Messerschmitt Me 209 H (or is it the Bf 109 V-55?)

[109 fan]

After finishing the AMG Bf 109 B, it was time to clean up the workshop before moving on to the next project. There was simply too much dust and clutter scattered around. So after two solid days of effort, here's how it looked.

[/url]IMG_6364

IMG_6365

 

A word of caution; it will never look this good again.

Now on the the next model. I needed a conversion to fill out this year's traveling troupe and have always liked the Bf 109 prototypes, particularly the stretched high altitude types. I've already done the 109 T and H, but references to the exceedingly extenuated 209 H variant got me to researching. There are just a few references on the topic and fortunately none of them agree. As a result I get to pick and choose the features that appeal to me the most. Call me wrong; I would love to see the definitive drawing or (gasp) a photo.

So here are the primary references I used:

IMG_6402

This book provided this drawing, which has most of the defining points that I used for the model. Notice that is calls out the stammkennzeichen (DV+JC) and the werk number (15709), lending creditability that the bird was actually built. More on that soon.

IMG_6401

Here's the next source:

IMG_6403

This reference was invaluable because it has 1/72 six-view drawings.

IMG_6370

IMG_6371

Also helpful was Thomas Hitchcock's book on the Ta-152. Buried in its pages is this drawing:
 

[/url]IMG_6400

Another good, but different interpretation. Hitchcock states that the 209 H did fly.

I emailed several times with the guru of all things 109, Jean Claude Mermet, who provided insight.
Finally, I had a series on conversations with good friend (and noted 109 expert) Woody Straub.

First, I had to clear up some disagreements. Two of the drawings show an additional section placed in from of the windscreen. Interesting, and it could be accomplished by some clever dissecting on Fine Molds G-6 and G-10 kits (more on this later). But why would Messerschmitt engineers push the engine that far out; wouldn't it play havoc with the CG? I scrapped the idea and besides, the Hitchcock drawing does not show this. Other drawings show an added section directly behind the canopy. Certainly possible, but again, Hitchcock doesn't have this (again, thank you Thomas!). Other variations include the type of leading edge radiator intake, three or four blade prop and inward or outward retracting landing gear. The 209 H was apparently a hybrid of a Bf 109 G-5 fuselage and other components including the Me 209 V-5 wing, so that gave some guidance. I gethered up some kits, my trusty UMM razor saw, and set to hacking.

Fortunately this build was not the typical "I began by assembling the cockpit". Boring. I've always believed in getting the most difficult thing out of the way first; in this case the wing. There is a resin kit of the 209 H available from Planet Models, which actually is quite crude. AZ has recently released a 109 H with an extended wing. This might provide a starting point. Finally from Pegasus Models there is a rather ancient 109 H (V-54). Here is a comparison of the wings.

IMG_6382

Planet resin is on top, then Pegasus and finally AZ. I had already done quite a bit of hacking on the AZ kit when this photo was taken. Not two spots on it mate together, so a lot of sanding was done. Also I removed the radiators and blanked off the area with plastic card. A final decision was made for the Pegasus wing. The outer panels leading edge rake differed from my drawing, so I also would have had to separate the AZ wing into three sections. That was already done with the Pegasus wing. Pegasus was a bit thicker as well with less defined scribing. Since most of this would have to be filled, Pegasus got another point. The final straw was the wheel wells. I wanted an inwardly retracting landing gear and blanking off the area looked easier with the Pegasus wing. The AZ had molded-in wells, which would have meant cutting them out or filling in the area with epoxy putty.

Here the process begins. The wells have been blanked off with plastic card and superglue.

IMG_6373

Once the area was smoothed out, I cut out the wheel well covers from a drawing. These acted as templates which were then Blu-Tacked in the proper position. Black paint was sprayed to define the new well.

IMG_6412

I used a dental bit in my Moto-Tool to rough out the hole, then refined it with a scalpel and files.

IMG_6416

Next, some creating gizmology with .005" plastic card. This was embossed with a Rossie the Riveter (MUCH more of this as we progress) to make impressions of raised rivets. It was then cut in strips. These were placed along the edges of the wells and inside the upper wing. They were even laminated to impersonate the wing spars.

IMG_6436

IMG_6440

My rather bright light washes out the effect on the wing interior, but the rivets can be seen on the wheel well linings and spars.

