fubar57
General
Little holes? I'm leavin'.................................................................
**** DONE: GB-49 1/48 Bf109K-4 - Favourite A/C of WWII
- Thread starter Crimea_River
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #22
Crimea_River
Marshal
The fuselage is all riveted and glued together but before I got there, the little box on the sloped face of the canopy needed to be cut off on both halves as this is not present on the K-4.
To rivet the wings, I zoomed my plan view of the plane on my laptop until it matched the wing upper perfectly and then transposed the location of the rivet lines using a pencil.
I actually got a lot done today and was on a roll so I didn't stop to take pictures. I'll post a bunch tomorrow before I get too far ahead.
To rivet the wings, I zoomed my plan view of the plane on my laptop until it matched the wing upper perfectly and then transposed the location of the rivet lines using a pencil.
I actually got a lot done today and was on a roll so I didn't stop to take pictures. I'll post a bunch tomorrow before I get too far ahead.
- Thread starter
- #24
Crimea_River
Marshal
This is the state of play before doing more work today.
On the cockpit front, the cover for the MK108 has been reshaped and has had the securing strap stuck on using aluminum tape. The seat back sees the triangular bulge added from card, though the purpose escapes me. I'd like to round the corners of the armour plate as well and may stick on some Milliput and mould it to shape but have not decided yet. I will model the canopy closed and so won't go out to town on details. Note that the ribbed floor grille has been covered as well as this appears to be flat in reality on this version, though I still need to add a couple of stiffening ribs once I confirm their locations.
The port sidewall was modified slightly, removing two stringers and adding a new vertical one, as well as the diagonal member under the throttle box.
On the wing underside, the cooling vent for the spent cartridges on the G model were filled in and sanded and a new ejection chute for the 30mm gun was drilled out to its right. The two ejection chutes for the MGs were also opened up, though I botched them a bit in doing so. This part has not seen the rivet roller yet.
I'm not sure of the wheel well colour and will need to confirm what this was on the late 109s. What you see there is some left over RLM02 that I sprayed on there a few years ago.
The wing uppers have had their riveting completed. I had to play with the brightness and contrast of the pic to highlight them and the work is barely visible.
As mentioned earlier, the fuselage has been glued together and left to cure over night. The fit was quite good and this went without a hitch.
The tail wheel doors are moulded in the open position but need to be closed so I cut them off, glued them back in in the closed position and stuffed sprue and card into the gaps. This area will be smoothed and rescribed later today. The seams still need to be cleaned up and the new rivets can be more clearly seen in this pic.
And now we are current. Thanks again for your interest.
On the cockpit front, the cover for the MK108 has been reshaped and has had the securing strap stuck on using aluminum tape. The seat back sees the triangular bulge added from card, though the purpose escapes me. I'd like to round the corners of the armour plate as well and may stick on some Milliput and mould it to shape but have not decided yet. I will model the canopy closed and so won't go out to town on details. Note that the ribbed floor grille has been covered as well as this appears to be flat in reality on this version, though I still need to add a couple of stiffening ribs once I confirm their locations.
The port sidewall was modified slightly, removing two stringers and adding a new vertical one, as well as the diagonal member under the throttle box.
On the wing underside, the cooling vent for the spent cartridges on the G model were filled in and sanded and a new ejection chute for the 30mm gun was drilled out to its right. The two ejection chutes for the MGs were also opened up, though I botched them a bit in doing so. This part has not seen the rivet roller yet.
I'm not sure of the wheel well colour and will need to confirm what this was on the late 109s. What you see there is some left over RLM02 that I sprayed on there a few years ago.
The wing uppers have had their riveting completed. I had to play with the brightness and contrast of the pic to highlight them and the work is barely visible.
As mentioned earlier, the fuselage has been glued together and left to cure over night. The fit was quite good and this went without a hitch.
The tail wheel doors are moulded in the open position but need to be closed so I cut them off, glued them back in in the closed position and stuffed sprue and card into the gaps. This area will be smoothed and rescribed later today. The seams still need to be cleaned up and the new rivets can be more clearly seen in this pic.
And now we are current. Thanks again for your interest.
Nice changes Andy
fubar57
General
Agreed
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Also agreed.
Lovely work so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #30
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys. Cockpit parts ready for paint. The armoured back rest has the corner rounded with Milliput. The port sidewall has a few more simple bits added and I replaced the oxygen hose on the other side with solder and added some wiring.
Painted and glossed. I used straight Tamiya XF-24 for the RLM66 and hand painted the raised surfaces with a lighter grey. Something I was not aware of was that the seat bucket was made of wood so no silver chips! Brown instead.
I scoured my spares box and remembered that I'm out of PE seat belts and so I'll need to make some. The instrument panel is also done. I cut out the kit decals individually and added a couple of T-handles from stretched sprue.
