Two simple build Hasegawa late war Bf109Gs

[Mycapt65]

Recently while researching my Bf110G-4 build I stumbled on the amazing color Fritzlar Airfield video. That video has a very well documented Bf109G-6/R2, Yellow 11. Intrigued by the neat mix of physical features and red gear legs I decided to build it in 1/48 from mixing Bf109G-6 and Bf109G-10 kits. I bought two Eduard kits to do this then chickened out. I decided to keep it simple and use the Hasegawa 1/48 kits I'm already familiar with.

 

I already had the the Bf109G-10 with both styles of wing bulges and wheels in stock and a slew of spare parts for these kits. I ordered another Hasegawa 109G kit on FleaBay. I really like these simple little kits. I've probably started a dozen and probably finished eight of them. A few got binned because of my clumsy accidents. These kits aren't perfect and the 109 purist rip them apart but they are enjoyable (easy) little kits that look close enough (for me) to a 109 when done. I tend to build these after a difficult build as a modeling reset. They're like stepping into old comfortable shoes for me.

 

 

Since I'll be building one plane from two simple kits I decided it would be easy enough to concurrently build a second plane from the remaining parts. I'll be doing one very documented and one very undocumented. Respectively I'll be building the Fritzlar Bf109G-6/R2 Ylw11 and Heinrich Bartel's last 109, Bf109G-10 Ylw13 130359.

 

Here's the Fritzlar Bf109G-6/R2 Ylw11.

 

To the best of my knowledge theres no photos of a Bartel's last 109 Ylw13 so my rendition will be loosely based on the  features Ylw 5 W.nr 130297 from the same W.nr block. 

Eduard's painting guide 

 

I'm letting you know upfront that my normal MO is to skip minute details, close canopies and concentrate on three things. Geometry, fit and finish. I'm an average modeler so they'll be nothing amazing done here. Just some good ole basic modeling. Maybe follow along if you're new to the hobby and want to pick up a tip or two, or you'd like to share your interest in 109s. I could use some help and I'm always open to learning new stuff. 

 

That's my verbose WIP introduction. I'll try to be more succinct in the future.

 

Be well 

Ron 

 

 

 

Edited June 16 by Mycapt65

[Parabat]

Nice, I do like the Hasegawa 109's, they are well designed and build up really nicely to deliver a good looking 109. 

[Mycapt65]

With the G-6 kit still lost in the post I started on just Bartel's G-10 yesterday. I skipped the customary cockpit because those will be easier done together and started by gluing the fuselage halves together. Since the Bf109 had a seam along both the spine and belly I put a slight bevel on the outer edges. This helps create the longitudinal panel lines on the spine and belly. I aligned the halves best as possible at the cockpit and then liquid glued them together only along the spine, tail and belly.

 

Next was fitting upper cowling to unglued front fuselage halves. Once in the  correct position I glued the three pieces simultaneously to lock them in place. The upper cowling fits great without gaps along original panel lines. Unfortunately the contours don't match on the G-10/K-4 kits. It leaves for the lack of a better description, a sort of small hiney crease where the parts meet. It's not terribly noticeable in bare plastic so it often goes unfixed. However it's easily noticed under paint and becomes an ugly tell on the finished kit so it should be fixed.

 

I filled the crease with a little Black CA because I needed to rescribe the panel lines there. The black CA is slow setting and rubber reinforced. This makes it more flexible, easily sanded and scribed than traditional CA. The black color is a great visual aid during application and feathering, but make it a little harder to see what you're doing when you're scribing. Tamiya makes an easy sanding Clear CA so that may have been a better choice here.

 

 

 

The thickness of the cowling's aft boarder noticeably shrinks at the top cowling. I'm trying to determine if I want to fix it. I struggle with OCD and inconsistent features like that give me the fits. Fixing it won't be easy and could snowball into a disaster. I'm not even sure it should be there I'll have to check photos before I choose a path with it.

 

Let's move on to lower hanging fruit. I believe the G-10 had the MW50 boost system which required the battery to be relocated behind the cocpit. This manifested in a bump out in the rear cockpit hatch that looked like this.

Hasegawa portrays it like this.

