andyh59 Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 The Eduard line of Messerschmitt Bf109s love 'em or hate 'em we remain divided!!!! Personally I prefer them to the other two main competiters (Zvezda & Tamiya 1/48 of course) I know they have their faults but I don't feel they distract from the overall finished product (except the E series!). The latest in the line and my next two builds. A G-10 and a G-14/AS Mtt Regensburg, however I'm not satisfied with the Eduard rendition of the assymetric cowling which typifies these later sub types of 109. I think Eduard have captured the cowling shape well, but to my eyes and comparision with drawings and photos it looks too symetrical. Before this starts any great debate on this particular forum these views are my own personal feelings on this kit. If anyone is interested on discussions as to the 'accuracy' of this kit I refer you to the following links https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234947521-148-messerschmitt-bf109f-g-gustav-friedrich-family-by-eduard-next-variants-bf109g-14-avia-s-99c-10-october-2018/&page=6 https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/about-the-cowling-of-the-new-bf-109g-10-eduard-t497142.html https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/bf109g-10-oil-cooler-and-the-new-eduard-kit-t498072.html This is according to drawings, I found, the shape the cowling should be :- Plus these set of photos show the correct shape:- http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/bf109detailbg_1.htm To my eyes as I stated before the Eduard rendition is too symetrical in comparision, so before the build commences something needs to be done to rectify the cowling shape. The following is my way of doing this. I removed the outlined portion of the cowling with a saw and then glued it back so this panel overlapped the fuselage by a fraction (eyeballed) this gave the cowling a slightly larger bulge. According to several photos I found the cowling overlaps the fuselage on the port side (as shown in the photos in the last link). The front of this panel very slightly overlaps where it rejoins the cowling, this I gently sanded down, in doing this it gives a little more emphasis to the bulge at the rear of this panel. I then turned my attention to the top of the cowling and removed the outlined portion of this:- I then glued this to to the portion of cowling I had previously removed and rejoined to the fuselage. This will result in a small gap when the top cowling is added to the fuselage but I will fill this with plasticard. Onto the starboard fuselage, again from the photos on hyperscale it shows an excellent shot of the fuselage minus engine which shows quite clearly the scalloped fairings behind the cowling. Here you can see the starboard fairing is not as deep as the port fairing, where as on the kit they are the same depth so some careful sanding is called for within the area outlined in the photo below:- This removes some of the surface detail which will have to be replaced later, the upper cowling will also require some sanding down. I actually found in MMP's publication 'Bf109 Late Versions - Camouflage & Markings' a 1/48 front view of the G-10 cowling which I traced onto card, cut out and used as a rough template to get the cowling shape to my liking! The pics above give an idea of what I was after, with the assymetric effect more pronounced than Eduards rendition. I applied some filler to the top cowling to make the bulge covering the modified engine bearer more pronounced. This will require more attention when the fuselage is eventually assembled. Leaving the fuselage for now I turned to the undercarriage legs, these according to critics are incorrect for the later G models so I made an effort of sorts to modify them my efforts are shown below. Whilst not completely accurate will satisfy me! With all my builds of Eduards 109s I slightly modify the exhausts by cutting down the backing they are moulded to so I can insert them after painting is done. I sand the stacks down a little themselves, as they appear to be slightly on the large size a criticism of all Eduard's 109G series. My final work for now was to replace the solid wingtip lights with transparent ones. for this I decided to use a method I read of on Britmodeller, using UV glue. The solid lights are removed then a hole is drilled, a very small one, in the corner of the cutout into this a piece of transparent sprue coloured with Tamiya red or green clear paint, to represent the bulb. The glue is then applied into the cutout filling it, the UV light supplied is used to cure the glue. The hardened glue can now be treated as transparent plastic, sanded down and restored to clarity ( I use Brasso metal polish) easy!! The last pic shows how the UV glue is supplied, mine came from Amazon who have quite a selection of these glues at various prices. A brilliant way to sort out wingtip lights. Well that's it for now, more to follow in due course happy to hear your thoughts on this build, Cheers Andy 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nachtwulf Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 maybe this thread on Hyperscale would interest you. It regards the oil cooler housing. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/bf109g-10-oil-cooler-and-the-new-eduard-kit-t498072.