Well, that was the easy part. The real fun began with the leading edge radiators. Since probably no one alive has actually seen them, I can let my imagination lead the way. I tried two variants. Both began with my trusty Mattel Vac-U-Form machine and a bit of RenShape that someone had given to me. RenShape is an expanded foam of varying degrees of density. It cuts very well and is used by pattern makers. I cut and sanded the basic shape...

IMG_6391

...then Vac-U-Formed a number of copies.

IMG_6392

Prior to test fitting them, it was time for more surgery, somewhat major this time.I cut the forward section from the lower center wing part. I will be lowering the flaps, so that area was also removed. Since the engineering of the Pegasus kit differs from the Fine Molds model, the outer sections were removed from this piece also.

IMG_6407

IMG_6408

Here you see the first attempt with the entire front of the radiator open.

IMG_6398

Not my favorite, I just wasn't taken by the look.

The second and much more difficult attempt involved cutting two symmetrical slots in the front of very thin vacuformed pieces. Again the dental bits, Moto Tool and files came out.

I think this is far sexier, but could I make two of them?

IMG_6394

IMG_6395

There were failures, but eventually yes.

IMG_6397

This is only part 1 of where the project stands at the moment, but since it is getting lengthy (uh-huh), I'll continue with part 2 separately. I haven't posted anything for a while and here you can see why. This has kept me rather busy. Also, I didn't want to start posting and then run out of enthusiasm. This thing had to reach critical mass, the point of no return if you will, before I committed to it here.

Hope you've enjoyed the prequel.

 

Edited May 11, 2018 by 109 fan
remove underlines

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

You have my attention ... mind if i take a seat 

[109 fan]

OK, here's part two.

Concurrent with the airframe mods, I modified the spinner to take a four blade prop. This came from a Hasegawa Ki-84 Frank, but slightly shortened and reshaped. Two of the prop holes in the spinner were plugged and three additional were cut. They were blanked off with plastic card and superglue, then sanded flush.

[/url]IMG_6386

IMG_6405

IMG_6425

Concurrently, the radiators were finished. I tried a number of internal grilles and finally stumbled across these from the ART Model Ta 152. Fortunately this kit has been rendered obsolete by the excellent reissue of the Special Hobby model. 

Here a section has been shaped and removed.

IMG_6421

After scribing and riveting them,  it was time to attach the rads and blend everything in with epoxy putty. 

IMG_6430

IMG_6429

The prop was primed as well.

IMG_6433

All flying surfaces on this bird were extended, including the stabilizers. The easiest solution was to cut two Fine Molds parts at different places and splice them together.

IMG_6384

IMG_6387

At this point I couldn't resist taping everything together for a photo.

IMG_6443

The tricky thing about scratch building and converting is getting everything square and even. The inner starboard wing was a little shallow so I glued some plastic strip on as a wall and filled the section with epoxy putty. This has been done in other places as well.

IMG_6445

After a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000, things looked better. I also decided that this would be an unarmed prototype, so the gun troughs were filled with plastic rod and superglue (notice a trend?), and sanded flush.

IMG_6448

The cockpit (finally) is a mixture of several different sets. The right sidewall is my own scratch build and casting, the floor and left sidewall are the Aires Bf 109 G-10 set, the rudder pedals came from Cooper Details and the belts are the relatively new Eduard steel pre-painted items. I have mixed feelings about these. The printing is a step above their brass sets and the buckles are integral, but the paint tends to peel off when the belts are folded sharply. This was not the case  with their brass sets. The instrument panel is also an Eduard pre-painted part. These are simply excellent.

IMG_6453

Moving on it was time to glue the fuselage together. I follow a rigid pattern with this. First, apply glue to the vertical fin and attach. To make the panel line on the top and bottom of the fuselage I bevel the edge with a scalpel held at a 45 degree angle before glueing them. To preserve the line I apply a fast setting glue to the interior of the joint, in this case Tenex 7R. This was then clamped and Testor's liquid cement was flowed along the interior of the lower fuselage. The different glues and their varying drying times just seem to work. The fuselage is left overnight to set up before moving on to the forward area.

IMG_6455

The final extension was the vertical fin, done with more plastic card. The rudder was removed from the Pegasus kit and reshaped to match the drawings. 

IMG_6459

I've also removed the leading edge slats and blanked off the hole with .005" plastic sheet.

IMG_6456

Finally catching this two month project up to the present, here's where she stands at the moment. Some areas were spot primed and major components taped together for a photo.

IMG_6460

Thank you for your patience and I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

 Great work on this so far.

[FAAMAN]

Agree with the above, great work 🤗

[Kais]

Terrific work 109 Fan.
Is all this in 1/48th or 1/72nd.
Watching and taking notes.

