Horst Petzschler's Bf 109 G-10. Fine Molds 1/72

109 fan · September 10, 2018

After fighting the Me 209 H V-1 for months, I was ready for a out of the box build. But what? Hmmm....probably a 109, but which one. I've wanted to do Petzschler's G-10 for some time. It has a very cool camo scheme which will make the project interesting without dealing with all the detailing one would usually add. In addition, I wanted to work on improving my skills in three areas: riveting, airbrushing and weathering. Since Petschler surrendered the plane on May 4, 1945 in Sweden, it didn't end up as a derelict in some aircraft graveyard,and there are a number of clear photos of both sides. I'll also highlight some standard item to improve the Fine Molds kit.

To start, the spinner is too large for its backplate.

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I used to think this would be daunting to fix, requiring chucking the thing in a Moto-Tool, but by sticking the spinner on a toothpick and sanding with simple sanding stick things evened out. The two pieces are tacked together with tiny drops of superglue and can be easily snapped apart. Easy, but necessary.

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Since this build will be strictly OOB and some clubs prohibit aftermarket seatbelts, it's time to bring out the painted paper belts. These are made using an Eduard brass seat belt as a stencil.

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Then on to the riveting. I used the Rosie the Riveter tool in both 0.50mm and 0.55mm sizes. The FM plastic is considerably harder than Tamiya's and requires a different "feel". There is more of a propensity to slip on curved surfaces (i.e. fuselage - ask me how I know); so go slow if you're going to do this.

I tried another technique here. Most 109s had a leather or canvas liner in the wheel well. Eduard gives a photo-etched liner in some of their sets, but that won't fly for the OOB model. So I decided to try hand painting. Before assembling the wing I brush painted the well with acrylic leather color. Easier than masking and spraying, but less precise. However, the 109 G had metal strip along the outside of the leather piece. So I sprayed some clear decal sheet with RLM 76 grey and cut some thin strips. It actually worked and looks a lot better than just leaving the wells in RLM 76. BTW, by the time the 109 G-6 was rolled out (in not earlier) the wheel wells were no longer painted RLM 02 grey, but simply painted in the wing undersurface color.

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The FM kit has an unusual system for attaching the cowl guns. They are single piece that is glued to the fuselage, then the cowls are fitted and the guns threaded into the troughs. Too fiddly for me. I cut the gun barrels off, painted them and glued them inside the cowl parts. I went one step further on this one. I painted the exterior of the gun trough with the camo color before glueing in the guns. This will make masking and painting easier.

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Then the airframe was riveted and assembled. Here the canopy is masked and the model is ready for paint.

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The base coat of Gunze Sangyo RLM 76 was done with their lacquer. The model will take a lot of handling from this point and the lacquer is more durable. Day one of camo painting was the Gunze RLM 75. The mix was 3 parts RLM 75, one part gloss white (I like the scale effect), one part GX-100 Clear and one part retarder.

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Day two saw the RLM 83 dark green applied.

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Day three was over-painting, improving the mottling, blending and touch-ups.

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Finally came the last bits of painting. The fuselage number was overpainted and replaced, as the Germans so often did. This is somewhat well defined, so I made a mask out of .010" plastic card.

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Placement here is important, so I cut the shape roughly from Tamiya tape. This was positioned with a scrap decal stuck on with Blu Tac.

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The stencil was offset from the fuselage with rolls of Tamiya tape and the area sprayed.

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A lot of work for about 1/4 of a square inch, but I can't think of a better way to do it. There are also two very small areas of RLM 76 on the vertical stab. These were done the same way, but using .005" card.

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Catching up to tonight, the model has been gloss coated with Gunze GX-100 and is ready for decals. Thanks for putting up with this long stroll. From this point the posts will be shorter.

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BTW, I have no idea how the text above gets underlined. I copy it from another site where I post and it is not underlined there. Suggestions gladly accepted.

Edited September 10, 2018 by 109 fan

pommie commie · September 10, 2018

Hard to believe it's 1/72! Great job.

109 fan · September 16, 2018

Thanks for the kind words. The decals have been applied and a sealing coat of Gunze GX-100 clear gloss added. Finding the decals was a challenge. I have a large stash of decals and when I started this build I was sure I had these markings. But I didn't, which started a scramble to get them. EagleCals had done them in 1999 but they proved nearly impossible to find. Eventually I located a set at Seal Models, which is where I get my Gunze Sangyo paints (isn't the internet wonderful...?). They were carefully applied since I couldn't afford any mistakes. There was one small adjustment. The last four digits of the Wr. Nr. was hand painted in large numerals on the rear fuselage. These were hastily done and are not in a straight line. EagleCals has printed them exactly the same for both sides. Both photos (perhaps discovered after their sheet was researched) show that the positioning was different on the right side. The numbers were cut apart and positioned separately in the proper placement. Also, the area under the yellow 5 shows an overpainted number on the left side only. Photos show no evidence of this on the right.

Up next are the oil washes and weathering.

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