 

I used to think it was horribly small and wrong but it's not. It's just the whole area is over simplified. Even for me and that says alot. I decide to dig through my aftermarket stuff to see what I could find to fix this.

 

I found an ancient Eduard Brass set for the Hasegawa G-6 and cut the rear hatch to fit around battery box. 

 Not exactly right but better than before. Then I moved on to the cross rod just ahead of it. I had a left over fret of teeny tiny braces from a Master SN-2 set and some thin brass rod.

so I paste soldered something similar together. 

 

I should have made two of these because now I'll need one for Ylw 11 if the kit ever  gets here. I sprayed primer around the seams to check my work. The spine seam was too inconsistent for my tastes after sanding. So I'll need to fix that.

and the vertical stations were slightly misaligned at the belly. I tried to clean them up with a razor saw. I generally use Mr.Cement SPB to soften scribing cuts because it's not as caustic as Tamiya Extra Thin. Accidental excess of SPB doesn't eat divots in the plastic's surface like the extra thin and the black color really makes it easy to see what you're doing. I really like the stuff but still use the Tamiya Extra Thin for major joints were there has to be a good strong bond.

Incidentally most of the SPB black staining can be removed with a cotton bud and Mr.Color Leveling Thinner. I call it Unicorn Tears because it's magical stuff. You'll see MCLT gets used a lot in my builds. anyway I gave the seams another coat over prime to check my scribing work. Once satisfied I remove all the primer with MCLT and then meticulously clean out all paint and sanding slurry out of the recessed details and panels before final paint for a fresh sharp canvas.

 

This is the mess I left myself when I finish yesterday. 

 

Looks like the other kit is getting here today. Hallelujah! Sorry, it's just it's taken longer than it should to get here and it was slowing me down.

 

 

Be well all 

Ron 

 

 

Edited May 12 by Mycapt65
Tracking updated

[Mycapt65]

Enter kit number two.

Don't let the G-4 label fool you. It's a re-release of the G-6 kit with a resin gun cowling and wheels to make it a G-4.

 

(Edit;

Fwiw, here is kit number one. IMO this is the Hasegawa G-10 release to get. It comes with both sizes of tires and associated wing fairing styles when other releases usually only come with one style. I thought that might be useful information if shopping these kits.

 

It's a rainy crummy day here. A perfect modeling day. Time to get to work.

 

Edited May 13 by Mycapt65
Additional photo and information

[Mycapt65]

 

Today I started both cockpits. They're OOB with the exception of some PE seat belts I found in the stash. I could only do the lap belts until the cockpits are installed. I randomly colored switches and things to add a splash of color to an otherwise dull area.

 

That's it I'm falling asleep. I'll be doing the instrument panel tomorrow.

 

Be well all

Ron 

[mick]

great progress

[KDB]

Ha! Thanks for this post Ron, I’ve actually just started 2 of the Hasegawa 109Gs as well as coincidence would have it, so I’ll follow along if that’s ok. I’m doing Bartels colourful G6  Red 11 and White 7 (with the eye) from JG 27. I’m going through a bit of a 109 blitz at the moment for some reason… love them!

Cheers - Karl 

[Mycapt65]

3 hours ago, KDB said:

Ha! Thanks for this post Ron, I’ve actually just started 2 of the Hasegawa 109Gs as well as coincidence would have it, so I’ll follow along if that’s ok. I’m doing Bartels colourful G6  Red 11 and White 7 (with the eye) from JG 27. I’m going through a bit of a 109 blitz at the moment for some reason… love them!

Cheers - Karl 

Welcome aboard Karl. Those are great eye catching schemes. There's so many for the G-6. The Hasegawa kits are perfect for quick ways to show different schemes. I plan on eventually doing Bartel's G-6 Red13 as well. Great looking plane. Which IV Gruppe symbol are you using? There's the snake looking thing or the short lived double bars. 

 

[franky boy]

Just catching up with this one Ron, great work! The Hasegawa kits still build up very nice finished models as you’re demonstrating. 
 

James

[Mycapt65]

3 hours ago, KDB said:

Ha! Thanks for this post Ron, I’ve actually just started 2 of the Hasegawa 109Gs as well as coincidence would have it, so I’ll follow along if that’s ok. I’m doing Bartels colourful G6  Red 11 and White 7 (with the eye) from JG 27. I’m going through a bit of a 109 blitz at the moment for some reason… love them!

