**** DONE: Bf109E4 'White 6' I/JG3 BoB Group Build.

Looks good Terry, glad (with your ingenuity) the engine now fits

Wonder how much you would have got for the engine, Terry.....?

got there in the end mate

Thanks guys. For the engine? Maybe a couple of 'Bob' - unless it was a real one of course, then it would be a few Grand !!

An excellent job so far Terry.

Thank you my friend !

Looks like you've just about got it Terry! Great work!

By jove chaps, I think I've done it !
After about another four hours work of sanding, test fitting, filing and sanding, I was finally satisfied enough to fit the engine in place, using superglue at the front lower part, and cement at the rear of the engine bearers. It's now in position, and although not 100% perfectly aligned, it's good enough. Of course, it'll now need some repair work to the damaged wiring etc, and re-touching here and there, as well as re-fitting some of the parts I had to remove.
Once it had set, the cowlings were test-fitted yet again, and some more filing and sanding done in various places to get everything to line up properly. The final bits, including filling the small gap in the lower cowling, and adding thin 'shims' where needed, will be done later, after the main construction of the rest of the airframe is completed.
Again, please bear with me, as most of the following is for the benefit of Lewis, who has the same kit to build at some stage. Also, remember that all of this is so that the cowlings can be removed and replaced at will, but still look right when in place.
PIC 1. The engine finally glued in place, and awaiting repair and re-painting.
PIC 2. To avoid interference from the guns, gun mounts and the front of the engine block, the inside of the main cowling was filed down around the front, tops and sides of the gun troughs. They're thick here, so there's little chance of filing all the way through ! The area inside, where the 'bumps' over the gun mounting arms are on the outside, was also filed, and it all needs sanding smooth in this pic.
PIC 3. The same exercise inside the saddle cowling, virtually obliterating the mouldings around the locating pins, and thinning down the internal 'lumps' where the small, rear vents are on the outside.
PIC 4.The rear edge of the glycol tank was sanded, but retaining the basic profile, and this will be re-painted.
PIC 5. The extreme lower front end of the starboard nose section was gently sanded to conform with the line of the upper cowling. All of this sanding work has yet to be polished.
PIC 6. The lower front edge of the port side of the upper cowling was sanded, to conform to the line of the lower fuselage, and the inside of the front rim sanded also. The small access hatch and the cowling latch detail, both of which were rather 'heavy', will be re-scribed later.
PIC 7. With all this done, both cowling sections were placed into position, and they now fit ! The main cowling is too light to sit all the way down, although the gap looks bigger than it actually is in this photo. Rather than mess about further, this gap, and the bigger horizontal gaps on the saddle cowling, will be 'shimmed' with thin strips of plastic, sanded to match the surroundings, and blended in. Notice that the characteristic lip, and narrow gap, between the top of the main cowling and the saddle cowling is now like the real aircraft.
PIC 8. What the underside of the nose now looks like. This is a relatively minor job, and will be attended to once the oil cooler fairing has been fitted and the sink marks filled. The oil cooler itself normally fits onto the bottom of the supercharger intercooler pipes, now removed, so a small bracket will be made and fitted, and the oil cooler attached to this.
Note that theb prop shaft suffered in all the test-fitting! This will be corrected, somehow, later.
With this hurdle out of the way, the construction steps continue, not quite in sequence as per the instructions, and the radiators and wings are under construction.
PIC 9 shows one of the radiators, with the matrix in place in the 'bath', and the support stay at the front intake thinned down.Also seen here is the deflector fairing set onto the inside of the wing. I was going to use some scrap etched grille here, but I don't think there's much advantage, so it'll probably be utilised on the rather ropey Hasegawa radiators, which I'll be replacing with home- moulded items once that build gets underway.
That's it for now, and I hope to make some real progress, now that the engine fitting has been taken care of.
Thanks again for your interest and compliments.

Well..you've been a busy little beaver....Good work Terry!

So to hold the colw down, aren't you going to make working fasteners?

Well done mate. "Looks the biz"!

Thanks Wayne and Andy. I had actually considered trying to work out a way of making 'clips' inside the cowling, and putting dummy latch arms on the outside - but I think that might be pushing my luck !

