**** DONE: 1/48 Bf 109E-4 Von Werra - Defense of Britain/Atlantic.

[JKim]

Username: JKim
First name: John
Category: Advanced
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Eduard
Model Type: Bf 109E-4 - Profipack Edition
Aftermarket addons: Mostly OOB but the Profipack Edition comes with photoetched parts and canopy masks

The illustrated Emil, W.Nr. 1480, became the subject of the fascinating event that delivered the first German ace, Oblt. Franz von Werra, into British hands. On the morning of September 5, 1940, von Werra was shot down over Kent. He managed a successful belly landing, was taken prisoner, and his plane was scrutinized by RAF experts. Von Werra attempted to escape on several occasions, and finally succeeded in Canada during transfer to a POW camp. He managed to go through the United States, which at that time was still neutral, to South America, and then back to Germany, where he rejoined the Luftwaffe. He served on both the eastern and western fronts, but had strict orders to avoid the shores of England. The Channel, nevertheless, proved fateful for him when, on October 25, 1941 as Gruppenkommandeur I./JG 53, he disappeared over it. On that day, he was flying a Bf 109F-4, and as such, von Werra became the first combat casualty flying that type.

 

[JKim]

The Eduard Bf 109E-4 comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a nice illustration.

Being a Profipack Edition, the kit comes with some worthwhile extras. I especially like the strategy that Eduard uses to package the same aircraft at different price points and giving the modeler the option of buying a kit that has some of the excellent Eduard aftermarket items already included. This kit includes two photo-etched frets. The first fret is pre-colored and is primarily for the cockpit details, including the multi-layer instrument panels and seatbelts. The details on these instrument panels is quite nice but they are also marred by that fabric-like surface texture and the strange purplish color that Eduard assumes for Luftwaffe interiors.

The second fret is uncolored and has more cockpit stuff and also other details like intake meshes.

The clear parts look nice and transparent. Included are two styles of windscreen and mid canopy. the Revi 12C gunsight is also included as a clear part.

There are two decal sheets included. One is the stencil data and the other is for individual aircraft markings. I've had excellent results with Eduard decals in the past and the wide choice of markings (five in this kit) makes the Profipack editions that much more appealing.

Off to the sprues... As with the Spitfire IXc kit that I just built, the molding quality on the 109E-4 is simply excellent. Rivets are present but are beautifully understated.

The one-piece engine cowling is greatly appreciated! Why couldn't they have done this on the Spitfire???

The wings are similarly executed. Beautiful stuff!

This fret holds mostly the external stuff... control surfaces, landing gear, guns. Note the wheel well walls in the upper left corner. One piece per side versus the FIFTEEN that comprised the Spitfire wheel well walls!

The tires deserve a special mention here... even the sidewall lettering is present!

The gun barrels look to have the ends hollowed out, which is a plus, but there is also some flash that intrudes upon the hollowed out ends, which is a negative.

The last sprue holds the drivetrain components (engine, prop, etc) as well as the majority of the cockpit details.

The engine is nicely molded but as I will be building my Emil buttoned up, the engine and the cowl gun details will not be visible.

Eduard gives the modeler the choice of using the photoetched instrument panel or the plastic one. The plastic IP is nicely molded and would look nice with the decal instrument faces.

Eduard provides PDF instructions for all of its products on its website. The instructions for this particular kit can be found at:
http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/8263.pdf

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

Photos of Von Werra found on the internet...

Photos of WN 1480 that Wojtek posted on another build post...

A different version of one of the crash photos:

Alternate profile showing white engine cowling and mottled saddle cowling...

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking forward to your magic on this one.

 

[Airframes]

Good one John. As I mentioned in your other introductory thread, the aircraft almost certainly had the white lower cowling and the mottled saddle cowling - I'll check the relevant volume of LCA to see what the crash report states.

 

[stona]

I don't think that cowling is white. Neither the CEAR nor the late Mike Payne's notes on the original appearance of this aircraft mention a white cowling. It is a lighter shade, maybe a newer application of RLM 65.

Photo 5 above shows an anomaly in the demarcation of the camouflage on the cowling immediately in front of the wind screen. It is most likely a replacement from another aircraft. I don't believe that is mottled down to the wing root, what we see is exhaust and other staining.