Cheers - Karl 

Do you have the cockpits glued in the fuselage or the wings together yet? If not you might want to hold off a day or two. I'll shortly have a good tip on that.

 

Be well 

Ron 

Edited May 13 by Mycapt65

[KDB]

10 hours ago, Mycapt65 said:

Welcome aboard Karl. Those are great eye catching schemes. There's so many for the G-6. The Hasegawa kits are perfect for quick ways to show different schemes. I plan on eventually doing Bartel's G-6 Red13 as well. Great looking plane. Which IV Gruppe symbol are you using? There's the snake looking thing or the short lived double bars. 

 

Hey Ron, sorry you’re right, it is red 13 (not 11), and I’m using his squiggly line Gruppe symbol. I’ve always thought those squiggles looked good on the German aircraft.

Cheers - Karl 

[KDB]

9 hours ago, Mycapt65 said:

Do you have the cockpits glued in the fuselage or the wings together yet? If not you might want to hold off a day or two. I'll shortly have a good tip on that.

 

Be well 

Ron 

Thanks! No, not yet so I’ll await your tip. I’m a very slow modeller, having to squeeze in bench time between work, so that’s worked out well this time 👍

[Mycapt65]

Well today I had a big slice of Humble Pie. I planned on doing the IPs, assembling the G-6 fuselage and getting both cockpits installed today. You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. 

 

I painted both IPs off white lacquer first.

Then enamel Dark Grey

Then I painted inside the guages with black enamel.

I then wiped away the enamel with a small craft swab dampened in white spirit to reveal the white lacquer. I installed the gun sight and filled the guages with future. This is what it looks like.

I was cool with that. Here it is with the second one.

I rubbed too hard and rubbed through the white so I had to strip it with MCLT to start all over (as seen here).

 

I put that aside and wanted to move forward so I could share my pearls of Hasegawa 109 wisdom😒 I figured I could at least show my tips on the G-10. I tried fitting IP but the location was a little more ambiguous than I remembered. I credited that to not building the later streamlined cowl 109s in a while and having installed the windscreen first. The latter is highly recommended. I usually have to grind or shave the inside of the windscreen coaming to fit down over the IP.

 

Although I deliberately used a "not used" artifact part (D27) from the 109F releases I struggled to get the cockpit seated correctly. I didn't understand. I've used that part on Gs many times before. Using that part was one of the brilliant tips I was so eager to share.

I finally got the cockpit in there and glued it thoroughly. Then I seen it knocked the IP/gun sight crooked. Then I had break all the bonds which made for some rough and ugly parts once I got them out. I glued the IP back in straight and the cockpit sidwalls kept hitting the IP and either knocked it out or made it crooked again. I fought with this thing for an hour. I finally notched the cockpit side walls to clear the IP and glued it all in.

 

With the cockpit in the G-10 I figured I'll finish it up by putting in the PE shoulder belts. I've never liked PE but the lap belts from the Eduard Steel line went surprisingly well. So well I ordered two more Luftwaffe sets and two American sets. Then I wrestled two shoulder belts for way more than an hour. The first end kept popping off when trying to get the other end into position. After an hour of gluing, regluing, scraping old glue off and gluing again I was ready to cancel my order and go back to simple masking tape belts. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. They can't be all that problematic for everyone because lots of people use them.

Here's how they look now.

 

 

Here's the IP/gun sight installed.

 

To keep all these shenanigans in perspective, this is what it looks like through a closed canopy.

 

 

Ok so I had a rough day with seat belts I don't know what I'm doing with. That's my fault. Then I figured out what went wrong with the IP cockpit fit. If you look at the IP photo you'll see they're part 29.

 

If you look at the instructions you'll see 29 is not used.

 

The instructions actually specify F19. 

 

I freaking used the wrong IP. I've built bunches of these and I thought I knew enough to breeze right through them. Shame on me. Ok, so I'm an idiot that can't follow instructions. So take this fwiw. My big tip to KDB and anyone else building these things is use D27 to glue the cockpit tub to the top of the fuselage. On the G-10 & K-4 kits it fits perfectly. On the G-6 kits you'll need to shorten it a little too get the right height.

