Vic Balshaw
Major General
Such enviable talent. Looks great Andy.
**** DONE: 1/48 Bf109F-4 J.Steinhoff - Your Favorite Aircraft of All Time GB
- Thread starter Crimea_River
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- Thread starter
- #122
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks everyone. Not much got done today - had to do my taxes. 
Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
BUMMER.
looks amazing Andy
A4K
Brigadier General
Great work Andy! ...and man, I love that guitar string idea...trip to an instrument shop for me soon I think!
- Thread starter
- #127
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys. Just one thing about guitar string though - very tough to bend tightly so you'll need some small needle nose pliers or equivalent.
- Thread starter
- #128
Crimea_River
Marshal
ICM kits are great value but they do need extra care when fitting and to fill sink marks. The following sequence of pics shows what I mean.
First we have this lovely sink mark running the full length of the fuselage underside. Luckily, it's not on the seam as there will be a panel line scribed there so a bit of Squadron putty will solve this easily.
Since the nose assembly is made up of multiple components, it was not surprising to find this gap when trying to get it all together. The thing about this area is that any tiny amount of misaligment of the engine mounts to the firewall or of the cowl assembly translates to a potentially large gap like I experienced here.
The cowl was pliable enough to manipulate and after carefully lining things up and using CA glue to close the seam, this area got sorted without too much trouble. However, I didn't trust that this joint would be strong so I had to devise a way of reinforcing it without any obvious signs. You can see here the beginning of a hole that I created in the prop backplate for the insertion of reinforcing strips.
Here's a shot of the plastic reinforcing strips which were added and securely cemented through the hole.
The issue below also happened on my Spitfire IX kit where the lower half of the wing would not close into the fuselage.
The culprit, as with my Spitfire kit, is the firewall which sits just a tad too low and will need to be trimmed.
That's the show for tonight chaps!
First we have this lovely sink mark running the full length of the fuselage underside. Luckily, it's not on the seam as there will be a panel line scribed there so a bit of Squadron putty will solve this easily.
Since the nose assembly is made up of multiple components, it was not surprising to find this gap when trying to get it all together. The thing about this area is that any tiny amount of misaligment of the engine mounts to the firewall or of the cowl assembly translates to a potentially large gap like I experienced here.
The cowl was pliable enough to manipulate and after carefully lining things up and using CA glue to close the seam, this area got sorted without too much trouble. However, I didn't trust that this joint would be strong so I had to devise a way of reinforcing it without any obvious signs. You can see here the beginning of a hole that I created in the prop backplate for the insertion of reinforcing strips.
Here's a shot of the plastic reinforcing strips which were added and securely cemented through the hole.
The issue below also happened on my Spitfire IX kit where the lower half of the wing would not close into the fuselage.
The culprit, as with my Spitfire kit, is the firewall which sits just a tad too low and will need to be trimmed.
That's the show for tonight chaps!
Last edited:
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Good fix on the nose cowl Andy, and I remember that problem with the firewall/wing interference too!
T Bolt
Colonel
FANTASTIC ANDY!!!! Now I know what to do with my wifes old guitar in the basement 
Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
Glenn.Nice work Andy. You guys never cease to amaze.
Great work Andy!
nice job Andy, will remember those tips when i get round to my Bf109 F from ICM
ccheese
Member In Perpetuity
Lookin' really good, Andy. A pain, but worth it.
Charles
Charles
A4K
Brigadier General
Great fixes mate! I'll be using yours and Terry's Spitty builds as references when I do mine too...
Lovely work Andy!
- Thread starter
- #137
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks gents. Will keep pluggin" away.
meatloaf109
1st Lieutenant
Looking good!
- Thread starter
- #139
Crimea_River
Marshal
Well it's been a week since I've posted, not because I haven't been working on this build but because my wife has been making off with the camera during the times I've been working. So here's an update to catch up, and my apologies for the apparent gaps in progress where no photo record exists.
Since we left off last week, I was dealing with some fit issues, which have now been resolved. As can be seen below, the wings are now mated to the fuselage and sanding of the seams is well under way. The sloped bulkhead behind the cockpit has yet to receive a scratch built hatch that will cover the gap there so I've not worried about filling it, except where the seam will show beyond the hatch. The tail assembly has also been attached and the elevators were cranked upwards slightly. (I generally dislike the flat, neutral positions that most kit manufacturers favour and try to move the control surfaces wherever practical.) The ailerons have also been cranked slightly to match the cockpit stick position. The one on the right wing resulted in an uneven gap that I'll need to address.
The surface that the model is sitting on is a perfectly flat granite tile that I use to ensure that I have a good symmetry of the model's dimensions. After truing the vertical axis with the tile using a square, I measure from the tile to the tips of each main wing to ensure that there is an accurate and even dihedral. The excat same is done on the horizontal tail planes to ensure they are level and square.
The above mentioned control surfaces have been molded by ICM with very sharp and distinct rib lines which, in my opinion, looked pretty unrealistic so I set about sanding these down to make them less pronounced. Below is the finished rudder which unfortunately does not have a "before" pic to provide a comparison.
I mentioned earlier in post 27 the need to create the rounded wheel wells peculiar to most of the F-4 model 109s and I showed a pic there of the start of this process. After attaching plastic card to the squared off sections and cutting the circle, the inner walls were built up with putty and, once this dried, I set about to round out the surfaces using the rig shown below. I went to my tool box and found a socket head of just the right size for the well, cut and CA-glued a piece of sandpaper to the socket, then proceeded to twist the socket in the wheel well until a nice, round wall had formed. The pic that immediately follows this shows the finished well.