The front end of this aircraft has had some extensive repair or other remedial work done to it.

FWIW here's how I did it, imagined on the morning of it's final flight:

The white wing tips are pretty certain, the white tail plane tips less so.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Airframes]

You may be right about the white cowling Steve, but I still think it was white. The contrast in the photos is very strong between the nose cowling and the fuselage RLM 65, even for fresh paint, and more so on the lower cowling sections seen in the EA Collection Yard (scrap yard.),
It most likely did have the white tail plane tips too, which was, in theory, the 'regulation' ID marking.

 

[JKim]

Great input and discussion guys! Obviously, there are points on any build that will be open to interpretation. I'll mull it over and decide on the white cowling as I get on with the build. That's a beautiful Emil that you've posted Steve... gives me something to aim for.

 

[fubar57]

Great info and when no one agrees, your choice can never be wrong. However......the right answer will always be found shortly after you have finished the build.




Geo

 

[JKim]

Fairly elementary question here... what are the colors on this bird? I assume this is a standard splinter scheme of the time. The Eduard instructions call it out as RLM 65 (Hellblau/Light Blue), RLM 02 (RLM Grau/Grey) and RLM 71 (Dunkelgrun/Dark Green). Is this correct? In many pictures of other 109E builds, the top colors often look like a grey/dark grey scheme.

 

[fubar57]

Looking at Steve's model, those would be correct.



Geo

 

[JKim]

Thanks Geo! Just want to make sure I'm not making any obvious mistakes. Steve's Emil IS very nice isn't it?

 

[fubar57]

Certainly does John. Just going through Aircam Aviation Series, "Battle of Britain", there is a profile of the aircraft, as Steve's build and the 5th photo, ie; what looks to be a different cowling but with white below the camo and white wingtips. I can't verify the accuracy of this series of books as it shows the propeller hub quarters as red which I believe is wrong.



Geo

EDIT: The profile on the Luftwaffe Series - Jagdwaffe Battle of Britain Phase Three shows the aircraft as exactly Steve modeled it. Again, I can't speak on the accuracy of these books.

 

[Crimea_River]

The standard scheme at he time was 02/71 over 65 though there was experimentation going on at the time with greys. Galland's rig is a good example.

 

[stona]

There is a picture of another aircraft from the same unit, often mis-captioned as von Werra's machine due to Simba the lion cub hanging on the fin, which clearly does have white tips to the tailplane. I've never been convinced by any of the pictures of von Werra's aircraft, but others did carry the marking and as Airframes said, it was the 'regulation' marking. That's why I went for it but a photo to prove me wrong will probably turn up tomorrow

Edit.

Found a bad copy on my laptop:

Cheers

Steve

 

[stona]

I can't verify the accuracy of this series of books as it shows the propeller hub quarters as red which I believe is wrong.

You'd be right to believe that this is wrong. The original CEAR couldn't be more specific:

"Spinner divided into alternate black and white sectors."

Cheers

Steve

 

[JKim]

Got the kit in the post today! I've jumped right in, took the sprue shots and started on some small things.

First thing was a look at the Revi 12C gunsight. It looks decent enough but the reflector glass molded in plastic is a bit unrefined.

I've hacked off the molded reflector glass but it's a bit difficult to tell what it really looks like without paint on it. The blue blob is Micro Mask placed on the optical element of the sight. The plan is to paint the clear gunsight in metallic blue and then in flat black. Hopefully, when the Micro Mask is removed, you'll some of the blue through the circular opening.

After I've given the gunsight a spray of flat black, I added reflector glass cut from clear acetate. The metallic blue thing didn't really work out since the opening is so small and not letting enough light in. One a gunsight this small, it would've been better to use silver or gold instead of metallic blue.

Next up is the oxygen bottle in the cockpit. The perforated holder looks too tall compared to archive pictures of the cockpit.

So I cut off a bit of the bottom and also the curved hose, which I'll replace with wiring.

The replacement hose is made from wiring wrapped around the shaft of my smallest micro drill bit.

That's it for now!

 

[fubar57]

Good start John. Nice catch on the bottle, something I may have missed.



Geo

 

[Airframes]

Nice work John.