 

You might ask, why do we use it? It's so you don't have to glue the cockpit tub at the lower front corners (marked in red).

Here you can see D27 holding the cockpit tub in place. You can also see the seam behind the oil cooler was left unglued. Why is this all important? Tune in tomorrow and hopefully I can show you. Well that's if it goes as planned 🤣

 

Be well all,

Ron Bonehead

Edited May 14 by Mycapt65

[KDB]

Gotcha. Thanks Ron, I’ll definitely try that.

[KDB]

BTW Ron, the artwork on the Hasegawa Bf109G-6 ‘51 Mildred’ box has these two ‘Gs’ : white 7 and white 5.. is it just me or does white 5s base colour look a light grey rather than white 7s RLM76 ? 
 

I think I prefer the light grey and am thinking of doing my two Gs in that light grey, maybe with a tinge of RLM76. What are you going to paint yours?

[Mycapt65]

2 hours ago, KDB said:

the artwork on the Hasegawa Bf109G-6 ‘51 Mildred’ box has these two ‘Gs’ : white 7 and white 5.. is it just me or does white 5s base colour look a light grey rather than white 7s RLM76 ? 

Yes it does on the box art. I certainty wouldn't use box art (or a profile) to determine correct colors. I'm no expert but I would assume both those planes were 76. Now what that 76 looked like could be argued indefinitely. 

 

2 hours ago, KDB said:

I think I prefer the light grey and am thinking of doing my two Gs in that light grey, maybe with a tinge of RLM76. What are you going to paint yours?

That's fine. Its your model. You should paint it the way you like. On mine I'm going to use my current personal preference for the 76, Mr.Color C35 (IJN Gray). The Mr.Color 76 (C117?) is a little too blue for my liking. I used the C35 on this 110 and liked it.

 

Color is a difficult thing to nail down because we all see color a little differently. Especially with the variance in computer screens. For me this is just a hobby and while I do work very hard to get my colors "right", "right" for me is a combination of current research and what I want.

 

It's your model. Build it as your mind sees it. You're the one who's going to be looking at it.  Years from now either one of us might look at our model's colors like old clothes and hairstyles and think, "what the hell was I thinking?". The best part is we can always build another model the way we want now.

 

Be well and I'm looking forward to seeing your builds.

Ron 

Edited May 14 by Mycapt65

[Mycapt65]

I should have included this in my previous post to show where D27 goes. These are the instructions from the Hasegawa Bf109F-4 kit that G-6 and later kits share some trees.

 

I'm back to the bench to get Ylw 11 caught up with Ylw 13.

 

Ron

[KDB]

‘It's your model. Build it as your mind sees it. You're the one who's going to be looking at it.  Years from now either one of us might look at our model's colors like old clothes and hairstyles and think, "what the hell was I thinking?". The best part is we can always build another model the way we want now.’

 

hahaha yes you’re absolutely right, Ron. Never mind ‘years from now’ I’m already questioning what the hell I am doing…

I might just shove my completed models out in the Australian sun and weather for a few months and let the paint work fade to that bleached look… (if only they wouldn’t melt to a pool of plastic) 😁

[KDB]

Ron, this is what I was talking about with the greyer base colour apparent in ’white 5’ as opposed to the overall bluer RLM76 look in ‘white 7’. I like the ‘grey nurse’ grey for some reason.

Also, if you have a tip for how I get a clean whitewall on that tail wheel, I’m all ears!!

Cheers - Karl 

[Mycapt65]

And Ylw 11 pulls out ahead of Ylw 13.

Two days of building so I got a lot to cover. I got a second helping off humble pie yesterday and then things went smoother today.

 

I beveled the edges the fuselage halves along the spine and belly a little more this time and then assembled Ylw11's fuselage.

 

The upper gun cowling was a little too wide so I easily sanded it to shape and filled the seam which thank God wasn't a panel line like Ylw13. I did have to rescribe the lowest parts of the gun troughs. Another detail that always gets lost on these kits is the hand holds forward the canopy. They're barely there to begin with.

 

Luckily I had a template and rescribed them.

