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I’m on 109 roll: After my relative success with the 109E & 109F, I thought I’d try a little light conversion. It’s the wine red (or blue) 109V14 that Udet flew in Dubendorf and managed to prang.

 

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It’s a relatively easy conversion, but its actually BF109B airframe apparently so some details like fuel fillers need to relocated and obviously de-arming the thing completely.The Tamiya 109E is the starting point and I built up a stock of these on my travels to Japan a few years ,back at knock down prices so won’t complain about the costs or apparently the shortness of the fuselage. I am reliably informed the Mr Hobby Wine red is a good colour  option so that will duly be applied.

 

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For the markings, I’m going to spray everything through homemade masks. I have some Red Pegasus decals that I got before the proprietor, Keith passed away but I have to say apart from the atrocious quality, he seemed to making up the fonts and sizes as he did me 2 totally  different  1/72 versions that look nothing like the 1/48 version from him or anything like the artwork on the instructions! Still a bit of cross checking and tweaking before I use my Cricut Explore Air and all should be well BTW, love the mirror image Swastika on the 1/48 version 🙂

 

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Bits like the slotted exhausts will come from oddities like the now redundant RPM/Avis 109A/B kits I picked up many moons ago. This will be my first Tamiya and after the soft plastic and dodgy fit of the Airfix 1/72 109 I did last week, I'm hoping for a smooth ride.

 

Cheers

 

Anil

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Hello,

 

It's a good program (i have the same in 1/48). It's effectively a B airframe the modification are:

 

- Move oxygeme and fuel traps on fuselage.

-there is no place for wing armament, so you have no renfort on flaps and long beak leading edge.

- smalls différence in the cockpit, the most visible is the "manche à balais" who look like the spitfire one.

- you have also a small scissor on the rear Wheel.

 

Greating from France.

 

 

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A day of prepping, mentoring a colleague at his new job and endless DIY spurred on my by new toy. So while I figure out a few mods like the long supercharger and the stub exhausts, I decided to do a paint and mask test to see how the markings would look on my like for like paint mule ( a wrecked Tamiya 109E as well)

 

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It seems that the fuselage letters need to smaller and thicker and my custom mix of  5 parts Mr Hobby 327 red and 1 part black, nails the whole wine red than the very ,very bright  pink H34 wine red, these Japanese dont drink a lot of red wine as what I saw was a rose ( a non wine if ever one existed...)

 

A few tweaks to the illustrator file and I think markings will be fine. Now to  hack the poor Tamiya to bits.

 

BTW @Jean Pierre CULIS-FERY, I did mention in my opening text that this was 109 B airframe, the Richard Franks profile shows this to have standard slats and a totally unarmed wing so more bleeding fillin' and sanding... 

 

Cheers

 

A

 

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A wee update: Started surgery on the hapless patient:

 

 

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The "hole" exhausts ended having to be scratched as the various Avis ones were not only unusable but had the wrong hole spacing for a DB600. A few minutes with Adobe Illustrator and then ran some Tamiya 0.2 Pla Paper through my Cricut with a deep cut blade and was pleasantly surprised considering that holes are   0.75mm x 0.5mm:

 

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A little fettling when the glue has dried and it'll do nicely. Tomorrow is a major fill 'n sand day. Now off to fondle my latest acquisition courtesy of @Ian Shumsky

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A wee update, did a lot of boring filling and sanding but assembled the cockpit. scratched a yoke as appropriate for Bf109B;

 

pit1.jpg

 

Also decided to use one of those lovely Yahu etch IPs. Eduard belts rounded it off and everything left immaculate as befits Herr Udet's status;

 

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Some last minute additions to the cowling on Sunday hopefully and we should see the airframe zipped up.

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Well doing a 1/72 Hurricane in 4 days flat restored my mojo for this baby. Fist thing was my normal scriber, the RB Productions item,  was producing lines way thicker than the Tamiya's for all the additional scribing around the nose cowls. Then I remembered these babies that have sat in a drawer for 2 years: The 0.10 was spot on and the revised nose was bolted together

 

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There is some inaccuracy when  compared to my Werners Wings set, the first exhaust slot should be over the small "cheek bulge" on the lower cowl but it was way too much work to carve out additional chunks out of the fragile nose. The black specks are actually black superglue from Japan, truly marvelous stuff! Pleased with revised supercharger intake and cowl indentation.. Note no re-scribed fuel filler under the canopy, I have a cunning plan...