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franky boy Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Nice work Andy. While I haven’t built the later series 109’s from Eduard I did build an E model earlier this year. It actually still needs to be finished. TBH I didn’t enjoy the build much. I thought the kit was a bit over complicated and while I know it’s designed to have the engine showing it’s a pig if you want the cowling closed. That said the surface detail is second to none. Look forward to more progress. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 7 hours ago, Nachtwulf said: maybe this thread on Hyperscale would interest you. It regards the oil cooler housing. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/bf109g-10-oil-cooler-and-the-new-eduard-kit-t498072.html Thanks for your input have taken this correction onboard. I presume this oil cooler was used on the Regensburg G-14/AS as well?? Hi James I agree with your criticism of the Eduard Bf109E series but biggest bugs are over long fuselage and over size slats. Maybe candidate for re-tool Eduard😲 ???? Cheers Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Moon Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Interesting thread and I’ll follow along if you don’t mind. Like the way you have dealt with the navigation lights, UV glue is new to me. Must try it on my current bf109-G2 build. Regards Howard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted October 11, 2018 Author Share Posted October 11, 2018 Who said you'll have more spare time after retirement???? After getting off to a good start you suddenly have demands on your time and your build is put on hold thus the above sub-title!!! All I have managed is to detail the cockpits and get the wings and fuselages together. This was a pretty straightforward exercise, I opted to use the kit parts with the photo etch 'overlept'! I should mention both kits were the overtrees versions, which incidentally I purchased from Eduard at a discount price plus free postage so I got two kits plus photo etch for the price of one Profipack here in the U.K.! 😀 I very rarely use the colour schemes supplied in kits so the lack of decals was of little concern except Eduard seem to have most of the schemes for the MTT Regensburg G-10s which caused some problems finding a different scheme, but more of that later. Onto the work carried out so far :- Thus the work completed so far. As you can see the cowlings need a bit of work to get them faired in and to the shape I wish to achieve. These Eduard kits are certainly much better representations of the G-10s than I believe Hasegawa's are but as stated previously from studying photos they have not captured the full assymetric shape of the cowling, which I'm hoping my modification will!! Well, whilst uploading this article I have been interrupted several times 'RETIREMENT MORE SPARE TIME FOR YOURSELF -YEAH!!!!!!!!!' See you later (much later probably) Cheers Andy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 Another quick update before I leave for a weeks break in sunny Wales ( I can hope can't I? 😉). Not an awful lot of progress to report I've sanded the fuselage joins, added panel lines to spine & belly. Filler has been applied to the area above the supercharger intake to allow a slightly more prominent bulge in the cowling. This bulge is to clear the change in the engine bearer on the port side of the fuselage (see photos on previous Hyperscale link). After a fair bit of shaping with various grades of wet & dry paper, more filler applied, more sanding I was happy with the result. I then gave the resulting bulges a coat of primer with a brush :- I again sanded the primer down with fine grades of wet & dry paper until smooth, but it may need some further smoothing when the final coat of primer is applied. At this point I decided to fill the oil filler cap on the nose of what will become the G14A/S and rescribe a new one lower down as this model had the smaller oil tank. Well getting rid of the G10 filler cap, no problem! Scribing a new one - hopeless! Answer cut off nose ring above intake. Add new one with correctly positioned cap from spare fuselage of another Eduard 109, in my case a spare fuselage from the first tool Royal boxing. I'm pretty sure Eduard will eventually issue a G14A/S & hopefully with the correct panel detail ( I'm just impatient). :- Leaving the fuselage for the time being & moving onto the wings namely the ejection ports for the mgs. Left as they are you will be able to see into the fuselage so they need blocking off. My solution a simple moulded 'box' using the push mould method the photos show the results, painted they at least give a representation of the spent cartridge chutes. I also added the underwing radiators not forgetting a small piece of wire for the actuators for the front of the radiators. :- My final work, for the time being, was to add the oil cooler intakes under the nose of the fuselage. I did slightly modify the intakes as per the Hyperscale discussion https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/bf109g-10-oil-cooler-and-the-new-eduard-kit-t498072.html. Although the method I chose was to simply use a sharp blade to remove a small piece of plastic from the top of the G10 oil cooler covers to alter them to the correct shape for the Regensburg built machines. Tail fin tops were added & the front windscreen which required some filler to get a smooth fit. Wings are just push fitted to the fuselage temporarily:- Well thats it for now I,m off for my break will be