Yellow 11 had and interesting Supercharger intake. It wasn't scalloped to clear the gun bulge. I did my best to replicate it by filling the scalloping and straightening the intake's upper flange. 

 

I tried to paint the correct IP the same way as last time and  couldn't get it right after several attempts. Then I found a multi stack color PE IP and decided to give that a whirl after making sure it was exactly the same same shape and size and the kit correct IP. I stacked all the pieces and thought it looked good. I glued it in place with the same acrylic glue that I used sandwiching the IP pieces. Just like Ylw13, when I went to install the cockpit tub it knocked the IP loose, and just like Ylw13 I cut down the side walls to make it fit. When I installed the gun sight it hit the windscreen. It was because the PE IP was much thinner and which moved gun sight too far forward. This is why I don't like aftermarket stuff. They often fix one problem and create another.

 

Fed up I went back to the original piece and painted it old school. I painted the panel gray, the guages black and then drybrushed the details silver. The big center guage was perpetually a problem because the details aren't rasised enough to pick out without getting the background. I tried three times but eventually gave up and moved on.

I decided to add the gun sight and windscreen later on this one so I could come back to try again.

 

With the original cockpit and IP in place it was time to add the upper wing to the fuselage. To avoid filling wing roots on low wing monoplane, I often attach the the upper wings to the fuselage before the lower wing. These kits it works like a charm. The key is to use D27 and not glue the the forward cockpit floor to the supports behind the wing root. It also helps to not glue the seam behind the oil cooler. This allows some flexibility in the fuselage width that allows the lower wing to fit correctly with the right dihedral.

 

The tricky part is holding the wing in place while gluing it. I started with the starboard wing  first. Today for the first time I used a blob of Silly Putty to help support and keep the joint aligned during gluing.

 

Once aligned I used  Tamiya Extra Thin cement because it gives a good strong bond. Because the upper wing is thin I reinforced inside of the joint with gobs of super glue CA 

That went swimmingly well except some excess (my fault) Extra Thin ate a little more into the surface than I'd like. Never satisfied and always looking for a better way, I figured I'd try with the SPB Mr.cement on the port wing because it's a little less aggressive. Mind you I said earlier in the thread I don't use it high stress areas, but I figured that starboard wing went so well I can get away with it. All full of myself and expecting success I took pictures of the process.

And nope! It broke while rolling the Silly Putty off.

 

I don't know why I didn't follow my own advice, but there you go. My second slice of humble pie on this WIP. I cleaned up the joint and reset it with Tamiya Extra Thin (TET) like I should have in the first place. Then not only did I reinforce it with CA, I added baking soda to bulk it up. I did the starboard wing too for good measure and satisfy my compulsive need of evens.

 

Now it will take an act of God to break off those wings.

 

Time to move on to the lower wing. The unboxed simplified wheel wells on these kits are the only thing that bothers me with them. I often lump it and leave it alone as I don't display my models upside down or on mirrors. On this one I did add some plastic card to create a faux boxed wheel well roof. I  added a 5mm strip to the outboard section to align the open part with the late model large wheel fairings. I also added the same 0.010" card across the back of the wing tip help level it to the fuselage belly.

This is what it looks like from the underside.

You can also see that I opened up the cowling gun shell chutes. The wing on this particular odball kit was for an early G so it didn't have them. IIRC all normal Hasegawa G-6 and later kits have them.

 

The long late model wheel wing fairings came from the G-10 I'm concurrently building. There's a couple of small sink marks to look out for.

 

After the radiators were installed and painted, the lower wing was finally installed. It snapped into place. I started gluing at the both tips first then worked inboard. Everything came together fine. No wing root gaps

and proper dihedral. (edit : nope it's too much 🤬)

It's finally starting to look like Ylw11.

 

Tomorrow I'll work on getting the G-10 (Ylw13) caught up to this G-6 (Ylw11).

The camera faring is supposed to get here tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. Even though the markings and camo are rather mundane on Yellow 11 I'm really liking the combinations of features on it. I'm getting more excited about it as it comes along. With the fun part (painting) right around the corner, it's gonna be hard to drop it and go back to Ylw13.

 

Whelp that's it. Hopefully I have no more humble pie slices and I  have more progress to report tomorrow.

