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Bf. 109E-4 Special Hobby 1/72 - ## FINISHED ##


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Hi John,

 

Please let us know how it compares with the Airfix kit, which you did build a while back.

The box art is depicting the paint scheme I am planning on my Airfix 109 E-4.

Have fun!

 

JR

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Coming right up to date with this kit John. Sure a few of us will be anticipating your thoughts on it with great interest :thumbsup:

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am just about ready to make a start on this build, so here are the sprue shots along with a few close-ups of some parts.

 

51280583162_9fce9c9320_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

One fuselage half.

 

51280582562_f0ec70c29d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

And one upper wing half plus an enlargement showing some of the finer details.

 

51282050159_7a7c7f904e_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51282078894_b7d3b1de04_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

The Special Hobby kit comes with a separate engine block and here is one half of that detail.

 

51282050474_bae81a82d0_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

The instruction booklet, decals and canopy parts.

 

51282346430_40c4c43042_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

John

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Hi John,

 

this kit does indeed look real nice. A lot of surface detail, which is always a good thing.

Have S.H. hired the mad Chinese riveter, that scared so many of us from Dragon and other mainland China's companies?...

Hopefully these little craters will look fine once painted over!!!

I m sure you will have a super time building this kit, and we will all have a great time watching!

 

JR

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Special Hobby are one of my favourite manufacturers so its nice to see their latest generation of kits being built. Things don't look to be going well for the RAF according to the box art

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2 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

Things don't look to be going well for the RAF according to the box art

And it looks as though he is about to claim a third kill as well Alastair. :winkgrin:

 

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38 minutes ago, nimrod54 said:

And it looks as though he is about to claim a third kill as well Alastair. :winkgrin:

 

 

Indeed, he got a fourth that mission as well, he certainly earned his combat pay that day.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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On 30/06/2021 at 21:07, jean said:

Hi John,

 

this kit does indeed look real nice. A lot of surface detail, which is always a good thing.

Have S.H. hired the mad Chinese riveter, that scared so many of us from Dragon and other mainland China's companies?...

Hopefully these little craters will look fine once painted over!!!

I m sure you will have a super time building this kit, and we will all have a great time watching!

 

JR

 

Hi Jean,

 

My apologies for missing your earlier post. The details on the kit are not quite at the 'crater scale' shown in the images above when viewed at actual kit size, so please don't be put off by my photos. I started work on the cockpit last night and painted up the fuselage interior areas with RLM02 (well Aeromasters version of RLM02). I'll take some photos later before I get too far ahead.

 

Regards

John 

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Here are a few photos of the work so far. The cockpit floor had the rudder pedals and a trim wheel added before receiving its initial base coats of paint, and the fuselage sidewalls have been painted up before I start to pick out some of the details. 

 

51285589318_33088a0e36_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51286138249_707ac8acb9_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51286138319_7ce3bb6f85_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers

John.

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I'm another who has this lurking in the stash so will follow with interest. The surface detail does look very good, amazing for 1/72.

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I have finished the detail painting of the cockpit and sidewalls and everything has had a wash followed by some highlighting. I used tape to add straps to the rudder pedals and these were painted in a leather colour, and the seat was brushed over with aluminium along the edges and back to accentuate wear.

 

51290459890_a3cf2f67e2_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51290460205_d680c87556_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51288700027_efc1af0bec_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51290168649_c846c9b884_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

A rummage through extras box turned up some Eduard belts and I have used them instead of the decals provided in the kit.

 

51289449781_ac1d807b0c_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51290459680_ca88091555_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51290459780_c7dd8b8006_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

John

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Hi John,

 

this is a great cockpit you have created! Splendid!

I have never used these new fangled  seat belts. They actually look really convincing.

Have fun with this lovely kit!

 

JR

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45 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

I'm a big fan of those superfabric belts John, it's a shame that Eduard seem to have discontinued them.