 

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Underside of wings was fine, enough plastic under the cannon magazine bulges to permit sanding flat. For once most of my re-scribing was straight. Well, back to motoring along, canopy and primer tomorrow,Then  final paint mask test using Oracal 810  and lets see if we can get this in to the cabinet by Sunday...

 

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Thanks for tuning in.

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Tamiya don't provide a wheels up option, so some leftovers from my Marseille 109F

 

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Uniquely shaped card doors

 

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Added the rest of the fuselage bits and got the Eduard masks on 

 

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Tomorrow is primer day, I'm looking forward to seeing it one colour as opposed the patchwork quilt effect I've got going on.

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Today's wee update: Primer showed expected nasties that resulted in whole day of fill, sand re-scribe.  After a few tests, I decided the best strategy was to lay down the white (Aclad primer) for the codes , then mask those and spray the topcoat over them. Started by doing the RLM 23 band on the tail and manhandling these 1/72 masks has truly taxed my failing eyesight.

 

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Sun-downers and admiring garden now, Tomorrow sees final mask and final colour, Woohoo another finish in sight!

 

Thanks for dropping by.

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Another day, another update. A miserable, wet day so snuggled down to do some decalling. All went well but drove myself crazy trying to put on the 0.2 mm white stripes on the tail ( needed as the "Udet red" is very close to RLM 23. I need to try some more variations  of mask material and paint thickness as the results aren't perfect, I noticed the masks were a bit uneven despite the artwork being straight and true.  Perhaps I'm at the limit of what my Cricut Air 2 can do? I have a NOS Alps 5500 en route , maybe the answer is white decals instead (but hopefully better that the awful Red Pegasus ones shown earlier).

 

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Interestingly my final paint choice was decided by this ( courtesy of @Jon Freeman)

 

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Dragon gives H327 ( which I use as RAF roundel red) as the colour for his Fokker, seeing as at some point I'll build a matching 1/72 Fokker DVII (if there's one out there) and his Siebel "limo", I decided not to futz around and use something straight from the bottle.. BTW, that Udet chappie was a handsome fellow before the booze did its nefarious work. Well its sun downers and homemade burgers now, thanks for dropping by and have a great week folks!

 

 

Cheers

 

Anil

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Another small update, gloss coated everything but was unhappy with the the patchwork of gloss/silk , hard to get right unless you perfect "wet coating" or are @cmatthewbacon. An idle chat with the head of the spray shop looking after my restoration of a Karman Ghia suggested a new strategy: He said that they "level" off a high gloss finish by drenching the final lacquer coat in a mist of thinner..."Level" you say, as in "Mr Leveling Thinner" I thought. Gave it a blast and wondrous reflection was achieved. I'm leaving this alone for 24 hours as I imagine the layer of Mr Gloss UV cut is completely melted. Pretty amazing but slightly wrong as it should be more a semi-gloss but why not?

 

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God, as Mies tells us, is in the detail so to amuse myself did the prop and spinner. Correct Hamilton standard logos from a Kora sheet and a homemade decal for spinner vent. Actually the spinner should be flatter and have a deeper recess but I reached the limit of the Tamiya plastic so had to stop

 

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Now I have to be patient  and not rush, there's still the top to turn into a shimmering mirror finish and here's where things start to go wrong (I hear you @Paul J.) So to keep me distracted, started another 1 week build in the spirit of my 4 day Hurricane...

 

And hey, if you are reading, say something, even if its "God I hate the colour red and WW2 German aeroplanes or my cat could build something better with a dead rodent ". its lonely in cyberspace ... 😉

 

 

 

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Just dropped in - lovely job, and very useful advice for a future build (I do have 28 109's in 1/72 in the stash).  Thanks in particular for that tip on Udet's red colour - I have just started the Hallore racer.

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On 8/16/2018 at 9:51 AM, Prenton said:

Just dropped in - lovely job, and very useful advice for a future build (I do have 28 109's in 1/72 in the stash).  Thanks in particular for that tip on Udet's red colour - I have just started the Hallore racer.

Thank you @Prenton, I wonder if the racer had a bar in it as well? BTW you want a grey primer under the H327, I'm using Alclad. Have trip planned to sunny Rathdowney before Christmas so looking forward to see the Oul Sod after nearly 15 years away!

 

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