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1/48 Eduard Bf 109G-5 Maj. Walter Dahl, December 1943


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As the Airfix P-51D draws to a close, I am taking a step back into more familiar territory with a Luftwaffe build. I have espoused the merits of the Eduard line Bf 109’s but I have yet to actually crack a late war kit. I will remedy that with this build. The kit was given to me as a gift by a friend so I am keen to make it worthwhile. I have added some extras in the form of a BRASSIN sets and Maketar masks:

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I started as I normally do and coated all the PE in Tamiya Metal Primer. There is a lot of frets from the cockpit set and additional sets:

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I then started in the resin cockpit, carefully rinsing the resin and giving it a base coat of Aeromaster RLM 66 when it had dried:

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The first construction began with the seat, central cannon mount, forward cockpit firewall and rudder pedals (which are comprised of one resin and three PE pieces!):

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The toe straps will go on as the third piece of PE and the pedals will be lightened as per John Kim’s build. After all that effort, they deserve to get noticed!

Regards,

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5 hours ago, tank152 said:

Nice choice Kent, I used all that AM with my Eda G6 late, expect plenty of thinning of the insides to get that pit in.

Tim.

Thanks mate, it was looking to be a bit of work. I am hoping to just pop the completed tub into the fuselage. Did you go that way or more traditional by adding it to side walls ?

 

Regards,

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Hi Kent, 

I fit the complete cockpit tub as you have stated. I say plenty of thinning but it was certainly not to the extent as i've had to do when fitting an Aires one.

 

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These are the BRASSIN sets you have been looking for!

 

School holidays and spending time with the kids (away from their devices) lowers my work rate. I am slowly getting the cockpit together. I am as yet undecided whether I will use the PE or resin and d cal version of the IP. I did make the PE one up this morning and it does look good bit I want to see how the decal performs. I have added some PE bits and bobs. It is the first time I have opted for PE belts in quite a while, having been put off by the problems associated older style of belt. The BRASSIN set contains the new steel belts and I am impressed. They are far easier to remove, place and seem mostly to retain their painted aspects. There is some touch up needed but that may be me. In 48 scale at least, they look quite good but I think I will stay with textile from RB or HGW for the big scale whenever I get back there. Anyway, some photos:

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C8_B70_CDB-_F3_B6-4_C93-8469-68_A44_BE3_

Regards for now,

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Lovely work there Kent, especially those cockpit sides.

Got to agree the steel seatbelts are superb compared with the old style ones, they're much easier to pose.

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Many thanks gents,

I think this is shaping up to be a good build. Actually using the bigger magnification on the optivisor and some good light has made th8ngs come into “focus”.

Working slowly, getting the cockpit assemblies detail painted and now gloss coated for decals and a wash. I have decided to use the PE IP as the resin/decal attempt just really didn’t work. The gunsight has been added and it’s PE as well. The detail the PE from the BRASSIN sets add is just brilliant. You cannot really see it at the moment but once I detail it and add the glass it will show.

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Whilst the gloss coat dried, I turned my attention to the fuselage. I took to the sidewall details with my faux Dremel, removing the detail to allow the resin to fit. I got a little over enthusiastic in a couple of spots and broke through the exterior. Thankfully both times was under the beules and they will be covered.

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I set about joining the fuselage, starting from the rear and gluing the tail and forward to the cockpit and lower wing join. I let that set up then did the area under the forward cowl, finally the upper cowl and just forward of the cockpit. I made sure to give the seams a little time to set up between applications in an attempt to get that “perfect minimal seam.” I came close. I then added the upper tail section and the beule to hide my over eagerness:

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The coamings on each side of the cockpit also got a coat of RLM66.

Regards

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Thanks Gents,

Some progress in that the cockpit has been installed. It didn’t go as flawlessly as I had hoped. At the same time the sidewalls revealed the little seam issue, I recalled I had the same issue on my Bf 109E-7. Not to be outwitted, I filled the seams with some thinned styrene sheet and will level and repaint:

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The steely eyed amongst you may have detected the flash of white on the starboard side, below the cockpit. I had another small break through. I pondered how the repair it then just shoved some styrene card to fill the hole, applied Tamiya Extra Thin and waited until it was dry. Then simply a matter of trimming the excess:

BF572278-3_AAA-4_D3_E-856_A-_D4232_BAC9_

Here’s an overexposed shot to get that interior detail:

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I then turned to the lower wings and competed the task of assembling the PE in the wheel bays. I also marked out the holes I would need to drill, in a manner I would not easily forget:

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Finally for this update, there is some moulded detail on the upper and lower edges of the exhaust openings that was removed with a micro chisel to facilitate the PE shroud guards:

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It has been tidied up a bit more since the photo. Working on the underwing cannon gondolas, drop tank and the MLG before bringing out the RLM 02.

