**** DONE: GB-57 1/48 Bf 109E-3 Swiss – WWII Foreign Service

Vic Balshaw · Mar 10, 2023

Thanks Wayne.

Crimea_River · Mar 10, 2023

Those are amazing additions Vic. Need to look up "MITR" now.

Gnomey · Mar 10, 2023

Good work so far Vic!

T Bolt · Mar 10, 2023

Great add-on's Vic

Vic Balshaw · Mar 10, 2023

Many thanks gents and if you find out what MITR means Andy, please let me know. Wojtek may know as he passed me the article I've been following that I translated from Polish.

Ralph Haus · Mar 10, 2023

In awe at the detail-details. It will take some convincing to get me at this level...it's called patience! Great scheme. This will show well.

Vic Balshaw · Mar 10, 2023

Many thanks Ralph. Basically it's just a fixation I have in detail and the satisfaction in being able to do it, regardless of frustrations involved. And when it boils down to it, this sort of detail is locked away never to be seen again and has no bearing on how the finished model looks, so one does wonder why bother in the first place.

Ralph Haus · Mar 10, 2023

Vic Balshaw said:
Many thanks Ralph. Basically it's just a fixation I have in detail and the satisfaction in being able to do it, regardless of frustrations involved. And when it boils down to it, this sort of detail is locked away never to be seen again and has no bearing on how the finished model looks, so one does wonder why bother in the first place.

Ahhh! But you know its there, and that is really the important part. For me, I suppose it's the frustrations of skills (age!!) not keeping up with dreams. But whatever I do produce always seems a bit better than the last. Achieving levels of some here, yourself included, may be elusive, but a goal none the less. Keep up the inspiration for me and others....

Wurger · Mar 10, 2023

Crimea_River said:
Those are amazing additions Vic. Need to look up "MITR" now.

Vic Balshaw said:
Many thanks gents and if you find out what MITR means Andy, please let me know. Wojtek may know as he passed me the article I've been following that I translated from Polish.

In the site Nachbau Gerätebrett Me 109 E Schweiz | Deutscheluftwaffe , the handle is depicted as the " Zuggriff für den Ladeunterbrecher-Motor".
In the pics on the site it can be nocided that there are two cables coming out of the handle base in the back.
The image below shows these two tie-rods ( the bottom right corner of the pic ) going to the two fuselage MGs. The "MITR." seems to be the abbreviation of the French "mitraillette" what just means the machine gun and the French "décharger" means unloading so the handle is for unloading of the top fuselage guns.

the source: Schweizer Fliegertruppe Me 109 DB from the Fliegerkompanie 21

BTW .. found two nice shots of the pilot's panel for the Schweizer Bf 109Ea ....

the source:

Bilder Messerschmitt Me 109 - Kategorie: Messerschmitt Me 109 - Bild: Messerschmitt Me 109 E Cockpit

Messerschmitt Me 109 E Cockpit

old.hermannkeist.ch

Cockpitprofil Messerschmitt Bf 109 E | Deutscheluftwaffe

www.deutscheluftwaffe.de

Vic Balshaw · Mar 10, 2023

Thanks once again my friend, you never fail us. What a great link, so much detail and I can see more to do but in this scale I think I've done enough.

Wurger · Mar 10, 2023

My pleasure.

Crimea_River · Mar 10, 2023

Interesting Wojtek. The German wording refers to a motor which is a bit puzzling. I wonder what kind of motor would be associated with unloading guns.

fubar57 · Mar 10, 2023

Great mods Vic and I hope all your test turn out OK

36feet10inches · Mar 11, 2023

I'm reading The Most Dangerous Enemy by Stephen Bungay at the moment, apparently Swiss Bf 109's gave some Luftwaffe Bf 100's a proper pasting when the latter violated Switzerland's neutrality by entering Swiss airspace. Never knew that.

Wurger · Mar 11, 2023

Crimea_River said:
Interesting Wojtek. The German wording refers to a motor which is a bit puzzling. I wonder what kind of motor would be associated with unloading guns.

Yes. The german words there suggest the contact breaker or an interrupter. However a such thing was made as a single switch usually. So I can't see any reason for using of a such control way of an engine that could be shut off with one switch. Secondly the "Motor" word in the name may refer to the engine compartment and the guns mounted there. Also, the " Ladeunterbrecher-Motor" can be just a name of the mechanizm for ammo loading.
On the other hand, taking the German grammar into consideration ... if the "Zuggriff für den Ladeunterbrecher-Motor" would mean the engine interrupter the "Motor" word in the name wasn't written with the dash but it would be the one long word or it would be of the different order eg. "Zuggriff für den Motor Ladeunterbrecher". Certainly I may be wrong.

There is another point for using the two cables and the handle ... the two guns Orlikon Buhrle above the engine block were Swiss made. These did not have an "automatic through-loading" like their German made MGs. For this reason, the Swiss version had two pull handles to load the two on-board weapons before firing. Well, it looks like the loading and unloading had to be done manually before and after shooting.

Additionally it can be noticed in the pic below that the cable is attached to the MG but not to the engine or any engine device. So it is quite clear that the handle was for operation with the fuselage MGs. In the case for unloading before landing. To sum up .. either the caption of the pic on the site with the replic of the pilot's panel is incorrect or it refers to another part. Anyway , all info I have found so far allows me to believe that's the MG unload handle.

the source: Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3, Matchbox 1:32 von Helmut Dominik

Vic Balshaw · Mar 12, 2023

Thanks George.

Vic Balshaw · Mar 12, 2023

Managed to make some headway today. Cockpit almost finished, just need to add the shoulder harness which in the Swiss model has a restraining strap on the shelf behind the pilots seat. Anyway, she is buttoned up and ready for the next phase of the build.

Interior prior to joining it all up. Port side.