**** DONE: GB-45 1/72 Bf 109E-3 - BoB/Foreign Service

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Getting ready to close it up and start on the exterior. The landing gear have a narrow strip of BMF for the chrome strut. There is no stick because that twanged off to neverneverland. Did the vacuum with a stocking but no luck Of course it won't be visible but we all will know it's not there.

Again, I can't marvel enough about how precise these Tamiya kits fit together. To those of you here who build the older or limited run kits and have to deal with all the fit and accuracy issues, I salute you for your dedication, love and ingenuity to make all the other builds look as good as they do. I may not comment on the other threads, but know that I look at every single one.
 
Ready for final closure and paint. I have decided NOT to do the resin flaps. I don't feel confident enough yet in my skills to cut the wing up. I will be using them in the next 109 build when a replacement kit is more available. I started using Evergreen white canopy glue; it's like Elmer's white but is a little thinner and stronger. The Tamiya extra thin cement is like water, it flows into the joints and is solid when dry.

I was thinking about mounting the rudder at an angle, and would be easy to do but, after looking at a number of parked operational 109's, it seems that the rudder and elevator are usually centered. It makes sense to me that there would be a way to lock those surfaces so the wind wouldn't blow them around but I've never heard of anything like that. Was the system self centering or did it just flap and the ground crew not worry about it?
 
Good progress.
Control locks were used to hold the control surfaces, inserted into the 'joint' of each control. These were normally simple 'H' section pieces of wood, painted red.
On later '109's, there were rectangular stencil outlines, showing where these were to be fitted, and the one on the rudder was normally clearly visible in photos.
In the absence of control locks, the seat harness was often used, wrapped around the control column and fastened tight, which most often meant that the elevators were in the 'Up' position.
 
Got the 3 exterior colors done.


When I retired last year, and before I found this forum, I had a vague plan to build a couple Spitfires showing the major changes to the airframe. I built the prototype years ago so I have the beginning already done. The future group builds seemed to offer a chance to build some later marks. A close read of the descriptions states A/C of WWII. Is there any stretch to allow a post war Spit to be included in GB 48 Maritime and GB 49 Favorite? I'm looking at a Seafire Mk 47 and a bubble canopy Mk XVI which were built after '45.
 
GB's 48 and 49 were polled to be specifically for the WW2 era. We normally start a discussion thread a few weeks before the GB start date to begin discussing options and answering questions. Sometimes, depending on agreement from entrants, we bend the themes a bit so I would suggest you wait on the GB's so we can discuss the options. But if you can't wait that long, at this time it's strictly WW2 based on the polls.
 
On the final stretch, painting is done, only assembly and cleanup are left. I've been ambivalent on doing the exhaust, but finally decided I should. Not real happy with the brush painting on the Spit, so I did this to airbrush it. My old Paasche can't do a freehand line, so used blu-tack.

Next I used paper and tape to cover the rest.

I used mixed 11 German Grey; Red Brown; and SG Clear, thinned it out and just breathed it onto the side.

Looks good except I touched some tape to the decal and pulled it off. Did better on the other side.

What did I learn. Make a plan at the beginning, and stick to it. I should have put only the decals that were going to be sprayed over on and waited till after to do the rest. Oh, and I spilled some paint on my pants; change into your modeling pants and shirt!!

Next post will be the finished. Next time I'll do it right, mumble, mumble, mumble.
 
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