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Yugoslav Messerschmitt, finished!!


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With the broadening of the criteria for eligible countries one of my favourites has now become possible to build and that is Yugoslavia. I have been interested in the Yugoslav Air Force for a while, not least because of it's very interesting mix of aircraft it has operated from a variety of different sources including Western countries such as the UK and USA and also the USSR, not to mention aircraft which were captured by partisans from the Germans and then used against them. Another source was aircraft given to them as a form of war reparations payment and the example I'm going to build falls into that category. The individual aircraft has had a very interesting life as werk number 610937 was originally built as a G-14 but was then re-built as a G-10 and was used by either the Luftwaffe or Hungarian Air Force from Austria at the end of the war where she was found abandoned at Zeltweg and was ferried to Bulgaria along with a lot of other 109's by Bulgarian Air Force pilots to be used by the Bulgarians to equip some of their squadrons. It did not remain in Bulgaria long as in 1947 she was sent to Yugoslavia along with quite a few others and became part of the Yugoslav Air Force where she was flown by either the 83rd or 172nd Fighter Wing based at Cerkje airfield and may well have taken part in defensive patrols during the dispute with Ital over Trieste. After 3 years service she was retired (with only 35 hours 15 mins on the clock) and sent to a technical school in Belgrade. She then went to Yugoslav Aviation Museum in 1978 but was then sold to Doug Arnold in the UK in 1984 and then sold again to Evergreen ventures in Florida where her old skin was removed and scrapped (!!!!!!) and re-skinned and re=painted as an aircraft flown by Eric Hartman and she is on display in the USA, whew, what a journey!

 

I will be using Revell's old (but still good) 1/48 Bf-109 G-10 which has come in various boxes over the years including being boxed as a K-4 which is the boxing I will be using;

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I bought this kit second hand a few years ago and a lot of the parts are off the sprues and some painting has been done to the cockpit area but nothing has been glued together, yet! Here are a couple of pics of all the bits as they stand at the minute;

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And the all important decal sheet from Lift Here of Serbia;

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And the options that can be built from the sheet;

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If you couldn't tell, as all the other options on the sheet are not G-10's, I will be building the 3rd option down which happens to sport a very nice and unusual colour scheme which is correct as I have seen pictures of the aircraft before it was butchered in America.

 

I'm really looking forward to this build and this GB :) .

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Craig.

Edited by modelling minion
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26 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Nice choice Craig ... I think i will have to follow as i always enjoy WW2 stuff in alternative schemes/markings. 

You are more than welcome to tag along Dennis.

I like WW2 aircraft in post war markings too and would have to say that the period covered by this GB is probably my favourite and the more I look into it the more I like it and I would love to be able to be building a LOT more here.

10 minutes ago, Col. said:

Cool subject choice Craig :speak_cool: This machine certainly carries an interesting history.

Cheers Col, yes she has certainly been around a bit and it would be interesting to build her in all the colour schemes she wore but unfortunately the info just isn't out there.

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17 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Cheers Col, yes she has certainly been around a bit and it would be interesting to build her in all the colour schemes she wore but unfortunately the info just isn't out there.

Have to admit I've been tempted to do a couple of 'then and now' subject builds as well. Of course I'm now also tempted to pick up a set of thise decals for an early edition Eduard 109G kit that's lurking in the stash having seen your post :D

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5 minutes ago, Col. said:

Have to admit I've been tempted to do a couple of 'then and now' subject builds as well. Of course I'm now also tempted to pick up a set of thise decals for an early edition Eduard 109G kit that's lurking in the stash having seen your post :D

Having used Lift Here decals before Col I can highly recommend them.

I was thinking of doing the G-2 as I too have one in the stash but as I'm over committed GB wise I thought the G-10 would be a good compromise of a nice kit but not too complicated, although I might well add the seatbelts from one of my Eduard kits.

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  • 3 weeks later...

And we're finally up and running!

