**** DONE: GB-36 1/48 Bf 109E-4 - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

[Airframes]

Bf109E4, 9/JG26, August 1940.

Username: Airframes
First name: Terry
Category: Judge - non-competing
Scale: 1/48th.
Manufacturer: Tamiya
Model Type: Messerschmitt Bf109E
Addons: Decals from spares files, lead wire brake lines, scratch seat harness.


If my hands allow me to finish the Bf110, and given there is enough time left in this GB, then I'll enter this Bf109E-4, flown by Gerhard Schopfel of III/JG26, on the day he shot down four Hurricanes of 501 Sqn in as many minutes.
This is another addition to my long-planned 'BoB - Hardest Days' collection, with a story behind each subject and, to keep things simple, will be mainly OOB - OK, maybe !
Pics and background detail to follow in subsequent posts.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Very cool Terry. Looking forward to it.

 

[Jeff Hunt]

Good on ya Terry.
Great to see so many builds going on. Appearantly the theme of the GB is to the liking of the gang.
Good.luck with this build.

Jeff

 

[Airframes]

Thanks chaps.
My hands seem to be easing a bit, so I'll attempt to spray the clear coat on the '110 later today, and just might make a start on this one.
I'll put together a brief background about the aircraft and pilot, and the action involving the four Hurricanes, with some pics, just as soon as I get things sorted.

 

[Wayne Little]

Good one to see Terry.

 

[turbo]

Excellent!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks for the interest chaps.
I hope to start on this later this week, once the Bf110 is more or less finished.

As mentioned previously, this is an addition to my long-planned 'BoB - Hardest Days' collection, which covers specific actions between 13th August and 6th September 1940, and this subject will be one of nine Bf109s, along with a further eleven Luftwaffe aircraft, and around ten RAF subjects.
The aircraft is the Bf109E-4, 'Yellow 1', flown by the Staffelkapitan of 9/JG26, Oberleutnant Gerhard Schopfel (umlaut over the 'o') on August 18th, generally regarded as the hardest day in the Battle.(Oblt. Schopfel was appointed Kommandeur of III/JG26 ten days later, and became Kommodore of JG26 in September 1940)
Oblt. Schopfel was leading his Staffel in the early afternoon of August 18th, and had just crossed the south coast of England when he noticed a squadron of Hurricanes, in tight 'vic' formation, below him, heading towards Canterbury whilst climbing in a wide spiral. These were the aircraft of 501 Squadron.
Signalling to his Staffel to remain above and cover him, Schopfel dived out of the sun, and quickly dispatched the two 'weavers' above the formation, before darting in to attack the main formation, firing a short burst at the Hurricane at the rear of the formation, which went down in flames.
The remainder of the Hurricanes flew on, totally unaware of what was happening behind them, as Schopfel closed in behind the fourth machine and shot it down too. However, this time he had got rather too close, and pieces of the Hurricane smashed into his 'Emil's' propeller, and with oil splattered all over his windscreen and down the sides of the cockpit, unable to see a thing, Schopfel turned and dived away, having downed four Hurricanes in two minutes !
His fourth victim was the Hurricane flown by Kenneth Lee, who only became aware of Schopfel's presence when he felt the explosions behind him and the rounds smashing into the armour plate behind his seat. With flames licking back from the engine, and a splinter in his right leg, Lee rolled the Hurricane onto its back, undid his seat harness and fell clear at 17,000 feet.
As he had heard rumours of pilots being shot whilst under their parachutes, Lee calmly set his stop watch, and timed his free fall descent, lasting sixty six seconds, before deploying his parachute at 6,000 feet !
(Kenneth Lee's Hurricane will be another of the models in this collection).

Despite a number of photographs of Schopfel's aircraft, the Werke Nummer is not known, although there are a few detail features worthy of note.
The colour scheme was a high demarcation of RLM 71/02 over RLM 65, with the upper wing surface camouflage extending on to the wing root fillet. The yellow '1' numeral is in the smaller style of 9 Staffel, and the aircraft has the Staffel Kapitan's pennant on the radio mast. The rudder has the first style of yellow I.D. marking, in the form of a segment, and the tips of the main wings and the tail planes are also yellow, with the 9 Staffel red 'Hollenhund' emblem beneath the cockpit, and the JG26 'Schlageter' shield beneath the windscreen. Following the combat described above, there were 12 Abschuss zeichen, painted in black, on both sides of the rudder.
The upper wing crosses are positioned further inboard than usual and, although head armour was fitted in the cockpit canopy, this lacked the over-head plate, and it appears that a retaining cable was not fitted to the canopy.

The pics below show the box art for the Tamiya kit being used, along with a pic of Schopfel in the cockpit of his 'Emil', and the same aircraft in it's camouflaged, sand-bagged revetment on the edge of the vast wheat field at Caffiers.

