**** DONE: 1/48 Bf 109G-4/R6 "Yellow 11" of 13.(Slow)/JG 52 Eastern Front GB

[Airframes]

Very nice work Andy, and good info Wayne.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Paul and Terry.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Vic, the blobs are actually Testors Clear Parts Cement which I think is a form of PVA. There's actually one at the rudder end as well, just visible at the elevator hinge line. I often build these up over a couple of applications and have yet to finish off the spring that is right aft the foward post location.

I figured that is what it may have been, PVA comes in very handy at times ans I had noticed the one on the back but with it being over the tail hinge was not so sure if it was a glitch in the photo.

BTW: have you ever heard of 'Bobbies Buckles', small wound wire springs, I used one on the 190's tail.

 

[Crimea_River]

No Vic, I haven't. Will need to check into it.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Here you go mate, 'Bob's Buckles'.

Bob's Buckles

 

[Wayne Little]

That was interesting, Thanks Vic!

...and you're welcome too Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Vic, those look pretty neat. Can't imagine how small they must be in 1/48 though!

 

[T Bolt]

Looking very very nice Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Glenn.

This is the last update as this one is now done. I'm pretty happy with the overall results except that the canopy turned out mediocre. More on this below.

We'll start first with the antenna wire which I've now completed in accordance with the advice from Wayne above, with the vertical wire attached further back on the fuselage. I scribed a small disk at this location with a punch and drilled a small hole before attaching the stretched sprue with CA.

Here's a shot of the underside which was dirtied up with dust colours and oil staining. Just visible behind frame 3 is the antenna for the FuG 25 IFF with which I believe the G-4 was equipped.

Then it was on to the remaining fiddley bits. Here's one of the kit-supplied mass balances.

However, the kit supplied pitot tube scaled to a 3 inch pipe so I binned it and made my own from streched sprue. The navigation light lens, although not true to the real thing, is painted with an old bottle of Testors metallic red which I find does a pretty convincing job of depicting a tinted lens. I know it's supposed to be clear with a red bulb but I decided not to do this on this kit. I'll save that for my Hasegawa and ICM builds to come.

Next up we have a closer look at the canopy area. A combination of poor plastic, too narrow a mold and a somewhat ham-fisted fitting attempt by yours truly resulted in the canopy not looking as crisp as it could. Rather than sanding down the fuselage, I opted to pry apart the rear canopy piece and fasten it with CA glue. Unfortunatley, some of the glue wicked up the masking and a rough edge appears on the frame at this point. At the front, the side glazing has a small star fracture at the base which was damaged at the attachment point to the sprue even before I removed it. The only fix here would have been to drill it out and fill the area with clear cement but I decided to leave it alone. The center canopy was able to be pried wider to match the fuselage using the armoured plate which was attached at the base so this lined up pretty nicely. Paint chipping was achieved with a silver pencil. Exhaust and gun stains are from chalk pastels, as is the grime along the wing walk.

Finally, an overall shot of the finished bird:

Thanks to everyone for your comments and support through this build, and especially to Igor for his idea to depict a Slovakian aircraft of Letka 13 and for his reference materials.

On to the next one!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Despite all your own honesty Andy to which I should add, your underselling yourself, it's still a brilliant build. Nicely done my man.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Vic, I appreciate that.

 

[javlin]

Andy it looks real good from this end Sir Cheers

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Kevin.

 

[Airframes]

Very nice indeed Andy, and good to see a slightly 'different' colour scheme.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. That was my aim, to do something a little unique.

 

[Alex2]

Very well done, congratulations and thank you for the step by step

Alex

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice of you to say Alex, thanks.