Looking very nice Terry. I have noticed you encountered the same problem with the lack of inner space for all the equipment coming with the kit. Interesting.....

Thanks Wojtek, and yes. The problems here are virtually identical to the problems on the 1/24th scale Airfix kit, which I'm still fiddling with, in the same areas !
The 'Matchbox' kit first appeared in 1977, and although it was designed with the help of the RAF Museum and their staff, I think some of the construction methods (of the kit) are 'borrowed' from the Airfix kit, which had been around about six or seven years at the time.

Well done my friend!

Thanks very much David.
I've been doing a bit more, but noting much to show yet, as it's mainly been sanding down the 'heavy' ribs on the control surfaces. More pics soon though.

Lov'in IT! Terry looking very good thus far.I hated that with the engine I did for that 109 paint and crap coming off very aggravating.Cheers

Great job Terry! The engine still looks great after all the surgery to make it fit.

That engine looks great Terry, worth much more the a couple of bob.............. and Wayne has it right 'busy beaver' chewing away at all that plastic.......................

Yeah, I'm still spitting out 'placky dust' !

The wings are almost done, with just a few bits and pieces to take care of before fitting them to the fuselage. The slightly heavy rib detail on the flaps and ailerons has been sanded down, and the ailerons will be fitted later, to avoid damage during handling. I've decided to omit the cannons and ammo drums for now, as the detail will not be seen with the covers in place on the blisters. As the cannons are supposed to be fitted inside the wing, before joining the halves, this means cutting off the barrels, and fitting them into the gun ports once the model has been painted, which of course, will also prevent damage during the course of the build.
PIC 1. Shows the radiators and shutters under construction with, on the left, an untouched kit part for the port shutter. On the right, the starboard shutter has had its 'walls' thinned down, and the ejector pin mark removed and sanded smooth, and also the notch filled with a piece of plastic card. Most scale plans of the '109E, and most kits, show this notch in both radiator shutters, but it should be on the port one only, as explained below.
PIC 2. I would have probably missed this if Wojtek hadn't shown it in his 1/24th scale build. This is the reason for the notch in the shutter. There was a coolant pressure overflow pipe in the port radiator housing, which was angled to drain down, requiring the notch to accommodate the pipe when the shutter was closed. The pipe here was made from a short piece of telephone bridging cable, with the copper wire still inside the sleeve, acting as the pipe itself, and the sheathing representing the flexible covering. This was bent to shape, and superglued into a slot cut into the wall of the radiator bath. This is the first time I have come across this pipe, after nearly fifty years of modelling and involvement in aviation - so thanks Wojtek!
PIC 3. The radiator matrices were painted a dull, matt brown, followed by dry-brushing with metallic grey, then a thin black wash. The rear interior of the bath was painted RLM 02, with the front in RLM 65.
PIC 4. Building the interior structure of the wheel wells. Plastic card was gently heated, and formed around a paint brush shank, to produce the basic shape of the 'tunnel' for the gear legs. This was glued in place and, once set, the oval inspection hatch was drilled and filed, and a piece of stretched sprue cemented across the opening, on the inside of the wing. The walls of the wheel bays were lined with thin plastic card, cut to size and bent into place, glued, then trimmed once set.
PIC 5. Test-fitting the wing halves. The stiffening rbs in the 'roof' of the wheel bay were made from strips of thin plastic, with stretched sprue cemented on top.
PIC 6. The wing has been joined, and the joints will be gently sanded once fully set. The radiator bath is also in place. The wheel well walls have been painted to represent the zipped fabric covers over the structure, with the lacing around the edges. The untidy areas will be taken care of during the painting stage.
Next step is to attach the wings and tail planes, along with the underside centre-section panel and the small blisters over the wing bolt housings. Then it'll be time to do the final adjustments to the cowling, add the oil cooler and bath, as well as the control surfaces, before preparing the model for two or three coats of primer, which should fill most of the deep panel line and access hatch engraving to a more authentic level.
Thanks again for your interest and kind comments, and I'll post another update soon.