Eduard 1/32 - Bf-109E-4 'Weekend Edition'

[jjp_nl]

The last few weeks have been typical for me when it comes to building. Enough projects already on the go, loads of ideas for these builds, good intentions to do some work on 'em…but for some reason I'm in a bit of deadlock when it comes to these builds…and then down the line I end up making serious progress on a kit I didn't even consider building until some other stuff was finished. So, with that said….I'm gonna throw another build at y'all for good measure.

A few weeks ago I purchased this large scale Eduard Bf-109E-4 Weekend Edition, but I didn't consider building it on such short notice….well, it turned out I was wrong. The kits has been a joy to build sofar, and progress was quite quick…let alone one or two small niggles.

I mostly build 1/48 fighters and 1/72 for the larger fighters and bombers, but I had been thinking about taking a little detour, and build a big scale kit. Why? Well it's a bit of a childhood thing I guess. My father used to be a pretty good model builder back in the day (that is until me and brother and three sisters came along) One of my earliest memories from when I was just a small lad was that I had two 1/32 scale a/c hanging on the ceiling of my bedroom. It was a 1/32 Bf-109E (Galland's kite) 'chased' by a 1/32 Spitfire MK.22/Mk.24. Both Matchbox kits I believe. I'm convinced these two kits worked their magic one way or the other and were instrumental in me discovering this fine hobby as well, and becoming the aviation nutter I am today. Therefore building a Bf-109E as a first big scale kit seemed like the natural thing to do for some reason.

Warning, I'm no member of the Messerschmitt Mafia, so if I missed a thing or two, or something isn't 100% hysterically correct… so be it. In other words a build according to the principle of "if it looks like a Bf-109 it probably is one". I've read that this Eduard kit is supposed to have one or two minor accuracy issues, but I didn't look into that really. If you feel a 109 should look 250% accurate....look the other way.

Preliminary conclusion of this build sofar:
- A very fine kit indeed. Comes together very quickly with little problemens for the most part
- Given the large scale detrail is a little sparse here and there (interior for the most part) This is ofcourse the result of the compromises of the Weekend Edition concept. On the other hand....experienced scratch builders should be able to take it to the next level without needing all the extra pre-fab bits and pieces that come with the Profi-Pack.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Looking good so far.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Hotntot]

Nice one. 8)

 

[Crimea_River]

Very, very nice Jelmer.

 

[jjp_nl]

Thanks guys! Another update for today. Went on to work on the remaining splinter camo on the upper fuselage. This ofcourse involved a little masking. Second step was to roughly spray the RLM02 patches using Revell Aqua #45, then another bit of masking to lay out the areas that needed to be dark green. Next step was spraying Revell Aqua #67 which is to my mind is pretty close to RLM71. I used a little piece of carefully placed blue tac (which is white here in NL BTW ) to mask around the fin.

With RLM65 already on the entire fuselage prior to doing the spliter camo, the pre-shade is all but obliterated on the upper fuselage. But since I need to go back in to do some post shading and an odd touch up here and there I'll working something out to pick out the panel lines on the upper fuselage again.

Since this will be my first full blown Luftwaffe camouflage paint job I'm still thinking about how to approach the final step of this paint job, the little green stripes on the side of the fuselage. Will be most likely a free hand job, but I think a first couple of future coats to seal the paint work sofar might not be a bad idea. Should I mess up the striping, it can be hopefully touched up or even removed without wrecking the basic RLM02/RLM71 over RLM65 scheme.

 

[Wayne Little]

Cool, nice work Jelmer!

 

[rochie]

looks fantastic

 

[Airframes]

Nice !

 

[jjp_nl]

Some more work on this 109. Went on to work on the yellow wingtips and stabilizers, and also some post shading. Might seem a little over done right now, but my experience is that things even out pretty well once you go in with gloss coats and matt coats, so I'm not too worried about it.

Still need to do a little patch of yellow on the rudder, but the color call-out on the instructions for that area is botched so I sat there with my airbrush loaded with yellow..not knowing if it was the right tint. This a/c, according to the instructions, has two different tints of yellow on it, a much paler/lighter tint on the wingtips and stabilizers, and a more intense tint of yellow on the spinner. The profile drawings in the instructions however tell me to use one tint of yellow on one side of the rudder and the different tint on the other side...which seems a little odd to me. For some reason I've come across similar mistakes in the color call-outs that come with Eduard kits. Nothing too serious really...but it seems strange for a company who pays so much attention to detail and research into their subject.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks great Jelmer. And I agree that those yellow colour tint variations seem a bit odd.

 

[woody]

nice work.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

WOW!!!! Excellent work Jelmer!!

 

[Airframes]

Looking good Jelmer. Strange about the yellow though.

 

[Wayne Little]

Seems odd to me too, all the recognition markings would have been applied at the same time so should be the same colour....can't possibly have run out to do one bit differently....

 

[jjp_nl]

A difference between spinner and the rest could happen I guess (if that spinner color was part of some sort of earlier applied unit ID markings or whatever (dunno what was carried by JG.54 though during early to mid 1940) and the rest (wingtips/rudder/stabilizers) was added later on during the latter part of the battle of France and the early BoB, but two different colors on on the same area seems odd.

 

[Airframes]

I can understand the spinner being slightly different, as this would probably be 04 paint, whereas the wing tips etc, as temporary tactical markings, being a 'washable', distemper-type paint, could be a slightly different tone. But can't see any reason or explanation for varied tones on these areas.

 

[jjp_nl]

It's being mentioned as RLM04 and RLM27. I think I'm gonna go with the RLM27 (which is as far as I can tell the paler lighter shade of yellow) for the little patch on the rudder as well. Since this also seems to be part of the ID markings applied later on

 

[jjp_nl]

So, a minor update for now. Managed to get the final patch of yellow on the rudder. Decided I'd got with what's on the rest of the a/c as well (the somewhat paler/lighter RLM27) and then make the spinner RLM04.

On the make preparations for a first few protective coats of future before I take the step to spray on the RLM71 stripe pattern on the sides.