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Frankenschmitt (1/72 Tamiya/ICM Bf109E-3 crosskit)


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"Britain’s position is hopeless. The war is won by us. A reversal in the prospects of success is impossible."

 

-- Generaloberst Franz Halder, diary entry for 22 July 1940

 

 

Oh, it has its triumphs,
but look at its countless defeats,
missed blows,
and repeat attempts!

 

-- Wislawa Szymborska, "On Death, Without Exaggeration"

 

 

"My experience over Dunkirk had taught me that when attacked the best counter was to go into a right turn. In this manoeuvre, the Spitfire was infinitely superior to the Messerschmitt, and so long as one remained in the turn, the enemy pilot could not bring his guns to bear. And this I did, as the German pilot flashed past, turning as he did so to get behind me. But it was I who finished astern of him. The rest was easy."

 

-- Flight Lieutenant Al Deere, 54 Squadron

 

As you may know, I have something of an interest in the Battle of Britain, and so I thought for my next build I would try something simple and easy and make it only slightly more complex. It's widely-acknowledged that the ICM 1/72 109E is eerily -- some uncharitable souls might say suspiciously -- similar to the 1/72 Tamiya 109E, but for fuselage halves of the correct length. How similar is it reputed to be? The kit parts have been said to be interchangeable. I decided to test this theory. 

 

20181106_223823

 

20181106_223829

 

The fuselage halves sure seem to fit the wings well!

 

I painted the interior Colourcoats RLM02 with RLM66 detail bits (and like an idiot, managed to spill almost all of my brand-new pot of RLM66, which is almost impossible to do with Colourcoats tins unless you're an idiot, and guilty as charged😞

 

20181106_230401

 

Some speculative test-fitting suggests the Tamiya cockpit interior will fit without difficulty in the ICM fuselage. 

 

I'm using Xtradecals from their Battle of Britain 70th sheet (because both Tamiya and ICM decals are crap) to build  Bf109E-3 "Yellow 15" of 3./JG52, flown by Unteroffizier Karl Wolff, which crash-landed in Calais on 30 August 1940. Wolff survived, only to be shot down and captured on 30 September 1940, a day of particularly heavy Bf109 losses for the Luftwaffe. 

 

The aircraft in question was photographed quite a bit, and as we can see, it received heavy field-applied mottling along the sides of the fuselage, in addition to having a white snout. 

 

Messerschmitt-Bf-109E3-3.JG52-Yellow-15-

 

Messerschmitt-Bf-109E3-3.JG52-Yellow-15-

 

Messerschmitt-Bf-109E3-3.JG52-Yellow-15-

 

 

 

 

 

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Great, I got in early and managed to grab one of the good seats. A comfy on too which is important at my time of life.

 

I love the background research you carry out, it makes the model making even more enjoyable so I'm looking forward to this.

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1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Looks like fun! Taking a seat not too near the front in case there’s audience participation...

Hmm yes. PC certainly won't want me to participate as I can be a clumsy clunk at times, as he can testify

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Agreed. Nice background story, and great pictures, too. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

 

Don't be too hard on yourself about knocking over the tinlets, it's not as hard as you'd think. There's a surprising amount of paint in one of those tins <_< 

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There was a notice on P's door that said "Standing Room Only" so I'll just peek in the window from time to time, if y'all don't mind! Cripes @Corsairfoxfouruncle you must be attached to the computer- how did you ever manage to sneak in so fast? Looks like a very neat subject- I like the markings and scheme!👍

Mike

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Hello mike @72modeler .. like Ive said before I'm either cutting n gluing plastic, or im researching something to help in the cutting and gluing of same. I just happened to be catching myself up on PC’s Mk.XII/XVI build thread. Just as he posted the link to this one. 

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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On 11/7/2018 at 5:18 AM, Timmas said:

Hmm yes. PC certainly won't want me to participate as I can be a clumsy clunk at times, as he can testify

Pffft, if I could, I'd make you do it and offer suggestions from five feet away, just like how Mrs P "helped" me cut down a largish tree this weekend. She must trust me implicitly, because it's unwise to be so profoundly irritating near someone holding a saw.

