An old but nice Bf 109G

[Retired Bob]

The first 1/48th scale kit that I ever built was the Otaki Bf 109G-6, I completed it as per the box art with the stylised eye of 9./JG 3, yellow 6 flown by Ofw. Alfred Surau. That was back in in the long hot summer of 1976.  Going through my stash I found this Arii kit which is a re-box with same artwork released in 1980.  The price sticker from Kings Lynn Model Centre at £4.99 means I bought it in the early 80s when I was stationed at RAF Marham and the Kings Lynn Model Centre was my LMS.  Along with my friend Rick @Spad and a few others we would travel to Mildenhall twice a month to the model club meet there.  Happy days.

I intend to build this kit in the same markings but now I have more reference material and lots of unused spare parts to slightly improve it.  I have entered it in the Bf 109 STGB but I am also entering it in this GB as it cost well under a tenner.  This is the kit:

And the untouched parts:

The decals still look clean and undamaged, back then they also included the swastikas.

A nice profile in the Kagero book that also provides a set of decals for some of the featured aircraft.  The main problems with this range of kits was the inaccurate cockpit and for some reason the wheels were usually dodgy, here the chunky tread tyres would not look out of place on a tractor.  Thanks for looking.  Any comments and questions are welcome. 

[Retired Bob]

Having rumaged through the 109 spares box I decided the Hasegawa cockpit assembly fitted quite well and improved the look of the "office", having built a couple of Hasegawa 109s using resin cockpits I had some spare, same with the exhausts, I had used resin ones on my kits and the Hasegawa ones were better than the kit's lumpy affairs.  I started looking at improving the wings by extending the slats and dropping the flaps, I had Fujimi 109 spares for that but decided not to, because there was a danger of not having much of the original kit left.  So the wings were glued together as they came, nice and simple.  Back to the fuselage, the supercharger intake isn't  a bad size or shape but they didn't make the distinctive base plate for it but they did notch it to add the dust filter, the easy option was to use an Eduard inlet, there is a spare G-6 inlet and base plate on every 109F kit, same with the instrument panel.  To improve the chunky wheels I could do what I did in 1976 and give them a good sanding however, in each Hasegawa 109G-10 and 109K are a spare set of G-6 wheels so it would be a pity not to use them, same goes for the tail wheel.  The undercarriage legs just need shortening, the oleo's are at full extension so need a good 30% reduction when the kit is stood on them.  As the model will have the 20mm gun pods they too came from a Hasegawa kit.

Time to get painting, the kit canopy is a simple, one piece, closed item.  I did try to see if any spare 3 part canopies would fit but they were not wide enough (Hasegawa) or too wide (Eduard).

So unless I find something tucked away this will have a closed canopy, working with that, I'm not going over board on detailing that will not be seen and just do some simple dry brushing, a splash of colour and add the bright yellow fuel pipe that runs through the cockpit right side from stretched sprue, I'm sure I have an i/p decal in the decal spares but this is the paint work completed.

The Eduard seat belts were on a part used fret in the spares box, I remember why I only use the newer "steel" ones, these did not want to bend and when you did bend them the painted detail came off, still they will look ok through the closed canopy.  Thanks for looking and any comments or questions are always welcome.

[Spad]

On 6/9/2021 at 12:29 PM, Retired Bob said:

The price sticker from Kings Lynn Model Centre at £4.99 means I bought it in the early 80s when I was stationed at RAF Marham and the Kings Lynn Model Centre was my LMS.  Along with my friend Rick @Spad and a few others we would travel to Mildenhall twice a month to the model club meet there.  Happy days.

 

Blimey Bob! That's a blast from the past! KLMC - spent many a happy hour in that place - great times indeed.

I hadn't realised how basic that kit was (or are we just spoiled in our expectations these days!?!)

Anyway, you seem to have made a great start and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it ends up indistinguishable from one of the modern kits by the time you've finished with it 👍

 

Watching with interest!

Rick

 

[Retired Bob]

2 hours ago, Spad said:

Blimey Bob! That's a blast from the past! KLMC - spent many a happy hour in that place - great times indeed.

Hi Rick, yes, the endless banter, I cannot remember the name of the owner, gone into the mist of time.  I went back to Marham just after the first Gulf War (1991), and nipped into Kings Lynn but the KLMC had closed.  I had left East Anglia to go North of the Wall (Lossiemouth) at the end of 1987 so with us both gone the market must have just dried up.  I still have quite a few kits that I could have entered into this "under a tenner" GB with the KLMC price sticker on, Phantoms, he sold me loads, 1/72nd Fujimi UK F4s and Hasegawa 1/48th F4s all under a tenner but as I said this was the first 1/48th kit I built back in 1976 , the year I changed trade to become an armourer.  As for bringing it up to modern standards, I've gone for a face lift to improve the obvious things but I don't want to replace too much, a bit like Joan Rivers visual improvements but retain the character.  Hope you're keeping well and had all your jabs, I have, now I'm getting my weight down ready for the model shows to start again.  