 

Be well 

Ron 

Edited May 17 by Mycapt65
Correct dihedral statement

[Retired Bob]

10 hours ago, Mycapt65 said:

Another detail that always gets lost on these kits is the hand holds forward the canopy. They're barely there to begin with.

I thought they were pressure relief panels, to allow the pressure when the cowling guns are fired to escape.

 

I'm not keen on those wide wheel bulges by Hasegawa, with that edging strip down the sides and rear they remind me of a pie crust.  There's no edging strip on the actual aircraft.

 

 

[Mycapt65]

4 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

I thought they were pressure relief panels, to allow the pressure when the cowling guns are fired to escape.

Your very probably right. I not a 109 expert and don't claim to be. The only thing I know about whatever they are is some Ks and maybe Gs only had one on the starboard side. Which makes sense with a vent. Why would they have a single hand hold on the starboard side when entry is on the left?

 

4 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

I'm not keen on those wide wheel bulges by Hasegawa, with that edging strip down the sides and rear they remind me of a pie crust.  There's no edging strip on the actual aircraft.

Thanks Bob. Now I hate these kits. 😢 Just kidding. I'll have to look at pictures of the real thing. Eduard portrays them the same way. Albeit less prominent than Hasegawa. Both types of Hasegawa stick on wheel bulges can look like stuck on plastic chunks if not dressed up a little. Especially if there's any air gap under them. 

 

This rest is not directed at you Bob but as an coincidental WIP update.

 

This morning I was actually addressing the issue above, trying to make the wheel bulges look more like a part of the wing. I first made sure the part is fully socked up tight to the wing with liquid cement when I put it together yesterday. The fit on these is really good as long as you make the holes in the right places. Today I brushed Mr.Surfacer 500 around the edges. Once dry I sand with a thin 600 grit 2mm sanding sponge. This takes down the exaggerated  edge of what Bob calls the "pie crust". It still won't look as good as Eduard's or the real thing but it will certainly look better than just sticking it on.

 

I also worked on getting the wings on Yellow 13 this morning. I went back to using TET and instead of Silly Putty to support the wing I used Tamiya's tape. 

 

 This worked a charm.

 

Test fitting the lower wing revealed a gap in the port leading edge near wing root. Upon inspection the culprit was easy to find as the offending thick black CA transfered to the lower wing atop the gear leg anchor. The fix was simple. A couple seconds with a sanding roll in a Dremel took down the high contact point on the lower wing.

 

Working on two planes at the same time is unusual for me. I'm finding it useful to have something else to work on while something cures on the other. When I normally work on one at a time I often mess things up because I'm too impatient to wait long enough for stuff to cure or dry. Maybe I'll consider more dual builds.🤔

 

Time to get back at it.

 

Be well,

Ron 

[Mycapt65]

New dilemma I didn't see coming. Ylw11 (G-6) has noticeably more dihedral than Ylw13 (G-10). I think the G-10 looks closer to correct to me. I'm pretty sure the G-6 is excessive. I'm not sure how this happened. Obviously I did something wrong. I'm not sure how to fix this without running the risk of ruining the kit.

 

Ylw13 (G-10)

Ylw11 (G-6)

 

Together. Warning you can't unsee this.

 Oh well. Just when I thought things were going well. What would you do with this?

 

Thanks 

Ron 

[Mycapt65]

 

Yellow 11  (Below)

I believe has too much dihedral. Especially the port wing

I'm not ok with this one.

 

 

Yellow 13 (Below)

I think is correct. Maybe a tick low on the starboard wing.

I'm ok with this one.

What to do, what to do? Ugh!

Edited May 16 by Mycapt65

[Mycapt65]

Here's what I did.

I sawed the wing roots open and broke the complete wing off in the process. Luckily there's no major damage that requires difficult repairs. Tomorrow I'll clean up the rough joints and glue the wings in at the correct dihedral.

 

Today was at least my third helping of Humble Pie on this supposedly simple build. I don't knew where this went wrong but it did. I've built several of these and never had this problem before. Still I'll caution you to dry fit one of these carefully before following my previous advice. Decide for yourself whether to chance getting the wrong dihedral for clean wing roots.

 

That's it for today. I'll try to salvage this mess tomorrow.

Ron