 

[pipthepilot]

Will be following along from here, what an interesting project. Your modelling is superlative.

[Azgaron]

Excellent work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[109 fan]

Thank you for the compliments! Kais, this is 1/72.

[109 fan]

Over the weekend, I made some minor progress. The wingtip lights were made from clear sprue with bulbs represented by holes drilled and painted on the inner face. 
I also scribed and riveted the outer sections of the wings. This wasn't carried too far toward toward the wing joints since there will be quite a bit of shaping and sanding going on there and any detail would be lost. Then it was time to muster up some courage and tack on the outer wings. I put some Blu-Tac on a sheet of styrene and secured the center wing section. Then a tiny amount of 5-minute epoxy was placed on the wing joints and they were taped in place. The angle fixed with another mound of Blu-Tac placed under the wing tips. Adjusting this wing joint may be one of the more challenging parts of the build. We'll see...


IMG_6464

IMG_6467

[Andwil]

Amazing work!

 

Andrew

[109 fan]

Thank you Gentlemen for the kind words.

Progress his being made, but much of it just blocking and tackling. I've been doing a lot of scribing and riveting, then fixing the mistakes from sloppy scribing and riveting. It seems that skill with the Rosie the Riveter tool, like so much else, comes from much practice. So, I've decided to devote a portion of each modeling session to riveting. After a while, it becomes somewhat comfortable. 

The wing panels have been glued together and reinforced with 5 minute epoxy, then the mating surfaces were sanded to even things out. There is a reinforcing strip at the wing joint which helps cover some mismatches. But the next issue was deciding what material to use. I tried adhesive backed lead foil (too thick), aluminum tape (too crinkly) and vinyl tape (good, but not enough adhesion). I finally resorted to an old trick: very thick old decals. Remember how we used to complain that 1960's era decals were overly thick. Now, I look through vintage kit to see if they have decals that are thick enough. I used a Hawk F11C-2 Goshawk, vintage 1965. I cut some decals into approximately 1/16" strips and soaked them for at least 20 minutes in very hot water. They still had to be peeled off their backing paper with tweezers. After a number of attempts I got an acceptable result. This method can be used for any number of panels and strips, so keep your eyes open for old kits with those "terrible" decals.

After applying the strips, I primed the area and was satisfied with the result. Then came more riveting and scribing. I waited until to rivet near the wing joint,  since I didn't want to put too many coats of primer over rivets. Here are some photos of the progress so far.

[/url]IMG_6477

IMG_6476

I used an Eduard photo etched radiator as a stencil and painted the oil cooler panel. First a sheet of plastic was painted black, then brass was sprayed through the stencil. Since it can barely be seen and I was only looking for a representation, I found this to be acceptable.

IMG_6470

IMG_6468

While we're on the topic of stencils, I used those from the wheel wells again, this time for the landing gear covers. They are made from .010" plastic card. After cutting them out they were...you guessed it, riveted.

IMG_6479

IMG_6487

I've tortured the image to try to show the rivet pattern, without much success.

Finally to the present. The extended horizontals and rudder have been attached, as have the outboard flaps. The positioning tape is still in place. Next up will be filling in the gaps with 5 minute epoxy. This bird is starting to look as I  have imagined her.

IMG_6483

IMG_6484

Thanks for persisting to this point; I hope you're enjoying the ride.

[109 fan]

I reached a milestone today with the attachment of the wing. First, it was tacked on with liquid glue at various touch points. After that set up overnight  I flowed 5 minute epoxy into the joints and cleaned off the excess with Q-tips soaked in denatured alcohol. Finally, some Mr. Surfacer 500 was slopped into the areas that will need shaping. 

Before glueing on the wing, I finished scribing and riveting. I looks like a mess here with primer applied and sanded off in sections, pencil marks and    filled in kit panel lines. But hopefully this will disappear under another coat of primer. 

[/url]IMG_6498

There are still a few tricky things to be done before painting commences. The most difficult are the leading edge slats. As I've mentioned, the Pegasus kit plastic is typical of short run kits; very soft. I was wondering how to tackle them when Bill Dedig asked if I was going to take them from another kit. Lightbulb! I had done this with previous builds and it made life much easier. Since I the core of this conversion is the Fine Molds 109 G-10, I had the extra outer wing sections to use as donors.

This will give you an idea of what was done.

