Here's what I've been at since my last post, with the 109E at last beginning to take shape.
Pictures 12. The wings, tailplanes, tailplane struts, air filter and control surfaces attached, with the exception of the rudder. I thought it would be easier to pre-paint, the yellow nose cowling, at this stage. The elevators have been positioned at a slight down angle. Because of the shims, the air filter was positioned higher than indicated. This meant just removing the locating pin at the back.
Picture 3. The underside. This, so far, is the only area where I identified a serious concern with this kit. The join under the nose cowl was a problem, with the openings on both sides not matching up properly and because the locating pins were removed to allow for a better engine fit, there was a slight step. This required a fair bit of filling and sanding, neither of which I would consider myself expert at. When painted, I notice it's still visible and will require still more sanding and repainting. The radiator baths have been masked to protect the pre-painted rads. The front and rear shutter to the oil bath still has masking tape on.
Pictures 45. Some work on the rear fuselage. I added the fuel door cover out of thin plastic card cut to the shape. This was scribed around and will be sanded down to a level with the surrounding panels. I choose this method because my scribing skills are seriously lacking. I've drilled a holes for the arial and sub-arial. The pieces of microfilament are to prevent paint from clogging them. I also scribed a channel for the rudder control cables and a hole where they exit the fuselage.
Picture 6. I've started to pull the canopy together. The front canopy has had to be slightly thinned at the bottom curve to fit around the after-parts canvas instrument cover. It also needed a thin shim to sit properly. I've started to mask it internally, for painting. The remaining sections haven't been masked yet. The centre section is from the vac-form canopy. Because of an uneven cut - even with a fresh blade I found it really hard to cut straight - I've added front and back frames from thin plastic strip. The metal frames, on both sides, and the opening handle are from the Aries kit with a knob added, from sprue. The spinner has been painted and test fitted. The back plate and blades still need painting in RLM 70, before final assembly.
Picture 7. I don't know if there are many of these old Matchbox kits still out there on people's shelves, awaiting assembly. If there are, then I would suggest you ignore the instructions sequence when it comes to the engine and install it last. I would also strongly suggest that you don't attach the oil radiator until the engine is in place in the engine compartment. I found that when the rad was attached to the base of the engine as instructed, it pushed the engine too far forward, so that the coolant tank was forward of the cowling front by about 2mm, meaning quite a gap between the prop back plate and the cowling. My own solution was to trim about 2mm off the back of the rad and seal it with plastic card. After a test fit with the engine, for position, I attached the rad to the cooler bath and cemented the lot into position. The engine is now easier to manoeuver in the compartment and fits better. As you can see, I got some overspray in the compartment and this will be re-sprayed before the engine is positioned. The more astute among you will also have noticed that I've knocked the MG barrel off, again!!!
Picture 8. The dihedral was mentioned in an earlier post. Although I was fairly sure that I had gotten it right, I conducted this little exercise in which I superimposed a diagram of the 109E (in red) over a frontal shot of by build. Obviously, although the perspective caused by the depth of field throws the proportion of the tailplane way out, you can see that at the front wings, the match is pretty accurate.
I would love to claim that my brilliance was responsible for this but, in fact, the tight fit of the port wing to the fuselage gave the dihedral accurately. After a visual check against the dihedral diagram, the starboard wing, which had a little more give, was adjusted to the same angle and held in place with tape until dry.
I've been trying to think how this technique might help in future builds but unfortunately, the wings need to be firmly in place before you can check the measurement.
I now need to finish the canopy and get it into position for painting and now that the aircraft is at this stage, I'll check for filling, sanding and polishing before the nose is masked and everything gets a coat of primer to show up any missed defects. Hopefully, any small defects can then be corrected and the plane masked for final painting. More updates will follow.