back for a further instalment later. Cheers Andy 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted November 4, 2018 Author Share Posted November 4, 2018 After my much needed break back to my 109 duo. Having reshaped the cowlings to my satisfaction I added the supercharger intakes and then the wings and tailplanes. On the subject of the wings, for reasons known to themselves, Eduard instead of making the underwing to rear fuselage join along a panel line gave us a V shaped join. Now, personally, no matter how I fill this join it always seems to show under the final finish! My thoughts turned to the UV glue I used for the wingtip lights, advertised as 'liquid plastic' I decided to use it on this awkward joint and it seems to have worked:- Primer will hopefully show this joint has now disappeared. During reshaping of the cowlings the two small bulges over the guns at the rear of the cowling were lost, so a simple plunge mould was made and the resulting bulges were reinstated. At this point I also made another bulge to cover the lower engine bearer arm, which fits on the port side wing fairing ( see the Hyperscale photos on the previous link to clarify this). Pitot tubes were replaced with hypodermic needles, panel lines and rivets were reinstated, control surfaces and flaps were added. The primer fuel and MW50 tanks drainer plugs were drilled out under the rear fuselage again hypodermic needles will eventually be added to represent these. G-14A/S G-10 Next step is masking and primer then making good any slight gliches shown up. I have decide on colour schemes, as stated before Eduard seem to have most of the Mtt Regensburg schemes on their decal sheet but after some trawling through the 'net' I found a colour scheme for Obfw. Heinrich Bartels of 15./JG 27, December 1944 although not an authenticated scheme his aircraft was an Mtt Regensburg machine Wk No.130359. The G-14A/S colour schemes are far more abundant and I have chosen a machine of 2/JG77 January 1945 Wk.No.784930. That's it for now see you again soon. Cheers Andy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedAS Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 Please don't start the third world war over what I'm about to write... There's nothing wrong with the Eduard Mtt G-10 representation. Even the gun troughs are 90% correct for and Mtt G-10. The cowling represented in the kit is Type 100 which is typical for an Mtt block 130xxx G-10 which were built by recycling G-6 airframes and the WNF blocks 610xxx-613xxx. What you're trying to represent is halfway through the Type 110 cowling which is used on Erla machines block 150xxx-152xxx and 490xxx-491xxx - exactly what the front view in the first post shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 19 hours ago, SpeedAS said: Please don't start the third world war over what I'm about to write... There's nothing wrong with the Eduard Mtt G-10 representation. Even the gun troughs are 90% correct for and Mtt G-10. The cowling represented in the kit is Type 100 which is typical for an Mtt block 130xxx G-10 which were built by recycling G-6 airframes and the WNF blocks 610xxx-613xxx. What you're trying to represent is halfway through the Type 110 cowling which is used on Erla machines block 150xxx-152xxx and 490xxx-491xxx - exactly what the front view in the first post shows. Alex, Thanks for your interest in my build. As I said at the beginning of this article my personal view is that Eduard didn't get the assymetrical cowling quiet right so I wanted to rectify this for my own personal taste. My main reference is 'Messerschmitt Bf109 G-1 through K-4 -Engines and Fittings' on which I based my modifications Firstly the cowling on the G-10 this was a type 100 cowling which was fitted on all the Mtt Regensburg machines WNr130000 block, as you stated, this is what I am attempting to reproduce. This is shown in the front view at the beginning of the post and is not representative of the Erla type 110 cowling which had a shallower and wider oil cooler intake and no bulges under the nose unlike the Mtt version. In looking at the Eduard kit again it represents the Erla 110 cowl in not being quite as assymetrical as the Mtt, WNF/Diana type 100 cowl AGAIN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION!!!! The G-14A/S cowling is a type 090 cowling which except for the position of the access panel over the cold weather starter and oil tank filler cover was identical to the type 100 cowl. We all have our own opinions and the above are mine based on the references I used so I have no intention of declaring war!!! I'm quite sure that the majority of modellers will build the Eduard kit as is and be happy with the result that is good because it will encourage Eduard to give us more variants of the later 109s to build to our own standards. Again thanks for the interest. Cheers Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 Great work on the cockpits Andy - looking very nice so far. I have no opinion on the cowling issue except to say that modeling is 100% subjective - the only one you need to please is yourself so if you feel that the cowling required adjustment- then you adjust the cowling. Looks like you’ve done a good job on this by the way. Enjoy your week in wales! Hope you see some sun! