Then, for no apparent reason I can fathom, I installed these round thingys with a tab that then goes through the wing.

 

wing circle 2

 

Now the tab is hidden by the wing cannon.  And, there are no inspection panels that open to show the round thingys that I assume are the cannon shell drums.  So why they need to be put in the wings beats me, but I put them there.  The wing flaps are put in place in the bottom wing section.  Then the top wings are glued in place.

 

combine wings 1

 

combine wings 2

 

The wing cannons are assembled . . .

 

 

wing cannons 1

 

And then put in place

 

 

wing cannon installed

 

The tail planes are put together . . .

 

tail planes

 

And then they are attached to the fuselage as is the wing assembly.

 

wings on

 

Now it is beginning to look like a real plane!  The home stretch for construction is within view.  The main landing gear parts for one landing gear is assembled.

 

main wheel parts

 

Trumpeter has provided rubber wheels for this kit.  Most people don’t care for rubber wheels, but I actually like the way they look.

 

main wheel and hub

 

 I have had my G-6 assembled for over 8 years and the rubber has not reacted with the plastic.  One of the rubber wheels, though has a problem in that some excess rubber was not trimmed off.

 

main wheel mismatch

 

 

One of the gimmicky things Trumpeter does in their 109s is provide the means for the main landing gear strut to compress under pressure.  There is a spring that is put in the hollow main strut and then the shock shaft is attached so the strut compresses.  Here it is at full compression.

 

main wheel strut full compressed

 

And here it is at full extension.

 

main wheel strut full extension

 

The amount of pressure I had to assert to fully compress one strut is way more than the kit weighs.  So, the gimmick seems useless as the strut will always be at full extension.  But, I dutifully followed the instructions and I now have compressible struts.  And on that note, that is where I am in this build.  I still need to do the seat belts, and put some more little bits and pieces on the plane before painting.  As always, all comments are welcome.

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Hi George, good to see you back with this, the cockpit looks great. I'm not surprised that you've been missing for a while, that sounds like a pretty horrendous accident.  I hope everything continues to go well.

 

Regards

 

John

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5 hours ago, SimonT said:

Glad you got the photos all back up and running. It's coming along a treat 😀

Very glad you are still here along for the bumpy ride. I'm still not pleased with the supercharger mess and am looking for suitable replacements. Also, I have to force myself to,do the seat belts!  Maybe when I mask the canopy, another chore I quite dislike.   Posting photos is still a learning experience as I haven't completely sorted that yet.  

4 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Hi George, good to see you back with this, the cockpit looks great. I'm not surprised that you've been missing for a while, that sounds like a pretty horrendous accident.  I hope everything continues to go well.

 

Regards

 

John

It's been a bit stressful. Just got a bill for Mattie's hospital stay, doctors not included and it's over a quarter of a million dollars!  I'm guessing the doctors will tack on another 100 grand. It's astounding how expensive traumatic health care is; really cuts into the modeling budget!

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Ruddy Hell George, how much?! What I can say is that yourself and Mattie are in good company. I have metal bits in my right foot. They actually set the scanner off in Washington Dulles airport in 2012. There was nothing more I could remove from my personage without causing an international diplomatic incident.

109 is coming on nicely. Just take it steady, there are bigger things in life which are more important.

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54 minutes ago, Darby said:

Ruddy Hell George, how much?! What I can say is that yourself and Mattie are in good company. I have metal bits in my right foot. They actually set the scanner off in Washington Dulles airport in 2012. There was nothing more I could remove from my personage without causing an international diplomatic incident.

109 is coming on nicely. Just take it steady, there are bigger things in life which are more important.

I'm glad you were not the trigger for diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the U. S. coming to a standstill by your disrobing in D.C.  We prosthetic people need to stick together!  Glad you are watching.  So, am I wrong or did you change your profile picture?

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3 hours ago, georgeusa said:

I'm glad you were not the trigger for diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the U. S. coming to a standstill by your disrobing in D.C.  We prosthetic people need to stick together!  Glad you are watching.  So, am I wrong or did you change your profile picture?

Yeah, I did change it to a more mischievous, caddish image. I've often triggered many a thing but breakdowns in diplomatic relations I try to steer clear of.

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Hi George, nice to see you back (again). Glad your "favourite" is doing well. There's nothing so traumatic as finding a car crash and realising it's one of your family's.

Oh, and a welcome to your girl to the "sets off security scanners all the time" club!

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22 hours ago, Darby said:

Yeah, I did change it to a more mischievous, caddish image. I've often triggered many a thing but breakdowns in diplomatic relations I try to steer clear of.

Looks like a very youthful Terrry Thomas.

14 hours ago, Bigdave22014 said:

Hi George, nice to see you back (again). Glad your "favourite" is doing well. There's nothing so traumatic as finding a car crash and realising it's one of your family's.

Oh, and a welcome to your girl to the "sets off security scanners all the time" club!

Yes, soon she will have the delight of never being able to go through court houses and airports without a body scan.  I do believe though, she might be able to get a card from her doctor that details the metal parts in her body to ease the security process.   Glad to have you join the view, hopefully it won't be too boring.

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Baby update today.  Not a lot accomplished, but that’s because canopy masking was involved; something I loathe to do and am slower than molasses in December doing masking.  So here goes; the canopies got masked

 

canopy masked

 

I also assembled the propeller and gave it its base coat.

 

Propeller painted

 

Trumpeter color call out for the propeller blades is dark black green which I can go for.  However, the color call out for the propeller hub is also dark black green.  I am debating between leaving the propeller hub the dark black green color or painting it Nato black.  Any suggestions?

I also assembled the main wheels minus the rubber brake lines.

 

main wheels assembled

 

I do not know if I will use these rubber lines, or redo them with fine wire.  Up next, I must do the seat belts as I am about to close up the canopy!  I am almost finished reposting the pictures in the original thread.  I still have about a page and a half to go before all the pictures will be replaced.  It is a whipping to redo them.  As always all comments are welcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Small paint and photo update.  I still have not done the seat belts. I must do them before I forget and permanently close the canopy.  What I have done instead is finally complete uploading all the missing pictures in the original group thread (thank you Photobucket).  The next step in finishing this kit should be seat belts, but, I started painting instead.  I sprayed the base lower surface coats.

 

First base coat lower

 

When the base coat dried, it was quite evident more work was needed on some of the seams.  So, putty, once more, was used on the underside seams and more sanding done.  A second base coat was applied.

 

Second base coat lower

 

This looks much better and will do nicely.  Next up, masking the underside and painting the base upper coat prior to the camo being applied.  As always, all comments are welcome.

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  • 6 years later...

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