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NEMESIS: Schnaufer's Messerschmitt 110G (1/48 Eduard + AIMS + Aires)


elger

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A couple of months ago I started my new project - I'm building Eduard's 1/48 Messerschmitt 110G as Heinz Schnaufer's mount G9+EZ which he flew out of Leeuwarden (the town where I work) in the early spring of 1944.

 

Schnaufer transferred from St. Trond to Leeuwarden in August 1943. He was there certainly until the early spring of 1944. Schnaufer is credited with being the highest-scoring night fighter ace of all time, with 121 victories. At least 30 of these - all 4-engined British heavy bombers -  he claimed while operating out of Leeuwarden as 12./NJG1's commanding officer. Source: http://www.luftwaffe.cz/schnaufer.html

 

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So, a "nemesis" in that sense, but also in the sense that despite it being one of my favourite aircraft (partly because it was such failure - emblematic of the failure of the Luftwaffe as a military organization as a whole) I've never been able to build a satisfying model of it. The 110 has become my personal nemesis in scale as well.

 

Incidentally, for the color scheme I went on a trip down memory lane - back in 2001 I sent in photos to Hyperscale of my then state-of-the-art Revell 110. The publication of the article prompted a gentleman from Australia to offer to send me free decals of Schnaufer's aircraft since his company (PD Decals) was going out of business. (That's what the internet was like back then, kids!)  Even back then, the decals were pretty old and I tried a couple of other ones from the sheet and unfortunately the ones with the code letters break up. But the sheet with the victory markings seems to be fine. So I'm planning to just use the victory markings from the decals, mask the letters EZ, and use spare decals from my collection to gather all the other ones.

 

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I'm going for Eduard's kit since although the Revell/Monogram option has aged really well (nice detail, great surface, super easy to build) its engines are notoriously undersized. The RM option is also slightly more accurate in terms of cockpit detail - Eduard's kit, based on the C/D/E models that came out first, has some leftovers from the earlier version and only provides the gunner seat for very late model 110Gs. Overall though, the Eduard kit is more accurate in shape. Neither kits provides the clear windows in the engine cowls, which is corrected in AIMS' correction set, which appeared this year. I'm taking a bit of a gamble - I have the impression that Aires resin/photo etch detail set intended for the RM kit will fit the Eduard kit with a bit of effort.

 

The resin cockpit is much more detailed than Eduard's cockpit from the box (even with its added PE), and I like the look of old-fashioned resin+film+photo etch much better than pre-painted PE.

 

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The Aires cockpit can be found for very reasonable prices these days, and it builds up reasonably easily. Some of the resin in my set had been damaged - the Schrage Musik cannons were horribly bent, the barrels of the MG81 rear guns had broken off, and the rear seat had sadly become unusable. I ended up using the rear seat from a Revell kit, and the MG81 from the Eduard kit.

 

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I painted the compressed air bottles blue.

 

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I still have to add the clear film bits to the gun sights.

 

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Based on photos of the preserved 110 at Hendon, I painted most of the electrical wiring yellow.

 

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Some sources claim that night fighting aces operating out of Leeuwarden preferred the 4 machine guns instead of the 2 heavy cannons in the nose, so I'm using the nose section of a 110E kit that I had in my stash.

 

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In the next few days I'll find out if my gamble pays off - will it really fit? (Of course I've dry fit it - and I have thinned the plastic of the fuselage in certain places, but will it??). This is how it fits into the fuselage now:

 

iDNsnHG.jpg

 

Thanks for looking & comments are welcome, as always.

 

Elger

 

 

Edited by elger
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I'll be following this build. I've bought the Pro Modeler Bf 110G-4 in 48 with the intention of building it too as Schnaufer's aircraft, but with the solid RLM 75 over 76 camouflage.

You should also check some build reviews on Eduard's Bf 110 in this scale, so you can plan ahead on how to tackle some of the kit's issues.

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Good luck with your build Elger, the Eduard G4 is over-engineered in my opinion and far from perfect in many areas, especially the wing-fuselage joins.  I too am a great fan of the Bf110 family, I've nearly finished a 1/32 scale G4, Schnaufer's favourite G9+EF also using an AIMS conversion.

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 I'll be following your progress with interest.  i think you'll find the excellent Aires cockpit conversion a tight fit!! :)

 

Max

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A little while ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who's into Warhammer figure painting (and I've been joining him and some other friends on some painting sessions which is really fun). The conversation went like this:

 

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BUT LO AND BEHOLD IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! (The Aires set for Revell-Monogram fits Eduard!)

 

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15 hours ago, Peter Roberts said:

Wow - nice start mate.

 

Re: the decals, Microscale make liquid decal film that you can brush over decals to help stop them break up. Might be worth a try on some spare codes on the sheet?

 

PR

I don't remember the name of the guy who sent me the decals back then - it wasn't you, was it?