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedAS Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 On 05/11/2018 at 20:00, andyh59 said: Alex, Thanks for your interest in my build. As I said at the beginning of this article my personal view is that Eduard didn't get the assymetrical cowling quiet right so I wanted to rectify this for my own personal taste. My main reference is 'Messerschmitt Bf109 G-1 through K-4 -Engines and Fittings' on which I based my modifications Firstly the cowling on the G-10 this was a type 100 cowling which was fitted on all the Mtt Regensburg machines WNr130000 block, as you stated, this is what I am attempting to reproduce. This is shown in the front view at the beginning of the post and is not representative of the Erla type 110 cowling which had a shallower and wider oil cooler intake and no bulges under the nose unlike the Mtt version. In looking at the Eduard kit again it represents the Erla 110 cowl in not being quite as assymetrical as the Mtt, WNF/Diana type 100 cowl AGAIN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION!!!! The G-14A/S cowling is a type 090 cowling which except for the position of the access panel over the cold weather starter and oil tank filler cover was identical to the type 100 cowl. We all have our own opinions and the above are mine based on the references I used so I have no intention of declaring war!!! I'm quite sure that the majority of modellers will build the Eduard kit as is and be happy with the result that is good because it will encourage Eduard to give us more variants of the later 109s to build to our own standards. Again thanks for the interest. Cheers Andy Hi Andy, I did read the first post about personal opinions. :) Funny enough, we apparently use the same references and yet reach different conclusions. I wonder, what's your take on figures 37 through 40 (the top down views) - every time I read that part I seem to think something else of it. The main idea being is that when Mtt recycled those G-6 airframes, they ended smoothing out the G-6 bulges thus being almost symmetrical - not quite. This is the reason why I think there's nothing wrong with Eduard's Mtt G-10 representation. The asymmetry is there, though quite subtle. Just outing my opinion. :) I do apologise if that somehow has upset you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted November 7, 2018 Author Share Posted November 7, 2018 12 hours ago, SpeedAS said: Hi Andy, I did read the first post about personal opinions. Funny enough, we apparently use the same references and yet reach different conclusions. I wonder, what's your take on figures 37 through 40 (the top down views) - every time I read that part I seem to think something else of it. The main idea being is that when Mtt recycled those G-6 airframes, they ended smoothing out the G-6 bulges thus being almost symmetrical - not quite. This is the reason why I think there's nothing wrong with Eduard's Mtt G-10 representation. The asymmetry is there, though quite subtle. Just outing my opinion. :) I do apologise if that somehow has upset you. Hi Alex, No offence taken from your comments, model making is a hobby, how far we take what we build accuracy wise is a personal choice. How we read references can vary due to what one believes one sees and it's good we all see differently. One final word on cowlings I am representing fig38 Mtt Regensburg/WNF type 100 cowl. Figure 40 shows Erla type 110 cowl, with flat port fairing. Gun troughs as you stated aren't too bad so left as is. It will be interesting to see if Eduard release an Erla G-10 and how good a job they make of that [fingers crossed]. Thanks for your input Alex I think we should agree to disagree on this point!! All the best Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedAS Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Yep, got it. Now I see the half moon shape on Fig38. Thanks Andy! Indeed agree to disagree on the Mtt representation. That aside, your craftsmanship is great. Indeed, Erla G-10 is one to watch - with all the hope in the world that we might get a decent one finally. Good luck, I'll keep reading this thread as the G-10 is quite close to heart. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted November 17, 2018 Author Share Posted November 17, 2018 Another update on my dual build, progress has been a bit slow but I am getting there. Canopies were masked and Vallejo grey primer applied, however as the G-14A/S has natural metal panels on the underside of the wing gloss black primer was applied Then came the fun part of making good any blemishes, gaps and other slight imperfections. Thankfully not too many on these builds!! I re-sprayed where necessary with primer, when dry I polish the primer with a piece of denim (old Jeans!!) this gives a nice smooth finish for the top coats of paint. Then the underside of the G-14 was sprayed with Vallejo Metal paints, I masked off some panels and sprayed them with various shades of aluminium, looks better than one shade overall. The metal surfaces were masked and the flaps, ailerons, wing tips (undersides only of course) were sprayed RLM 76. I decided to use Mission Model paints for the final schemes excellent paints and not bad accuracy wise, I did have one criticism of these paints of which more later. As these were kits were Overtrees no masks were included but being a hoarder or should that be stingy?? I never throw used masks away but carefully remove them stick them back on the sheet and use them again. They seem to keep their adhesive qualities quite well so the masks for these 109s came from previous