 

[parsifal]

Man am I looking forward to this Terry. I finally get to watch how it really should be done

 

[Airframes]

Well I don't know about that Michael, but I'll at least try to get a reasonable result, knackered hands permitting !

 

[parsifal]

Knackered hands or not, you have the runs on the board. I know you will not disappoint.

That last period shot gives a very fine reference for the 20mm wing mounted cannon....relates to what we were talking about in my 109 thread. interesting the muzzle details

Plus I note just how squishy the cockpit is for these burly pilots.....

I note also how far inboard on the wing the "roundel" is placed. Is that a normal thing?

Do all the canopies open to starboard?

 

[Airframes]

Yes, the flash suppressor has a dust cap over the end, probably red. A good way of avoiding having to drill-out the kit barrels !!

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff Terry. Love it when there is a lot of history and photos for a build

Staffelkapitan of 9/JG26, Oberleutnant Gerhard Schopfel (umlaut over the 'o')

Bookmark this site for "umlaut over the 'o'" which is "Alt 0246" - ö. Hold down the "Alt" key and at the same time type in the numbers. Below the "Alt" numbers are a few handy images to copy/paste which I use. The best one is the star for when one wants to describe USAAF codes, ie; UN✪Z. For RAF, use "Alt 7" or "9", ie; UF•S or UF○S. Handy little beasts

Alt codes list (all symbol codes)

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Geo, useful stuff.

Michael, sorry, I somehow missed the rest of your previous post.
The upper wing crosses would normally have the inboard edge of the cross aligned with the joint line of the flap and aileron, whereas this aircraft has the outboard edge so aligned. Not 'normal', but not uncommon either.
Yes, all Bf109 canopies opened to starboard. When closed, the canopy locked on to the rear (fixed) section, but if the canopy was jettisoned, which was also supposed to be standard procedure for a belly landing, the opening section and the rear section detached, along with the antenna mast. Obviously the later 'Erla' or 'Galland' hood was one piece, but still opened to starboard, and jettisoned as a single piece.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good info Terry.

 

[Airframes]

Made a start on this one, during a break from the almost finished Bf110, as I definitely need some 'shake and bake' therapy !
Er ... did I say this would be OOB ?
Ahem ... well, sort of. I seem to have started off as usual, adding things here and there, but I'll try to keep it mainly OOB !
The cockpit is almost complete, after fitting seat belts, painting the instrument panel and side-wall fittings, and adding a couple of levers. Just need to fit the control column, and make and fit a couple of lamps, and it can be fitted into the fuselage and the fuselage halves joined.

PIC 1. First thing to do was to cut a slot in the rear of the seat, for the shoulder harness. The seat is slightly to 'pointed' I think, but good enough.
PIC 2. Strips of tissue from the decal covering were cut and fitted through the slot, being fixed on the rear base of the seat using CA, with the lap straps fixed the same way.
PIC 3. After painting the seat a mid grey color, one of at least three shades seen on 'Emils', the harness was painted and fixed in place in the seat pan with spots of CA, and the seat and frame cemented onto the cockpit floor section. The RLM 02 of the floor, bulkhead and cockpit looks a bit greenish, and rather streaky (brush painted) due to the flash, but looks fine to the naked eye. A darker wash was was added to the crank handle hatch cover and hinge line, and also to the floor, with some paint wear in aluminium,
PIC 4. The kit instrument panel has raised and engraved detail, and I was very dubious about the provided decals settling properly, especially with the relatively large area of clear carrier film. Consequently, the panel was hand painted, and the dials 'glazed' with Humbrol clear gloss acrylic varnish.
PICS 5 and 6. After painting the cockpit walls RLM 02, sllghtly lightened, the tail plane incidence wheel and trim wheel were painted and fitted to the port wall, along with the oxygen regulator and guard on the starboard wall, and the moulded details painted.
PIC 7. The cockpit has been assembled, minus the control column, and the levers for the fuel pump and filter pump added to each side of the instrument panel. These are made from stretched sprue, with blobs of PVA for the knobs, and have yet to be bent to final shape and painted - hence the omission of the control column.
PICS 8 and 9. Trial fit of the cockpit into the starboard fuselage half - a very positive fit.

Next step is to complete the cockpit and extra detail, and fit it into the fuselage, when the fuselage halves can then be joined.
Although this is all fairly basic stuff, with little attempt at 'super detailing', it's been enjoyable, and I think I've made more overall progress in these first couple of steps than I felt I made in the entire Bf110 build - and very little clean up to do, and no moulding seams to remove from every part either !!
Back soon ....................

 

[fubar57]

Nice looking innards

 

[Crimea_River]

I'll say. Great job on the IP Terry.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Geo and Andy - and guess what .............. I be enjoying this one !!

 

[parsifal]

Very nice terry. I will try not to be too envious.....