1/72 Airfix Messerschmitt Bf 110 E Trop +++ FINISHED +++

[TonyOD]

It's about time I did something German! 

 

 

I got this kit for a very decent price on Facebook Marketplace a few months ago and it's been sitting at my elbow ever since. I haven't done a twin-engined fighter before, and I like the look (and lack of difficulty) of the desert camo scheme. The kit is a newish tool dating from 2011, it was one of a family of three Bf 110 kits.

 

The kit is, er, solidly moulded on three and a little bit grey sprues (plus the transparency), the little bit being the gubbins needed to build the trop version, which amounts to bigger wheels, some filter thingies, a different nose and some cannons. Before I snipped it of this was attached to one of the main sprues, which made it a bit of a squeeze to get in into the box. Coming off the back of a Tamiya build, I feel it's rather lacking in finesse by comparison, what with the gaping chasms of the panel lines and the thickness of the parts. The beefiness of the sprues is something else, I've just been snipping some parts for priming and there have been bits of sprue ricocheting around the room in a quite alarming fashion! But for all that it looks like it should be a straightforward enough build. Parts are included to build the long-tailed E-2 version, but I'm going with the short-tailed plane depicted by Mr Tooby's splendid box art. The decals seem OK. Apart from a couple of bendy crosses for the tail off of a Techmod sheet, and the paints and glue obviously, the Eduard masks will be the only thing I use that wasn't in the box.

 

 

 

The aircraft I'm going to be building is this one:

 

 

Almost immediately I run into question marks about the veracity of yellow engine cowlings, I'm not sure how involved I want to get in all that stuff with this one, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by TonyOD

[VG 33]

Hello

 

What an interesting job with these Airfix 110 that I have two of them in my stash. So I will closely follow.

I know that the lines are heavily scribed and the back of the upper wing engine cowlings are not so right. 

Thanks to your picture we can see also that the decal fuselage codes are a little thin.

But what a nice aircraft !

 

So god luck.

 

Patrick

[neil5208]

Its a pretty good kit but I had to add a shim between the fuselage halves under the cockpit to get a good fit with the wings and nose.

[TonyOD]

On 10/21/2021 at 5:27 AM, neil5208 said:

Its a pretty good kit but I had to add a shim between the fuselage halves under the cockpit to get a good fit with the wings and nose.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I've done a bit of test fitting and it seems OK but I'll keep an eye.

 

On 10/21/2021 at 5:08 AM, VG 33 said:

I know that the lines are heavily scribed and the back of the upper wing engine cowlings are not so right. 

Thanks to your picture we can see also that the decal fuselage codes are a little thin.

 

I'm not too worried on this one, just looking for a fun OOB build, though now you mention it the codes - especially the letter "S" look a bit skinny, and the style of the letter "K" is all wrong. I won't be losing sleep over any of this! 😁

[TonyOD]

A little bit of tinkering going on. I did a test fit on the wings, nose and fuselage and the fit is very good, it pretty much snaps together.

 

 

I've gone with the callouts for the interior and wheel well colour. it's RLM whatever which changed however many times over the course of the war. Probably a bit dark. I put a black wash in the wheel wells, not that you'd know.

 

 

There are two bomb options, little bombs and big bombs, I have decided to go with big bombs because they are big bombs. In a concession to giving a monkeys (for this is a build where I have decided that few monkeys will be given) I've decided to use some thin plastic rod to make them look a bit more like the real thing.

 

 

Once I've got the Zero over the line I feel this one will come together quite quickly!

 

 

[Hook]

3 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I've gone with the callouts for the interior and wheel well colour. it's RLM whatever which changed however many times over the course of the war.

Cockpit should by this timeframe  indeed (most likely - it's still Luftwaffe after all... ) RLM66, but wheel wells should still be RLM02. 

3 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I have decided to go with big bombs because they are big bombs.

More than enough reason! 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[jackroadkill]

4 hours ago, TonyOD said:

this is a build where I have decided that few monkeys will be given

 

That's an excellent philosophy to adopt; I must infuse my next build with as few monkeys as I can get away with (which, thinking about it won't be hard as it's practically a "what if?" build anyway).

 

I think this one will turn out very well. 

[TonyOD]

This week I have mainly been painting up a toy chest for my very imminent grandson (due two days ago), so not much time has been spent on the Biffer and the Zero remains tantalisingly close to the finishing line.

 

I've got the cockpit finished, nothing to get excited about really, the kit provides a couple of seats for the pilot and gunner, some little silver cylinders which I assume are spare ammo drums for the cannon, a steering column and a decal for the i/p. I knocked up some rudimentary seatbelts from a Pot Noodle lid. The canopy has come up OK with the help of Eduard masks, it will probably get a bit of a tidy up.

 

 

There's a weird tab thing moulded between the wings that appeats to serve no purpose other than to stop the fuselage being stuck onto it. there ism't a slot or anything for it. I carved it out.

 

 

Even with that away there was a bit of jiggery-pokery needed to get the cockpit into the fuselage halves and then the fuselage onto the wings, I had to sand a little bit off the bottom of the cockpit base. Once that was done though the fit is great, in this pic there isn't any adhesive holding the fuselage onto the wings, it just snapped into place beautifully. I don't think I'll be using much filler on this one. 

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by TonyOD

[stevehnz]

That looks like a really promising start Tony. Having one several of these in stock, I'm keen to see how it comes together. No doubt mine will be Friday arvo production & have lousy fit, or not, gotta have hope.  I might be tempted to part fill some of the heavier panel lines to mitigate the trench effect a bit.