 

So that's what they are. They do/did look good, Missed them! :huh:

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@Johnson@Stew Dapple@jean

 

Thank you for your comments chaps. I have had the seatbelts for quite some time, I am not sure how well they were accepted by the modelling community, so it comes as no surprise that Eduard may have ceased manufacture, however there are sets of 3D printed decals of Luftwaffe belts produced by Kits-World which could be a suitable alternative.

 

Update time.

 

After gluing the cockpit into one half, the last task before closing things up was to fix the tailwheel in place. A prominent feature on 109's are the panel seams that run along the top and bottom of the rear fuselage and I felt these needed enhancing slightly, so I gave the outer edges of each fuselage half a light scrape with a scalpel - remembering to stop at the fin fillet on the upper side.

 

51295063990_9b0341919d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51294258433_3d14744869_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51294258533_7b11bc8bd9_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

The lower wing section of Special Hobby's (SH) kit includes the oil cooler section of the lower cowling and should make for a neat join on the underside as can be seen in this test fit of that part.

 

51294776144_d8841603b3_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51294776439_2d29286827_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51294238213_64d5307484_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

The next job for the fuselage is to sort out the engine and fix that in place, and I can also start to paint up some of the wing details such as wheel wells, radiators etc. This may be it for this week though because I must push on and try to complete my French Drummer for the weekend.

 

John 

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Hi John,

I have never tried to leave the top and bottom longitudinal fuselage joints apparent, knowing full well that if I tried to re-scribe them it would not look too hot.

You have just shown me how easy it can be... Dare I say I feel stupid, never to have thought of it. Doh!

Ergo, my next 109 will be subjected to the Nimrod technique...

Have fun

 

JR

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22 minutes ago, jean said:

Dare I say I feel stupid, never to have thought of it. Doh!

 

And me!

 

22 minutes ago, jean said:

Ergo, my next 109 will be subjected to the Nimrod technique...

 

And mine.

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Hey Jean @jean and Charlie @Johnson,

 

Don't feel too bad guys, it was a tip that I have picked up along the way, and felt just as stupid for failing to realise how I had been overcomplicating such a simple task. Keep checking as you are scraping away, the lines on this kit were virtually non-existent so I only needed to knock the corners off.

 

Cheers

John 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Whilst waiting for bits to complete other projects I have been able to get back to work on this build today. Having previously painted up the engine and bearers I set about adding those parts and had a near miss when I suddenly remembered that I hadn't fixed the exhausts in place. So following some quick work to undo the engine fit, the exhausts had some rust brushed on followed by a Nuln Oil wash and a dry brush with Citadel Leadbelcher. once dry they were fixed in place and then the engine was refitted. Next it was the guns turn for some attention, they had a couple of thin coats of black brushed on and that was followed by a brush over with some graphite powder to give them a metallic look, I also used the same process on the engine block.

 

51354144845_6ca5a5d758_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr 

 

One of the last jobs on the fuselage is the addition of the two small side panels which can be left off if you wish to display the gun bay and ammo boxes, I have just popped those in place for the moment while I decide if that is what I want to do.

 

51353352518_9eab0e17d5_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

51353352353_d6c7f97790_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Wings next.

 

John

 

 

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9 minutes ago, nimrod54 said:

followed by a brush over with some graphite powder to give them a metallic look

A good idea! Hadn't thought of that.

 

It really looks very good John. We seem to be approaching the level of 1/48 detail with this kit.

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58 minutes ago, Johnson said:

It really looks very good John. We seem to be approaching the level of 1/48 detail with this kit.

 

Thanks Charlie. As you probably know, the detail is definitely a step up from the Airfix kit, and it's well worth getting one for that special build. The Airfix kit is a great option for multiple builds. 

The fit on this kit has been really good so far, though I did have to remove a smidgen from the rear of the engine mounts along with a ridge at the nose where the alignment pin is, the only other issue being that the instructions can be a little sketchy when it comes to parts placement - checking and dry fitting is a must at times.

 

John

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