**** DONE: 1/48 Tamiya Bf 109E4 Black 8 of 2/JG3 Ofw Bernhard Lampskemper Group Build

[Crimea_River]

After spending most of the day on the repairs, I'm now back to where I was this morning when the mishap occurred. Following are shots of the sequence after I removed the port wing from the clamps.

The top of the cracked wing after removing from clamps, filling, sanding and rescribing the panel line:

Bottom section of same wing:

The starboard wing was tricky. There was a little bit of stretching where it broke at the panel line in front of the rad and I couldn't get it fully tight. The rad flange offered a good lap joint over the break and the crack was hidden beneath it. After this shot was taken, I filled the ugly looking panel line with CA glue, sanded it down and rescribed it.

The bottom repairs ready for a prime coat:

The top ready for a prime coat. There's a small filler piece I had to make at the back of the starboard wing root which broke off and disappeared.

Another prime coat is now on and a couple of minor fills are still needed before I move on to the RLM 65. All in all, a frustrating day but the repairs turned out pretty good.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Damn me Andy what rotten luck, but boy what a recover, looks like you got it well in hand, the repair job looks brilliant. If that had happened to me, I think I would still be hopping round my hanger.

 

[magnu]

Nice one Andy glad you were able to rescue it.

 

[A4K]

Damn shame about the mishap, but you did a fantastic job with the repair! Full credit to ya!

 

[Wayne Little]

Ouch Andy.....crashed and burned mate...but looks like it is rising from the ashes.....great save man!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. I plan to be back at it tonight.

 

[rochie]

great save Andy, looks almost good as new

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Karl. The signs are there if you use a magnifying glass and know where to look but I am pleased with the way it turned. Frankly, it could have been much worse. Good thing I don't use a "thigh-master"!

 

[Airframes]

Excellent repair Andy, well done mate ! Even if it was spotted by someone, it's skin ripples from a high 'g' turn - isn't it ?!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Yeah, we'll go with that. The ironic thing I find is that we tend to spend so much time perfecting seams and fits to make a realistic model whereas often the real planes will reveal obvious imperfections, wrinkles, and poor fits which, if emulated, would lose us points in any model contest. Go figure.

Having said that, I'm now going to go back down to the shop and do some more sanding and filling.....

 

[Airframes]

Dead right mate. Years ago, I got 'marked down' at an IPMS branch competition, due to the ill-fitting panel joints, and some worn paint work on a model, which I'd spent a lot of time replicating. I didn't have the heart to tell the 'rivet counter' so-called experts that it was absolutely as per the real example, which I'd been helping out with during restoration !

 

[Crimea_River]

This build just doesn't want to go well for me. In my attempts to debunk the definition of insanity - trying over and over again that which has consistently proven to produce poor results before in hopes that maybe next time it will be better - I attempted to paint the RLM 65 with my good old Pollyscale acrylic. I still can not get this stuff to work with my Paasche VL airbrush so I'm off to the shop tomorrow to get some enamels.

If this continues, I may have to consider recreating Lampskamper's crash scene....

 

[T Bolt]

Wow Andy, and I was p!ssed the other night when accidentally set one of my 109s down in a big gob of Testors tube glue. That only meant some sanding on a radiator cover and some miner re-scribing. I think I would have given up if it was anything as bad as yours. Fantastic recovery! Doesn't look like any of the damage will show.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Glenn. Yeah, I don't give up easily but I do know that I can set it aside if I get too frustrated. Sadly, dealing with the issues I had on this model is actually a stress relief from the daily crap I put up with at work!

 

[Airframes]

It's a real pain when paint doesn't work as intended, as I've discovered quite a few times since Humbrol changed !
I hope you can get it sorted without too much trouble mate.

 

[Wayne Little]

Look forward to seeing you get over this series of setbacks Andy.....

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the hanky Terry and Wayne. It WILL turn out well.

 

[Wurger]

I'm joining all Andy. A nice repair. Keep working.

 

[lesofprimus]

Damn Andy, what a break.... Glad u've got a decent plan for repairing it...

 

[vikingBerserker]

I have to say after that repair job you pulled of, you should not have any problem fixing the paint!