Bf109E-1 Jg54 Battle of Britain Group Build

[T Bolt]

Good work Glenn! Was about to get the Tamiya E-4 kit but then saw a Hasegawa E-3 for less.

I've got The Tamiya E-3 kit for this one and the Tamiya E-4/7 for my other 109 build. They are both great kits and the only difference I can see between them is the E-3 has the earlier style canopy. If I had known that I would have gotten another E-4/7 kit because the E-1 I'm doing has the later style canopy and I'll have to use a vacuform replacement.

 

[B-17engineer]

Glenn this is similar to you aircraft but rather an 11

 

[T Bolt]

Very similar. Looks like Jg54 also. Probably the same guy with a spray gun did the camo on both birds. Earlier style canopy so I could have used the kit canopy.

 

[Wayne Little]

Looks like you are having fun Glenn..keep on smiling....

 

[Airframes]

Nice work so far Glenn. It's good to have a change, with an early E-1 fitted with the later canopy - makes people look twice !
BTW. the Tamiya and Hasegawa kits are both the same basic airframe, just with the required detail parts, such as canopy, tropical filter etc. It's a way of getting more revenue, selling separate kits, rather than including the extra couple of parts in the box. This sometimes happens anyway, so it's worth checking thet the Hurrifire Mk32 is the same kit as the Mk24, but with different decals for example.

 

[T Bolt]

After getting Jack motivated on his MiG 15 tonight I did a little work on Yellow 10. I finished the surgery on the under side of the wing to remove the cannon bulges. The area was filled with thick CA and filed flush, re-scribed, and sanded smooth.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Great start!

 

[Crimea_River]

Turned out nice Glenn.

 

[Airframes]

Certainly has.

 

[Wayne Little]

Does look good....needs a light coat of paint to check it....like all the work I've done on my Phantom so far...

 

[B-17engineer]

Cool!

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks guys.

Does look good....needs a light coat of paint to check it....like all the work I've done on my Phantom so far...

It looked pretty smooth when held up to reflect the lamp light, but I'm still going to spray a light coat of prime on tonight. By the time I finished last night I was too tired to break out the airbrush.

 

[Wurger]

Nice work so far. Keep it up.

 

[T Bolt]

After spraying the patched areas with primer some minor flaws were visible, but some wet sanding with 600 grit sand paper made them disappear. Here's the finished patches. Cockpit work next.

 

[Wayne Little]

Excellent...the lamp doesn't always show you those tiny flaws...only the coat of paint tells the truth!

 

[Airframes]

Very neat work Glenn. Have you checked out the position of the gun ports for the MGs? I've never really noticed before, but recently, I've seen some pics of E3s and E4s, with what appears to be a blank port inboard of each cannon. I haven't researched further, but I wonder if these were upgraded E1s, with the cannon, being bigger, having to be moved outboard slightly, but leaving the 'old' gun port. This is not to be confused with a similar 'hole' on one wing only, which is the gun camera.

 

[Wayne Little]

Very neat work Glenn. Have you checked out the position of the gun ports for the MGs? I've never really noticed before, but recently, I've seen some pics of E3s and E4s, with what appears to be a blank port inboard of each cannon. I haven't researched further, but I wonder if these were upgraded E1s, with the cannon, being bigger, having to be moved outboard slightly, but leaving the 'old' gun port. This is not to be confused with a similar 'hole' on one wing only, which is the gun camera.

You are right Terry they are covers for the MG17 of the E-1 so Glenns machine guns need to be in this position rather than the existing ports where the MGFF cannons are located.

 

[ozhawk40]

Great start Glenn!

Cheers

Peter

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks for catching that guys. (and in plenty of time for me to correct it easily) Here's my plan and I would like to know it it sounds all right with you. First picture is the E-1 I'm modeling which does show the gun port further inboard from the way it is molded on the model, and immediately outboard of the wheel bay. Picture 2 is the wing before I removed it from the sprue with my proposed corrections in red. The new gun port location lines up perfectly with the shell ejector port which I take as a good sign. I could not see panel lines in the crash picture but I thought I would replicate the box around the old port at the new one as shown by the thin red line. I would fill in the old box panel lines along with the old port.
Sound all right to you guys?

 

[Airframes]

Thanks for the confirmation Wayne.
Glenn, sounds good. The MG/FF cannon port was in a removable, rectangular panel on the leading edge, which allowed access to withdraw the weapon, forwards, from the wing. The access panel on top of the wing was for working on the receiver and breech.
The MG17 MG was accessed, and removed/fitted via the wing-top panel, and I don't think there was any 'panel' surrounding the gun port on the leading edge - it's something I haven't really looked at closely though.
I would say that the existing spent case ejector port is close enough, although would be slightly shorter; not sure if there should be a separate slot for the links, although probably was. I don't think I've got a scale plan of the E1, just the E3/E4, so I can't check.
I think Wayne has the Eduard E1 kit (?), so maybe he can check and confirm ?