Steve.

[TonyOD]

On 10/31/2021 at 4:45 AM, stevehnz said:

I might be tempted to part fill some of the heavier panel lines to mitigate the trench effect a bit.

 

I might put 50 coats of primer on it. 😁

[IanC]

Nice work on your 110 Tony.

 

If you'll allow me, here's how I tried to hide the panel lines on mine - sprayed everything black! 😄

 

 

 

 

[TonyOD]

7 minutes ago, IanC said:

Nice work on your 110 Tony.

 

If you'll allow me, here's how I tried to hide the panel lines on mine - sprayed everything black! 😄

 

 

 

 

 

Ooh that's a beauty! Looks stealthy and deadly. Where are the decals from?

[IanC]

31 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

 

Ooh that's a beauty! Looks stealthy and deadly. Where are the decals from?

 

Thanks. The decals are by Print Scale - Bf 110 night fighter aces. However, I found them difficult to work with and they kept folding up on me and tearing. 

 

 

[Allan31]

Don't know if it matters but the nacelles should not go back on to the flaps. Easy sanding stick fix though.

 

 

And the panel lines don't show too badly if you don't bring any further attention to them.

 

 

Hope this helps in time !!

[TonyOD]

18 hours ago, Allan31 said:

Don't know if it matters but the nacelles should not go back on to the flaps. Easy sanding stick fix though.

 

 

Ha ha I hadn't noticed that, but now you've flagged it up I can't unsee it, it looks proper weird! I've ordered some sanding sticks to help me have a crack at correcting this. (Just in the nick of time - I was aiming to prime her up  tonight!)

 

18 hours ago, Allan31 said:

And the panel lines don't show too badly if you don't bring any further attention to them.

 

I was planning a light 50/50 grey/brown wash just to pick them out a bit, as you say they won't need much help. 

 

Did you freehand those yellow tips on the prop spinners? Mine will have similar but red. 

[Allan31]

Hey Tony, sorry about creating more work for you !! 

 

I had been looking forward for years for Airfix to do this kit and by and large well pleased with the finished build.

I was however disappointed Airfix didn't put the little more effort in to really make it shine. Fit issues, missing panel lines, etc..

At the risk of being a Pedantic Luftnatic.....When checking reference as to where exactly to place the underwing crosses, I discovered Airfix gave us a G wing, not a C wing.

 

C wing                                                                                                                                    G wing

 

 

And you will want to scribe the missing panel line between the aileron and landing flap.

Yes, I hand painted the propeller spinners, twirling on cocktail stick.

 

Again sorry about my rant, 'tis why we're called "Air-fixers" !!!

 

[Hook]

33 minutes ago, Allan31 said:

Again sorry about my rant, 'tis why we're called "Air-fixers" !!!

Ain't that the truth!

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[TonyOD]

@Allan31 Again, thanks for the heads up, but we're firmly into "not that fussed" territory here. The accuracy of my panel lines is unlikely to be the subject of much scrutiny, whereas engine nacelles bleeding onto control surfaces just looks a bit daft. (Revisiting O'Donnell's Three Rules of What Makes a Good Build: 1) did i enjoy it? 2) does it look alright on the shelf from three feet? 3) can it be mistaken for a Spitfire? 😁)

[TonyOD]

Primed up. Did a bit of work on those weird engine nacelles beforehand. As no danger whatsoever of obscuring panel lines with excessive paint application, I absolutely hosed the stuff on. This spinny thing like what @Heather Kay has got is handy.

 

[Hook]

Coming along nicely! The excessive nacelles overlapping the flaps is indeed one of those "cannot unsee"  things.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Jochen Barett]

4 hours ago, Hook said:

Coming along nicely! The excessive nacelles overlapping the flaps is indeed one of those "cannot unsee"  things.

 

Cheers,

Andre

Amen.

 

And it makes you wonder "WOT?" "WHY ...?" "WHAT ON EARTH ...?" "HOW ...?"   "It can almost be mistaken for a Spitfire with that!"

 

 

(never mind the panel lines)

[tempestfan]

But that's not really a "Flasch' leer Struuuunz" thing by Airfix. More a "70% is good enough for the buggers", as my ex father-in-law would have done (and did, not on kits - may he RIP). He wa a painter (in real life) and was to proud of masking/covering. I still find little paint spray "pimples" occasionally on the tiles when cleaning (and I clean thoroughly - on my knees!).

[Jochen Barett]

Maybe the rant works better if you don't speak German and put in English subtitles having Trap rant over Airfix's goof (or Steiner's failure to attack)

[TonyOD]

Not much progress to report, the underside has been painted Himmelblau (I don't know why but it's always tickled me that the Germans use the same word for "sky" and "heaven"), I'm using Revell enamels rather than Humbrol, for the RLM's at least.

 

 

What was intended to be a 100% OOB build has seen a bit of tweaking - as well as sorting out those iffy engine nacelles and enhancing the bombs a bit, I've sorted out the step on the underside of the nacelles (thanks for the heads up @Kitchen Modeller). The kit exhausts also look a bit crude so I've picked up some nice resin replacements.

 

 

I have to say I'm really enjoying this build which is progressing at a relative canter.

 

Thanks for looking in.

[opus999]

Just saw this.  It's looking great so far.  I've always wanted to do an Airfix 110, but I haven't been able to get a hold of one.  I've also wanted to see how well they go together and it looks like its quite well, except for a couple minor fixes.