Meanwhile, the dreaded filling and sanding is happening on some of the fuselage seams but it's not too bad.
Painted and glossed. I used straight Tamiya XF-24 for the RLM66 and hand painted the raised surfaces with a lighter grey. Something I was not aware of was that the seat bucket was made of wood so no silver chips! Brown instead.
I scoured my spares box and remembered that I'm out of PE seat belts and so I'll need to make some. The instrument panel is also done. I cut out the kit decals individually and added a couple of T-handles from stretched sprue.
Meanwhile, the dreaded filling and sanding is happening on some of the fuselage seams but it's not too bad.
Looks good
Jock Tamson
Senior Airman
Great looking cockpit. I like the scratch built details. 
le_steph40
Chief Master Sergeant
Great choice and great start Andy 
Good work so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #36
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks all. I had several short sessions over the week so there's a bit I can show you. The seams on the underside needed a bit of fill and this is how it looked after I had finished smoothing.
The tail wheel doors are ready for scribing after smoothing the fill:
A small and simple thing to do was to remove the small bulges at the tail plane wing root which were not present on the K's.
The rear sections of the canopy needed some filling and, once smooth, some details were added. The access hatch is trapezoidal on the K rather than 6 sided as on earlier models. The raised detail behind the seat and the edge were cut to the contour of the seat back as you'll see shortly. The two shoulder strap attachment loops are lead wire. Note that the upper nose section has been glued in place. I don't like how the moulding doesn't follow the same contour as the surface on the lower part of the fuselage and leaves a bit of a hollow at the seam.
Before gluing the cockpit tub in place, I had to make up some lap belts which are built up pieces of masking tape and lead wire.
The instrument panel needs to go in before the tub and so before doing that, I made a switch panel for the ETC rack.
And so now we have the cockpit tub secured in place and the the areas behind the seat painted, Note the visible seam on the seat back.
As I type, there's a few swatches of Tamiya grey primer drying. One will hopefully make that seam on the cowl look a little more friendly and the other bit is on the top of the seat back.
Thanks again for following.
The tail wheel doors are ready for scribing after smoothing the fill:
A small and simple thing to do was to remove the small bulges at the tail plane wing root which were not present on the K's.
The rear sections of the canopy needed some filling and, once smooth, some details were added. The access hatch is trapezoidal on the K rather than 6 sided as on earlier models. The raised detail behind the seat and the edge were cut to the contour of the seat back as you'll see shortly. The two shoulder strap attachment loops are lead wire. Note that the upper nose section has been glued in place. I don't like how the moulding doesn't follow the same contour as the surface on the lower part of the fuselage and leaves a bit of a hollow at the seam.
Before gluing the cockpit tub in place, I had to make up some lap belts which are built up pieces of masking tape and lead wire.
The instrument panel needs to go in before the tub and so before doing that, I made a switch panel for the ETC rack.
And so now we have the cockpit tub secured in place and the the areas behind the seat painted, Note the visible seam on the seat back.
As I type, there's a few swatches of Tamiya grey primer drying. One will hopefully make that seam on the cowl look a little more friendly and the other bit is on the top of the seat back.
Thanks again for following.
fubar57
General
Nice looking belts
- Thread starter
- #38
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Geo. The next level up would be to get a method for making the buckles look more convincing, short of making my own PE stuff. These will certainly do for a closed canopy.
Did a little more tonight while listening to the Celtic show. This circled hatch was scribed in as it was missing from the wing underside. The 109K-4 had the oxygen bottles moved from the fuselage to the starboard wing and so the fill point needed to be added.
Also, in a fit of madness, I decided to make the wheel wells look a little more realistic. The whole reason for the aerodynamic bulge on the top of the wing was to accommodate the wider tires so it's a bit silly to me to not have the wells open up into the bulge. I started by marking the outline of the bulge for the width of the well.
Holes were then drilled and the bulge part was thinned in the center where the wheel well is located.
A trial fit confirms that I got what I planned on. Part of the well remains as the top of the wing and, though the plastic is much too thick, the effect will be there once I add a bit of detail.
No turning back now.
Did a little more tonight while listening to the Celtic show. This circled hatch was scribed in as it was missing from the wing underside. The 109K-4 had the oxygen bottles moved from the fuselage to the starboard wing and so the fill point needed to be added.
Also, in a fit of madness, I decided to make the wheel wells look a little more realistic. The whole reason for the aerodynamic bulge on the top of the wing was to accommodate the wider tires so it's a bit silly to me to not have the wells open up into the bulge. I started by marking the outline of the bulge for the width of the well.
Holes were then drilled and the bulge part was thinned in the center where the wheel well is located.
A trial fit confirms that I got what I planned on. Part of the well remains as the top of the wing and, though the plastic is much too thick, the effect will be there once I add a bit of detail.
No turning back now.
Nice work Andy
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Good stuff !