 

 

On 11/7/2018 at 1:26 AM, Christer A said:

Frankenshmitt sounds like a good idea.

Will you build another of the leftover parts?

I'm not sure. My modelling time is pretty limited these days -- as evinced by the fact that this is my second post in the thread, half a week later. I think @06/24's idea of doing a crashed 109 (the best looking version, IMO) is probably the best solution, but I'm not really a diorama guy. 

 

Anyway, I've been busy and/or vegetating most of this past week; with the shortening of the days, I wake up and come home in darkness, which does nothing to help me manage my general depression and (somewhat justified) feelings of worthlessness, so there's a lot of time spent staring blankly into space or playing computer games or, this past week, reading David Brin's 1985 post-apocalyptic novel The Postman in about a day flat. It's pretty good, actually, though the ending is clearly a bit tacked on (it started life as two novellas) and thus a little weak. 

 

I also managed to make it to the IPMS Butch O'Hare show and saw @Corsairfoxfouruncle and my buddy Josh, and we had a nice time (I hope) walking the floor of the show, which had the best dealer's room I've ever seen there. I got a Hasegawa B-26F/G (to do a RAF Marauder III) for $25, plus the Encore rebox of the 1/32 Roden SE5a (with extra resin and PE goodies to do McCudden's famous red-spinnered aircraft) for $20. Only the current tightness of my budget (I had to sell two Hasegawa Liberators at, frankly, fire sale prices to fund my trip...er, ex post facto, don't tell Mrs P) prevented me from spending far more. I saw a Revell Bv 222 for $22. Madness, gentlemen! My big regrets are passing on a Matchbox Siskin, mint in the box, for $5 and a bagged Horsa with no decals for the same price; it would have been an excuse to get the Xtradecals sheet of D-Day heavies. Oh well. Gotta hold on to my pennies for the Arma Hurricane release; I calculate that I can just squeeze four into the budget out of the gate.

 

ANYWAY, the kit!

 

So there are some slight likely-on-the-advice-of-counsel differences between the two fuselages, and the ICM mounting point for the instrument panel needed a quick clip with my flush cutters to better fit the Tamiya cockpit in test fits (photos to come), but otherwise it looks like everything should close up well. The Tamiya cowl fits the ICM kit better than the ICM one!

 

I've mostly been working on the cockpit, going slow. I used the Eduard steelbelt set for the belts and painted everything Colourcoats RLM02 and RLM66, plus black for the gunsight and a tiny bit of a red brown I had lying around for the leather crash padding on the sight, which of course my photos don't show well at all.

 

20181111_004227

 

 

I applied future to the IP and then used the Tamiya decal (there are two for the IP) heavily trimmed, for the top part, using Mr Mark Setter and Softener to apply it on the when in Rome theory. It seemed to settle down okay, but then the piece of paper towel with the second decal got stuck to a piece of tape and sent the bottom decal off into the ether so oh well. 

 

20181111_004209

 

I've applied some future to the cockpit interior and sides, as I'm thinking of giving it a quick wash to make me feel like a Real Modeller(tm). 

 

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31 minutes ago, Smudge said:

Those seat belts are very nice. And the instrument panel too.

I didn't have to do much with the belts, which helped. The Eduard Luftwaffe single-seat fighters steelbelts are good value for money in my book, £4.33 for four complete belt sets, two for 109s and two for 190s, seems like not a bad deal if you have a few kits in the stash. Of course, all my 190s are Eduard, so I don't need belts for them, so if someone has some 190s that need belts (a) build a Spitfire instead, what's wrong with you, and (b ), let me know and I can post them to you while I'm on a kick of actually getting stuff mailed. 

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1 hour ago, Procopius said:

 

I also managed to make it to the IPMS Butch O'Hare show and saw @Corsairfoxfouruncle and my buddy Josh, and we had a nice time (I hope) walking the floor of the show, which had the best dealer's room I've ever seen there.

A good time was had by all 👍

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