Edited June 11, 2021 by Retired Bob
missing word

[Retired Bob]

I have glued the fuselage together, it was quite a good fit just needing a bit filler and some of the engraved detail tidying up.  Tailplanes have been added and I also attached the cowling bulges over the 13mm machine guns, I used the Hasegawa ones as the kit items were undersize, the fit was pretty good with only a smigeon of filler required.  To improve the area under the canopy I added the rear storage hatch from plastic card a and stretched sprue, with the inside of the cockpit masked it's ready for some RLM 66.

I applied the decal to the instrument panel and added the gun sight which still needs painting, then it can be glued into the fuselage.

With RLM 66 sprayed over the upper seams and some light grey on the underside there are only one or two small areas that need some attention.  Now I can fit the cockpit tub and attach the wings.

Thanks for looking, any comments or questions are welcome. 

[Retired Bob]

A quick update, wings have been fitted and the undersides and tail section sprayed with Mr Color RLM 76 and the nose lower section and cowling gun breeches have had a coat of Tamiya yellow paint.  Eduard included this colour scheme in their first attempt at a Bf 109G in 2014 (the one with all the problems)  Unfortunately I bought several before these problems came to light which is why I have such a large 109 spares box.  I am using the Eduard colour guide and decals for this kit, her is the underside photo:

Eduard is the only one to show a thin red outline to the yellow cannon breeches, I have a good photo in a book of this aircraft but I'm not sure if it is a red outline, no other profile shows this feature.

A lot of masking is now needed, I must finish masking the canopy and a wing wavy leading edge mask then I can get on with the upper surface camouflage and add the spiral to the spinner.

Thanks for looking any questions or comments are welcome.

[PlaStix]

Hi Bob. Welcome to the GB. Great to see you here. Great choice of kit and it looks like you are off the a flying start! Looking impressive already!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Retired Bob]

I have finally got the canopy masked up along with the cannon breeches so It was ready to start applying the upper camouflage, I have sprayed a coat of Mr Color RLM 75 over the upper surfaces, this will be left to dry before masking and spraying the RLM 74, that's when it starts looking like progress is being made.  The yellow spinner has its black stripe added from the Eduard decal, fit was not too bad and I touched up with paint and a brush where it needed it.  Once the camo is complete I can get the eyes painted, then I will be able to see it through to the finish. 

Thanks for looking, any questions or comments are welcome.

[AdrianMF]

Looking good! There is a nice contrast between the crispness of the yellow and black and the mottle camouflage.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Spad]

Coming on in leaps and bounds Bob and looking good!

Dave Orage was the name you were struggling for. He took a job with Perkins as a sales agent then set up on his own doing roof trusses for the building trade - diverse huh!?! 😉

 

[Retired Bob]

10 hours ago, Spad said:

Dave Orage was the name you were struggling for. He took a job with Perkins as a sales agent then set up on his own doing roof trusses for the building trade - diverse huh!?! 😉

I thought it was Dave but having met so many Dave's during my 46 year association with the RAF and various model clubs it gets difficult to remember all the names, so much easier when everyone has a name badge on their uniform.  Roof trusses, eh!  What scale?

 

10 hours ago, Spad said:

Coming on in leaps and bounds Bob and looking good!

Canopy was a PITA to mask and fit is a bit iffy.  We are just spoilt these days with masking sets.

[Retired Bob]

I have applied the RLM 84 camouflage, I will be tackling the fuselage mottle next.

Thanks for looking.

[PlaStix]

Looks like more impressive progress to me!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Retired Bob]

What with one thing or another it took a bit longer than I thought to get some mottle applied,

A good photo of the left side provided the pattern for the mottle, I'm looking forward to getting a gloss coat on and applying the decals.

Thanks for looking, any questions or comments are always welcome.

[Adam Poultney]

Looking great so far!

[PlaStix]

The camo looks to be progressing beautifully Bob!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Retired Bob]

3 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

The camo looks to be progressing beautifully Bob!

It was pointed out to me that it was wrong for this aircraft so I have sanded it back and will repaint it, new photo soon. 

[Retired Bob]

After sanding back the fuselage sides, I resprayed the RLM 76 and applied just RLM 75 for the mottle in a broader pattern to better represent how it looks on the photo, then, happy with how it looked I started to apply the decals, after putting on the fuselage crosses and they had dried I realised that they were too large!

So I removed them with some tape, unfortunately it took some varnish and paint as well.  

After repairing the paint and varnish I sourced some correctly sized fuselage crosses from an old (28 years) Aeromaster Bf 109 decal sheet and 3rd time lucky, everything worked. 

A few more stencils to add then a coat of varnish and the masking can come off the canopy.

[PlaStix]

Hi Bob. Well it does sound as if you've been having a bit of a time with this one! Despite the issues, your re-done camo looks the business and it looks splendid with the decals in place! Lovely modelling!

Kind regards,

Stix