Eduard 109s I have built!! Now I was ready to apply the topcoat of paint. Both the machines had Defence of the Reich bands, the G-10 the green band of JG27 and the G-14 the white and green band of JG77. These were applied and masked off, the green RLM25 was from a jar of the old Aeromaster paint I still had. Undersurfaces and lower fuselage sides of the G-10 were sprayed MM paints RLM76 with 10% white (scale colour). The G-14 was one of those great patchwork schemes of the late war Luftwaffe machines, besides the unpainted wing the nose underside was RLM76. The remainder of the fuselage the so called RLM84 (a variation of RLM76) again I used an old jar of Aeromaster paint I had, not a bad match for this colour I thought. Now I usually use paper masks I cut out for the top surfaces camouflage patterns held on with tape and blue tack but have never been entirely happy with this method!! So looking for a substitute, other than the ,I think, expensive pre-cut masks I remember seeing the Tamiya sheets of masking. So bought a pack (one of the reasons for the delay) it's the same material Tamiya use for the masks in their own kits. To work I drew round an Eduard 109 wing and then drew in the camouflage pattern, then cut them out and applied them. As you may observe I don't try to replicate the overspray between the colours as I don't think it would be in scale on a 1/48 model. However I do replicate the sprayed effect on the fuselage, however this is where I began to lose my patience with the MM paints. It does not seem to like being sprayed on sparingly! It was a case of cleaning the airbrush needle after each short burst of paint, it took me an age to get the mottle on to these 109s. I tried thinning the paint and that didn't help, lowering the pressure that didn't help. Has anybody else had this experience with these paints?? Well that's it for now hopefully next update a bit sooner 😫. Cheers Andy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted November 22, 2018 Author Share Posted November 22, 2018 Back again, short update. Both machines have the fuselage Balkankreuz infilled with RLM70, so out came the masking sheet again. I made two masks, one for each aircraft, slightly smaller than the decals I will use, for the infill of RLM70. These were then used to spray the RLM70 on to both machines, The vertical tail and rudders of both aircraft are painted differently the G-14 has RLM81 background with hard edge blotches of RLM82 and soft edge blotches of RLM76. The G-10 has hard edge blotches of RLM82 over RLM75, I again made masks for both aircrafts tail surfaces to get the hard edge mottle. I used the Uschi Van Der Rosten walkway stencils on the wing, a great investment does away with decals for these items. With all the masking and painting done for now, both aircraft were sprayed overall with Future/Kleer ready for application of decals. Now to trawl through all my decals to find the markings, should I have sorted these at the beginning 😖 !!!!! Andy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh59 Posted December 13, 2018 Author Share Posted December 13, 2018 Welcome to the final instalment of this WIP. With both builds now finished in their Kleer coat it was now down to sorting the necessary decals out for each scheme I was able to source the majority from all the Eduard 109 decal sheets I had stashed. The only problem I thought I might have was sourcing the personal marking on Heinrich Bartels G-10 'Marga' (his wife's name I believe). Although no photos exsist of this machine it has been based on the other 109s of JG27 in use at the time of his death. Back to Marga, it just happens that Eduard supplied decals with one of their 109G-6s for a machine that Bartels flew, so my problem was solved. The yellow '13' came from an old Microscale set of Luftwaffe fighter numerals and was chosen to match as closely as possible the style on the earlier machines Bartels flew. This pic above shows the underside of yellow '13' decaled with panel line wash also added. The G-14A/S red '1' WkN.784930 just needed the numeral decal modified again from a Microscale Luftwaffe numeral set. The decals for the werk no. came a from a sheet of Eduard decals that included in the Fw190D JV44 combo and the JG77 badge from a sheet of FCM Luftwaffe Insignia. , Panel line wash was spotted on where necessary, allowed to dry for a while then streaked using a firm brush this gave me the weathering I required. These aircraft barely lasted months if not weeks at the time of their use in service 1944/5. I decide not to use pre or post shading on these two aircraft as I,m not convinced it gives an accurate impression of a weathered machine but find the streaked panel wash sufficient to give that impression (again a personal view not a statement of fact!!). t Both machines were given another coat of Kleer, then both sprayed with Xtracrylix Flat Varnish, my chosen finish as it imparts a nice sheen to the completed model. All masking removed and ready for final assembly:- Spinners had been previously sprayed white then masks cut out using the spiral decals from the Eduard 109 decal sheets, not completely successful but good enough to pass muster! Everything else was added to each machine, undercarriage, slats, canopies, drop tanks and aerials. The final results will be posted on RFI. Cheers for following Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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