1/48 Dora Wings Messerschmitt Bf-109B

Yep. I misread the question !

So you was much better than me, my friend. I have missed the question at all.

Thanks Terry, Andy and Wurger!

Terry, I was talking about the panel in the wing which surrounds the oleo leg as per Andy and Wurger. But I did not realise that the telescopic part of the leg had a "boot" covering made of leather as well - you learn something new every day! I'll have to think of a way to make something to imitate this on the model.

Andy & Wurger, the photos are exactly what I needed. I've realised that my searches of the interweb have naively been restricted to A through D versions of the 109 and none of these had any clear shots of the full wheel well area. Your shots provide both a sense for the materials from which the enclosure is made (metal - aluminium?) and a sense for some additional detail I can add, such as the hole just "above" the wheel well. I'll be studying these very closely in the coming days to see what I can add to the pretty bland pieces as supplied.

Many thanks once again!

My pleasure.
Here a couple of shots of my scratch bilt wheel bay for my Airfix 1/24 scale Bf 109E. I used a piece of a warmed plastic plate and wrapped around a round file of a correct diameter.

Wurger said:

Here a couple of shots of my scratch bilt wheel bay for my Airfix 1/24 scale Bf 109E. I used a piece of a warmed plastic plate and wrapped around a round file of a correct diameter.

Click to expand...

Awesome - I recall having read through your 109E build some time back. You are a much more patient man than I, sir!

THX.

When making the gaiter, or boot, over the oleo, I normally coat it in PVA, and then 'ripple' the glue, when almost set, with the tip of a cocktail stick.
Once painted, it looks quite convincing.

Yep, with Terry. I would use some facial tissue made wet with watered down white glue.

Nicely done so far!

Doing good !

Thanks gentlemen - hoping to add an update tomorrow (weather permitting - its been a tad warm along southern Australia, as Wayne will be able to attest).
Cheers!

So much for my update! Got a tad busy with training for my next race, but I have done some small advances with wheel wells and the rudder/horizontal stabs. Will post some pics possibly by the end of the week. Thanks again for the encouraging feedback.

Update - I finally got some more done on the 109!

First up, after studying some other really high quality builds from other members, I decided I should cut out the holes in the rudder where the "trimming" adjustment for the elevators is achieved by varying the angle of attack at the front (not sure what the rear hole does however). In looking at some photos I also realised that what is drawn as a circle on the fuselage just forward of the rudder is actually a hole - so I drilled that out as well.


After having read some of Wayne Little's builds and comments regarding the best way to fit the cockpit tub (thanks Wayne! ), I've decided not to follow the instructions and put the tub together and then fit it to the fuselage. Some of my test fitting has indicated possible gaps if this method is followed, so I've gone down the route of fitting the starboard side first, then the floor pan will follow and then the left side when buttoning up the fuselage. Some touch ups will be needed once some more PE is fitted and before fitting the floor pan.


Following some of the conversation with Andy, Wurger and Terry above I decided to cut out the landing gear lock slots by thinning the wheel well wall in the appropriate place, cutting the slot and then fitting a small piece of styrene sheet at the back to represent the panel behind the wheel well. I toyed with the idea of adding the little tiny lock mechanism, but when I scaled it down I basically couldn't even see it, let alone fit it to the parts!!!!


Last up, I finally drilled out the last of the exhaust manifold. Because the holes are oblong I need to drill the hole at either end and cut out the remaining bit in the middle with a very sharp scalpel blade. This worked fine on all but one manifold where manage to cut through the edge of the manifold and ended up with slot across the top of the exhaust. Needless to say I was somewhat p*ssed off when I found I had done this. To fix this I got a bit creative (at least I thought so!!) and filed a hole heap of sprue into powder which I "melted down" with liquid cement and used this as a filler to fix the gap I had cut. The photo below highlights the offending exhaust - not a bad fix job I think.


That's about all I have at this time - thanks again for looking in on my project!

Well done.

The front apperture in the fin is for manual adjusting of the stabilizer incidence angle. The rear hole was for a pipe joining the elevators with the actuator in the fuselage.



the small hole at the fusealge side is actually the ending of a tube for lifting of the tail ( fuselage ) going across the fuselage.

......and the little holes in the fuselage were for jacks. Looking good

Yep..


the pic source: Maintenance of a Bf 109 | World War Photos

Nice work Grant. Further to Wojtek's explanation, the diagram below shows the connection between between both elevators along with the actuator arm.

Thanks gents, the encouragement is appreciated. Thanks also for the additional details on the tail assembly, which means of course I'll end up adding more bits to the kit...

Further to this, I have also made some minor progress with the cockpit. The PE set in the kit provides for a small folded panel to be fitted to the bulkhead behind the seat on the port side. Unfortunately this tiny piece required three varying angle bends within a 4mm length - which was never going to work. Of course I proved that it was never going to work!!!

So, as a result I ended up replicating the PE part in styrene sheet as you can see below. It's not as fancy as the PE piece, but at this scale and tucked away down rear side of the cockpit I'm not sure it will be overly noticeable at any rate. Yet to be painted and some touch ups required elsewhere.


I've been thinking about the elevator set up as shown in the line drawing from Andy. I had already planned to put the rod in for trimming of the horizontal stabiliser, but having now seen this I think that I should do one as the elevator hinge as well. If I do it properly it should also help strengthen the elevator/horizontal stabiliser join (at least that will be the plan!!)

Thanks again to everyone for looking in!