As the engine cowl will be shown open, it will be necessary to thin the plastic at the edges and scratch build the inner ribbing. Here's the start showing the thinned edges.
Another thing that had to be modified was the supercharger intake scoop. Once again, the F-2 model which is the subject of the ICM kit I used had a rather narrow intake that was made more bulbous on the later F-4s and all subsequent marks. I couldn't leave this as is so I hacked off the intake end and replaced it with the end of a poorly molded scoop that I ended up not using from a Hobbycraft 109G-2. (My Hasegawa G-6 supplied 2 nice scoops, one of which I used on the Hobbycraft one that I did in a Slovak scheme a year back and the other one needs to be saved for the G-6). Shown here is the partly completed scoop, with an initial splash of primer put on to reveal some defects that still need to be sorted out. I think this should turn out OK when I'm done.
Finally, there's the added work on the radiator assemblies. ICM did a really nice job of molding these complex rad assemblies, except that the molded grilles had a big ejector pin mark right in the middle of them. Fortunately, a sample book of various meshes that I've kept for almost 30 years finally came in handy and I found this nice brass mesh that looked pretty good as a rad grille. The piece on the right shows how the kit part comes whereas the one on the left has suffered the wrath of my files to achieve some significant thinning and removal of ejector pin marks.
The louvers on the ICM kit have the advantage of being positioned in almost any way you want as they are easily bent. In the final pic below, I've opened them up to reveal the inner grille as well as the white pastic card I installed for the boundary layer bypass duct which can be seen on close inspection of any 109 picture showing this area.
So now we're up to date and the coming days will be spent on my least favourite activity - sanding, more sanding, and rescribing. I'll also attend to the inner surfaces of the cowl and show some pics of that when I get there. Thanks for your patience and continued interest.
Since we left off last week, I was dealing with some fit issues, which have now been resolved. As can be seen below, the wings are now mated to the fuselage and sanding of the seams is well under way. The sloped bulkhead behind the cockpit has yet to receive a scratch built hatch that will cover the gap there so I've not worried about filling it, except where the seam will show beyond the hatch. The tail assembly has also been attached and the elevators were cranked upwards slightly. (I generally dislike the flat, neutral positions that most kit manufacturers favour and try to move the control surfaces wherever practical.) The ailerons have also been cranked slightly to match the cockpit stick position. The one on the right wing resulted in an uneven gap that I'll need to address.
The surface that the model is sitting on is a perfectly flat granite tile that I use to ensure that I have a good symmetry of the model's dimensions. After truing the vertical axis with the tile using a square, I measure from the tile to the tips of each main wing to ensure that there is an accurate and even dihedral. The excat same is done on the horizontal tail planes to ensure they are level and square.
The above mentioned control surfaces have been molded by ICM with very sharp and distinct rib lines which, in my opinion, looked pretty unrealistic so I set about sanding these down to make them less pronounced. Below is the finished rudder which unfortunately does not have a "before" pic to provide a comparison.
I mentioned earlier in post 27 the need to create the rounded wheel wells peculiar to most of the F-4 model 109s and I showed a pic there of the start of this process. After attaching plastic card to the squared off sections and cutting the circle, the inner walls were built up with putty and, once this dried, I set about to round out the surfaces using the rig shown below. I went to my tool box and found a socket head of just the right size for the well, cut and CA-glued a piece of sandpaper to the socket, then proceeded to twist the socket in the wheel well until a nice, round wall had formed. The pic that immediately follows this shows the finished well.
As the engine cowl will be shown open, it will be necessary to thin the plastic at the edges and scratch build the inner ribbing. Here's the start showing the thinned edges.
Another thing that had to be modified was the supercharger intake scoop. Once again, the F-2 model which is the subject of the ICM kit I used had a rather narrow intake that was made more bulbous on the later F-4s and all subsequent marks. I couldn't leave this as is so I hacked off the intake end and replaced it with the end of a poorly molded scoop that I ended up not using from a Hobbycraft 109G-2. (My Hasegawa G-6 supplied 2 nice scoops, one of which I used on the Hobbycraft one that I did in a Slovak scheme a year back and the other one needs to be saved for the G-6). Shown here is the partly completed scoop, with an initial splash of primer put on to reveal some defects that still need to be sorted out. I think this should turn out OK when I'm done.
Finally, there's the added work on the radiator assemblies. ICM did a really nice job of molding these complex rad assemblies, except that the molded grilles had a big ejector pin mark right in the middle of them. Fortunately, a sample book of various meshes that I've kept for almost 30 years finally came in handy and I found this nice brass mesh that looked pretty good as a rad grille. The piece on the right shows how the kit part comes whereas the one on the left has suffered the wrath of my files to achieve some significant thinning and removal of ejector pin marks.
The louvers on the ICM kit have the advantage of being positioned in almost any way you want as they are easily bent. In the final pic below, I've opened them up to reveal the inner grille as well as the white pastic card I installed for the boundary layer bypass duct which can be seen on close inspection of any 109 picture showing this area.
So now we're up to date and the coming days will be spent on my least favourite activity - sanding, more sanding, and rescribing. I'll also attend to the inner surfaces of the cowl and show some pics of that when I get there. Thanks for your patience and continued interest.
Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
Ok Wayne. You can come out now. WOW Andy, you leave no leaf unturned. This is going to be a superb piece when you done.
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