IMG_6495

I cut an oversized section from the upper wing and began sanding. I often used double sided tape to attach things like these slats to a thick piece of plastic card to use as a base while sanding. But since these slats are very thin, I needed some backup. It came in the form of a UMM aluminum sanding bar, which worked perfectly. The slat is taped to the plastic, which is then taped to the aluminum bar. Very rigid, yet the part can easily be adjusted.

The slats are now taped to the wing for sizing. I also taped on the inner flap. This thing is starting to look like a 747 right after landing. Everything is hanging out.

IMG_6499

IMG_6508

That's all for now, folks.Thanks for looking.

[BIG X]

WOW - Some amazing work going on here AND a beautiful workbench too.

[Azgaron]

Very nice progress!

 

Håkan

 

[109 fan]

Thanks, gentlemen. 

 

I've added the last of the flying surfaces and some remaining details. Here it how she looks after some more spot priming. A bit more cleaning up to do, then it's on to painting.

 

[/url]IMG_6510

 

IMG_6513
 

[109 fan]

Painting has commenced. I began with the RLM 76 undercoat. All colors will be lightened by 1/3 with white. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I like the effect. I added 1/3 Gunze GX-100 clear gloss to the acrylic RLM 76. I've found that adding a bit of lacquer to the acrylic paint makes it much more durable and quicker drying. At this point I'm reasonably pleased with the bodywork.

[/url]IMG_6515

IMG_6518

In preparation for painting the upper surfaces, I made a simple cradle using foam core. I've found that painting the leading edge scallops seen on German fighters is much better done by using two hands on the airbrush. This steadies the airbrush immensely. 

Apologies for the out of focus photo of the cradle; I'll take a better shot and replace it. There was a final adjustment before painting began. I wanted more of an upward angle to the leading edge of the wing, so I added some wedges to the arms. This is the beauty of foam core. It's very easy to add bits to get what you need and white glue makes a quick drying and sturdy adhesive. 

IMG_6521

IMG_6520

Finally the RLM 75 gray-violet has been applied. I taped the leading edge slats to the wing for positioning of the scallops. As I mentioned these are done freehand with both hands steadying the airbrush.

IMG_6524

IMG_6522

Thanks for looking.

 

[Azgaron]

Looks very nice so far!

 

Håkan

 

[109 fan]

Painting continues; here the RLM 74 has been applied.

IMG_6528

IMG_6526

...and finally on to the mottling.

IMG_6536

IMG_6535

IMG_6538

The slats were taped in place for positioning of the scallops. One the next few days I'll blend in the mottles and continue with touch ups. This is the fun part.

[Azgaron]

Nice paint job!

 

Håkan

 

[Silenoz]

pff, nice work... very nice conversion from start to end... on to the last steps..

[109 fan]

Regarding the mottles, there were two more steps taken. For some time I've been spraying very diluted RLM 76 around the mottles. This softens them and covers overspray to a great extent. Occasionally I'll go back and forth with the RLM 76 and 75/74 to get the desired effect. Next, I added a few spots of RLM 02 grey. Gunze 02 is nearly invisible, or at least it seems so to me. I added it to some of the mottle clusters and it did change the tonal effect. Finally it was time for the gloss overcoat in preparation for decals. In this case the gloss is Gunze GX-100 clear lacquer, diluted initially 5/1 (thinner/paint) then 7/1. This is the best gloss I have found and is very hard when dry. Anyway...a few photos.

IMG_6542


IMG_6540


IMG_6543

[greggles.w]

Looking fine! Thanks for the tips re clear coats.

[109 fan]

There's not a lot to say with this update but it does follow a lot of work. Tonight I added the last decal, and frankly that couldn't come soon enough. During a typical build various things will bite you. On this one it was the decals. I hd to remove and replace one of the crosses three times. My go-to setting solution, Mr. Mark Softener, refused to work on decals that I had labelled "thin, works great", which now appear to be neither. Regardless, this phase is done. Next will come inspection, then anther sealing gloss coat before moving on the the really fun part, washes and weathering.

One note before moving on. Here in one picture is my method for applying simplified wing crosses. I cut out the white angles and use the center backing paper as a positioning guide. Wet it, slide off the clear film, and place it glue-side down on the wing. When it has dried out and sticks, snuggle the cross pieces up to the paper. After they have set, wet the paper and remove it. Viola, no worries about silvering of carrier film. 

IMG_6549

 

I know I've shown this a dozen times before, but it may be new to someone. Now, on to the latest photos.

IMG_6550

IMG_6552

IMG_6551

 

[Hewy]

 Well done, a Very nice job indeed so far.