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I'm glad that's worked out for you Elger, I remember I had to thin my Aires set to almost transparency to get it into my Revell-Monogram fuselage.  Just out of interest, why is an "E" nose taped to your fuselage?

Max

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2 minutes ago, galgos said:

I'm glad that's worked out for you Elger, I remember I had to thin my Aires set to almost transparency to get it into my Revell-Monogram fuselage.  Just out of interest, why is an "E" nose taped to your fuselage?

Max

Several NJG 1 Experten were not too keen on the heavy cannons featured on most standard G-4s - they preferred the 4 machine guns. I thought it was possible that during the winter of 43/44 and early spring of 1944 Schnaufer might have also retained the 4 MG nose that was also standard for earlier 110Gs.

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33 minutes ago, elger said:

Several NJG 1 Experten were not too keen on the heavy cannons featured on most standard G-4s - they preferred the 4 machine guns. I thought it was possible that during the winter of 43/44 and early spring of 1944 Schnaufer might have also retained the 4 MG nose that was also standard for earlier 110Gs.

Good thinking, and let's face it there's nobody to tell you you're wrong either!

Max

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There was a post on FalkeEins' blog back in 2010 which provided some info on this - I knew I had read it somewhere: "An RLM report of 16 June 1944 indicated Schnaufer's dislike of the MK108, and that he was using only MG 151/20s for his forward armament at that time" (http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/04/heinz-schnaufers-bf110g.html).

 

My impression is that Schnaufer, like the other Experten, played around with different configurations. This is why I think it's possible that during early 1944, he might have flown with the 4 MG nose (perhaps getting rid of the forward MGs all together at a later date, as the report cited on FalkeEins' blog indicates).

Edited by elger
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I've started on the nacelles and the wings. This is where the Aims correction set really comes into play. The set features clear resin replacement cowls, which are an elegant solution to the problem of Eduard's cowls not having a transparent triangular window.

 

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I've added some parts of Eduard's 110 detail set - mainly the ribs. There's 16 of these:

 

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I'm also deviating somewhat from the build sequence: I've assembled the nacelles and attached them to the lower wing section, so that I can easily paint the interior. Once the interior is painted and all the remaining parts fitted, I'll add the upper wing half. Also notice the Aims resin piece that replaces a section of the right wing nacelle. The Aims part fits perfectly!

 

TGwP6ui.jpg

 

Thanks for looking!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update on the wings and engine nacelles.

 

Aims' elegant solution of making the engine cowls clear so that the triangular windows can be added generates a problem: something can be seen through them - it would be sill to have nothing in there.

 

On the real thing, there are engine instruments in board, but on the outboard side of each engine you can just see the engine bearer and part of the engine, as can be seen in this photo of the beautifully restored 110 in the museum of technology in Berlin:

 

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My solution is to add the kit engine instruments decals to a piece of black painted styrene for the inboard sides, and to create a fake bit of engine by gluing some left over engine bearers from ICM's Dornier 215 to some more sheet styrene that I painted black.

 

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Wing/engine assembly completed. I've applied some filler and it will need some more before I can start sanding it:

 

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Radiators and oil coolers painted:

 

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Landing gear leg with some wiring added:

 

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Completed landing gear bay and enlarged radiator housing from Aims:

 

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Thanks for looking!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Work continues. I'm going to be using the propellers from Revell-Monogram because I like their shape a little better. Photo for comparison - the RM blades are lighter plastic.

 

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Details added from the Eduard detail set to the external fuel tanks:

 

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With the nose glued temporarily in place, the aircraft is masked and is ready for paint:

 

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Thanks for looking!

Edited by elger
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  • 2 weeks later...

Painting is coming along. I followed Eduard's suggestion for how this aircraft was camouflaged in the instructions of their 1/72 110G kit - although I don't think that one wing was black underneath, and the instructions are incorrect in saying that when the aircraft was coded DF it was still based in St. Trond - the aircraft was recoded from EZ to DF (and the chevron was added then, too) when Schnaufer took command of IV/NJG1 in March 1944 when he was stationed in Leeuwarden. In St. Trond, and the first weeks in Leeuwarden, the aircraft was coded EZ.

 

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I primed the model with black Mr Surfacer 1500, followed by MRP RLM 76 on the underside, then MRP RLM 74 and MRP RLM 75 in a splinter pattern on top, which was then partly covered with a thin mist/mottle of RLM 76 again. Needs a few touch ups but pretty happy overall.

 

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For the code letters EZ I copied the old PD decals and made masks of them.

 

Thanks for looking - comments & feedback is welcome of course.

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not a whole lot of progress due to a cold and a trip to the in-laws in America last week. Gave the model a clear coat in anticipation of decals. Very indulgent, but here are some photos of the model as it looks now:

 

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Thanks for looking!

 

- Elger

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Decals on. The old PD decals for the victory markings worked brilliantly - sadly the other ones (including the w.nr) broke up when I put them in water.

 

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Most stencils and other markings from Eduard.

 

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Next up some weathering. Thanks for looking!

 

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