I have made up for lost time and been cracking on with the cockpit which already had a coat of RLM66 and a few other bits painted, I have painted all the other bits and cleaned up the seat which needed the sides seriously thinning and a lovely ejection mark right where the curve is at the bottom but on thee inside visible face which will be further covered by the seatbelts later. Here is a pic showing the inside of both fuselage halves which have been painted and dry-brushed to bring out the raised detail;

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Next up was the instrument panel to which I added the decal for instruments from an Eduard Bf-109 which I will use the provided coloured etch for instead, this was then fixed to the cockpit floor which has also has the control column added and been dry-brushed, here is a pic;

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The seat has had the seatbelts that are attached to the seat added (again from the donor Eduard kit) with the remaining belts to be added when the fuselage halves are joined together as they attach to the fuselage rather than the seat, here's the seat as it looks now;

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The exhausts need to be fixed from the inside before the fuselages are joined together and they are solid (hardly surprising considering the age of the kit) so i have had a go at opening out the ends of them a bit, it's not the best but it looks better than solid plastic;

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As things are moving quite quickly I hope to get the fuselage halves closed up very soon, one very good things about these more basic (but still good) kits is that once the cockpit is done it doesn't take long to have a nearly complete airframe.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

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Well I would have been uploading some pictures to show progress but for some reason Flickr has decided not to play ball so you will have to take my word for it that progress has actually been made. In fact the airframe is complete and is ready for the first paint which should happen soon, this kit goes together very rapidly and fits together very well indeed, i just can't show you yet!

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Well Flickr has finally decided to play ball so I am finally able to share a few pictures of my 109.

We'll start with an upper surface shot showing that the aircraft is basically complete including fitting the front  section of the canopy.

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Next up is the under sides to which I have added the aileron mass balances and aerial which is why she rests on some paint pots until the undercarriage is fitted.

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You can see the tiny amount of filler required where the rear of the wing section joins the fuselage and that is pretty much all the filler needed.

Next up is a shot of the cockpit interior with the remaining seatbelts fitted.

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They really do make a difference to the look of the cockpit, I just need to get some replacements to put back into the Eduard 109 kit I liberated them from.

 

So that's how she looks at the moment, next up getting some paint onto her.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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Time for an overdue update.

Having done next to nothing during the week I have had a very busy couple of days and have managed to complete the camo scheme. After a bit of deliberation I decided to use Aeromaster Russian Dark Grey and Aeromaster Russian Light Blue for the main upper and lower colours respectively and have since found out that they are correct (that was a bit of luck!) and have used Revell's Leather Brown for the disruptive red/brown for the upper surfaces and I have to say that I quite like the scheme and the colours. Here are some pictures of how she looks at the minute, starting with the upper surfaces;

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Next up is the lower surfaces which are actually more blue than they look in the picture;

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And a closer look at the port fuselage on which for some reason the Yugoslav's decided to roughly paint around the roundel, they didn't bother on the other side and just painted straight onto the camo;

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That's it for today, next job will be give her a gloss coat in preparation for the decals and to help seal the paint.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

Edited by modelling minion
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This one is looking great Craig. Certainly different from the usual 109s in this scheme. While I don't know about the wheel well colour I'm thinking they would still be RLM 02 if the legs were.

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6 minutes ago, Col. said:

This one is looking great Craig. Certainly different from the usual 109s in this scheme. While I don't know about the wheel well colour I'm thinking they would still be RLM 02 if the legs were.

Thanks Col, yes she does look a bit different to the usual Luftwaffe schemes.

I'm thinking the same regarding the wheel wells and unless a Yugoslav pilot or ground crew from around 1950 turns up and tells us different (you never know!) then I think RLM 02 is what I will go with.

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6 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I have to say that I quite like the scheme and the colours.

DITTO ! 👍 Thanks a lot Craig now i need to do one in this scheme. 😉

6 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I'm not sure if they were left in their original RLM 02 or re-painted in the same light blue as the under surfaces,

My money says 02 or equivalent. 

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