Regards,

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Slow progress as I have had other things on my plate. This weekend just gone by was the NSW Scale Model Show and expo my club hosts. Over 350 entries in 43 categories, vendor tables and the ever funky swap and sell. We judge gold, silver and bronze in the categories and I came home with two gold and two silver so a happy camper.

I had planned to have this finished for the show but that was always a loose plan. Anyway back to the action. I am working at closing up the fuselage shortly and as it is a monotone colour scheme, I thought I might try my hand at John’s black marbling basework. The wings are now together and ready to be attached. I followed John’s lead in using the plastic kit pieces rather that the PE, as not much will be seen at all. The faces of the oil cooler and radiators were painted in XF84 Dark Iron and then highlighted with Tamiya Weathering set “gun metal”. Not any of which will really be seen:

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The wings are now set to be installed, however before that takes place I have to install the resin exhaust plates in their positions in the cowling. Hence why everything is still open down the front end. I had previously sprayed them RLM02 and now just picked out the actual engine areas in XF84 dark iron:

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Once these are installed, I can install the gun trough piece. I decided to use a spare pair of Master Barrel MG131 tips I had laying around. These are longer than the kit pieces which meant a fixing the trough inserts into the underside of the upper cowl and then drilling out the rear of the trough inserts and aligning them so they will sit properly once permanently installed:

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I will smooth out the rough edges from drilling and filing but the fit seems good. It was then time to dry fit all the components and see what I was left with. Everything lined up well but I was left with a wing/fuselage gap. I could see the underside needed a little adjustment so I cut and installed a sprue spreader just behind the yet to be installed exhaust positions. Once this had set, another dry fit saw a much better result:

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Once actually glued and cleaned up, I am confident of a good result. The canopy masks have also been applied so once I tidy up the cockpit sills with some putty and a new coat of RLM66, I should be ready to start sealing it all up.

Regards,

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On 5/3/2018 at 5:21 PM, Rui Silva said:

I'm following your work with interest, keep going!

Many thanks, I hope it is easy to follow?

 

Welcome back,


The exhaust backings are in. To prevent the dreaded “falling inside the sealed fuselage after a bit too much pressure syndrome”, I added some more sprue supports:

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The sealing up the wings, at this stage the wing/fuselage joins are not glued. The lower wing/cowling/fuselage joins seem good and that wierd angular join Eduard puts in will be okay. The oil cooler went in well:

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I added some drilled out styrene to the MG cowling so the MG131 barrels can be inserted into a positive slot. MG cowling attached and a swipe of a sanding stick should fix that starboard side overhang:

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The PE storage hatch went on and the cockpit sides were repainted. A little too much pressure applied to the fuselage caused the cockpit to dislodge and drop about 0.1mm at the rear and with it all sealed up I will remain so. Oh well, the joy of modelling:

FCF52069-67_DA-4_A46-_B871-39_D9_D0_A483

Thanks for looking in and regards,

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Really good job ! Kent,

And nice choice of subject !

Dahl was a dogfighter to the bone, then you can try on his Fw 190 !

I'll follow if you don't mind !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

 

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Thanks guys,
I appreciate your words of encouragement. I may have been a bit premature with writing off the cockpit as stable. It appears the entire floor/back assembly has come adrift and dropped. It will now need some remedial work. The sidewalls are firmly attached so I will drill through from underneath and gingerly push the floor back into position and hit it with some more CA.  :headslap: 

This is the problem:

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I will drill a suitable hole through this panel which had to be rescribed anyway:

58_C1_ED3_A-21_AC-44_F3-_A709-_BA2311_A4

Regards,

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Fix in progress. 2mm hole drilled in underside, Mk. IA toothpick inserted and gentle pressure on errant decking. Back into place and CA applied liberally to area behind storage area. Rear cockpit replaced. 2mm styrene rod into the hole which will be cut and sanded flush once dry:

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4_C28_F316-18_F1-42_A3-_AF39-_AC02802788

Regards,

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Thanks guys,

 

Some progress. The rear cockpit area has been repaired and resprayed RLM66. The canopy interiors have also been masked and sprayed with RLM66 allowing me to fit almost all the final cockpit pieces before fixing the front and rear canopies to their respective positions. I did accidentally leave out the fuel observation tube and the two side lights but they can still be inserted with ease (I hope). I had to sand down the rear end of the rear canopy to get a better fit of the central canopy piece. Happy with that, just some minor beautification and blending:

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The gun pods have been attached to their positions under the wings and the wings set using tape to address the minor gap at fuselage wing joint. Hopefully after 24 hrs that should hold it all. The left over 66 was used to check my seam work on the fuselage joins and engine area. The beauty of photography is it slows you to check your work, exposing flaws like the port wing leading edge seam:

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C2DE9683-6E17-47FF-B972-0B0A92256FDB.jpg

Thanks for stopping by and regards,

 

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