**** DONE: GB-37 1/48 Bf109E-4B - Helicopters / Military a/c of BoB 1940

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much chaps.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looking good Andy and I like the scratch build rods.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thank-you Vic.

 

[Crimea_River]

So, another week has gone by and it's time to show what little was accomplished.

The small braces that prevented flutter of the radiator baths were installed. These are PE parts supplied with the kit.

Before installing the canopy, the gun sight had to be finished and secured. As always, the kit part had the reflector glass and sun shield moulded far too thick so these were lopped off and replaced with thinner materials. The sun shield was brushed with Future mixed with a drop of green paint to achieve the tint.

As I'm building a Jabo 109, a bomb will need to be fitted to the underside. The Eduard kit I'm using fortunately includes the bomb casing and the appropriate rack on the sprues but the fins for the bomb, which would be PE parts, are not including with this boxing so I had to make my own fins. Measuring the casing and consulting my references confirms that what I've got here is an SC250 bomb so I was able to scratch up some fins easily using the dimensions and pics in my reference.

The canopy has now been attached (it was dipped in Future and allowed to dry a few days back) and the masks were applied. These were pre-cut and included in the kit, a nice addition as it saves tons of time. Also, I've added the flaps, ailerons, and leading edge slats, the latter being posed in the deployed position.

When the windscreen was installed, I noticed that the fit was not quite exact but I didn't know how bad it was until I squirted on some 02. Here you see the step on the starboard side and a perfect fit on the port side.

I don't think I can leave this as is and will look at a couple of options on how to fix this. If I can, I will see if I can cut the gun cowl and bend it outward slightly, thus preserving the surface detail. If that option appears too complicated, the other option is to build up the starboard side with some sheet styrene that will need to be contoured and scribed to re-instate the rivets and cowl fastener. This would be relatively straight forward if it weren't for the gun cooling air exit louvre that is in the way and that will need to be accommodated somehow.

Decisions, decisions. I will sleep on it and may attempt a repair tomorrow. Or not.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[turbo]

Hmm, spacer in the gun cowl might be the way to go as the windscreen looks to be sitting flush on the fuselage.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy, and I like those bomb fins.
I agree with Kirby re the windscreen gap - maybe shim it with plastic strip, sanded flush ?
It's a bit late now, and I've only just realised - but as this is a 'Jabo', should there be a small bomb selector / fusing panel at the base of the main instrument panel ?
Not sure if this was fitted to the early, field modified 'Jabos' at this period, but it was certainly there on later E-4/Bs and E-7/Bs etc.
I had to remove it from the panel in the Tamiya kit for my E-4 build.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I'm leaning toward the spacer option, though the cowl isn't quite flush with the fuselage either. There's a small step not seen in the pics but it's not as big as the step on the canopy.

Terry, yes. I forgot to remember to not to forget to mention that I forgot about the bomb switch panel. I may have a spare somewhere but if not, it's an easy scratch. I may still be able to add it with some arthroscopic surgery.

 

[Airframes]

A bit like a gynecologist, decorating his hallway through the letter box !!

 

[Crimea_River]

Yep.

 

[Crimea_River]

Sequence of fix to the step at the windscreen described above.

First the area was built up with thin styrene card. The the gun cooling air exit louvre was carefully cut out and left open and the layers of crd were set using Tamiya Extra Thin.

This next shot shows the area after I did initial filing/sanding of the built up card, then applied a coat of primer, allowed that to dry, and then sanded that smooth.

After cleaning the area, a shot of 02 was sprayed on. This reveals a pretty good first pass at the repair with minimal additional work needed. The filed seam at the transition of the windscreen and the top of the fuselage needs a bit more work and scribing of the covered details can now start. The discolouration in front of the louvre is just some paint that dried a bit glossy and no cause for concern.

Not the best pic but the area has now been re-riveted and rescribed. Looks like I could go over these details on more time and make them a bit more pronounced.

Overall, I'm pleased with how this turned out and can now move on to some initial painting. By the way, the patchy paint you see in other areas of the above pics shows what I tend to do if I have paint left over in my airbrush. In this case, I began some preshading.

 

[turbo]

Nice fix Andy, turned out well

 

[Airframes]

Bl**dy nice work there Andy, and by the time it's all pained etc, no one would know there had been a problem.
Of course, I won't tell anyone - but it'll cost you a jar of maple syrup, or a pint when you're next over to the civilised world !!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much Kirby and Terry. A little more progress to round out the day:

Before spraying the 65, I had to add the rudder cables. Eduard actually provide PE parts for this but I elected to make my own out of stretched sprue. I prefer my cables to be round in cross section, not flat! The horns were actually made into a sickle shape using a scalpel - they were provided as lumpy half moons in the kit.

Based on photos of bomb-mounted E-4's I went with this style of rack which fortunately was included in the kit. I had many spare racks of different styles but only one of this correct type. The stabilizers will be added later to minimize the risk of breaking them off.

With that done, I shot a first patchy coat of 65 on and allowed some of the preshade to show through. Tomorrow I'll go over this again with a slightly lighter mix.

Here's the repaired area, seen for the fist time with the finished colour. The cowl fastener needs to be tidied up a tad but otherwise it looks OK. It appears I also duplicated some rivets that I couldn't see even with my magnifier lens. Grrr.

That's it for today. Thanks for your interest and comments.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy Those duplicated rivets will most likely be hidden when the upper surface colours go on.

 

[Crimea_River]

Except that on this particular aircraft, that gun cowl is either plain 65 or bare aluminum. See profile in first post. Still trying to decide how I will depict this.

 

[fubar57]

Very nice do-overs

 

[T Bolt]

Great fix there Andy

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. I do need to tweak that cowl some more, especially if it goes NMF.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Very nice fix Andy, a lot of work but worth it.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thank-you Vic. The work continues as I've filled in the fastener outline and rivets with primer and will start over. I'm leaning toward making the cowl cover NMF as I can't imagine why it would be painted overall in 65. This means the details need to be very clean.