Galland's Bf 109E-4 1/32 scale

Thanks Andy, Woody Wayne. Your supportive comments really make me want to try harder.

Pulling out whip now...

Very nice indeed

That's looking tasty! Nice work Gerry.

Airframes said:

That's looking tasty! Nice work Gerry.

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Yes it is isn't Terry Cheers

Crimea_River said:

Sláinte, mate! Bloody great work!

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Andy: Go raibh maith agat. (Thank you), as St Patrick's day approachs. Mugu, Terry and Javlin, thanks also. I'm currently working on the undercarriage and will post some photos as soon as I have any thing to report.

Sorry Magnu, scrambled your name in my haste to get that last post away

Well...I'm looking forward to more....

Me too, and Gerry, I "tapped" the full extent of my Gaelic in that response!

Tá mé an-tógtha! Very well done, Gerry - and I apologise if my irish gaelic isn't what it used to be.
I had an irish boyfriend once - Séamus, and he taught me some rudimentary irish gaelic.
Oh alright: And to enjoy Guinness and real irish stew.
I definitely look forward to see more of your build here, you're very skilled.

Is mise le meas,

Maria.

Have a Guinness on me mate, sorry.....have several! Looks great!

Okay Gerry where is the update.

Maria, What a surprise! Tá do Gaeilge go h-iontach - Your Irish is wonderful. You'd put some natives here to shame. Obviously, them Irish fellas get everywhere! I'll return the compliment by having a pint of Carlsberg, in your honour, on Thursday, St Patrick's Day. I wouldn't say I was a very skilled builder. My hand/ eye co-ordination isn't as good as it used to be when I was younger (see below). I am trying to build to the best of my ability and you guys can be the judge at what level that is, when you see the finished product. Hoping to see some progress on your Galland build in the near future?

Lucky13 and Woody. This was a rugby Six Nations' Championship weekend here in Europe and indeed, I had several pints, hence not a lot of progress on the build. There were two games on Saturday, the big one for me, Ireland v. Wales, both of which I watched with some mates in the pub (we lost! ). As you can imagine, we had to drown our sorrows. When I was younger, living in the UK, I used play on the darts team in my local pub. I found that one or two pints had a beneficial effect, relaxing me and improving hand/eye co-ordination. Unfortunately three pints or more and I was rubbish. I suspect that the same applies to modelling, so that's my excuse for no progress. And as St Patrick's Day is this week - now a week long festival - I suspect several pints will be taken, so progress may be delayed somewhat.

Wayne, Andy and Wurger, see above. I'm working on the wing sub assemblies: oleos, radiators and cannons and am doing some basic work, removing ejection pin marks, thinning, filling and sanding then painting. I'll post some progress shots as soon as I have everything assembled. The England/Scotland match is just starting, so I'm off to watch that (more beer!).

Gerry said:

Maria, What a surprise! Tá do Gaeilge go h-iontach - Your Irish is wonderful. You'd put some natives here to shame. Obviously, them Irish fellas get everywhere! I'll return the compliment by having a pint of Carlsberg, in your honour, on Thursday, St Patrick's Day. I wouldn't say I was a very skilled builder. My hand/ eye co-ordination isn't as good as it used to be when I was younger (see below). I am trying to build to the best of my ability and you guys can be the judge at what level that is, when you see the finished product. Hoping to see some progress on your Galland build in the near future?
-cut-

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...so do I.
About Séamus: Well...he was a good teacher, at least language-wise.
And yes, you'll find irishmen all over the world - or a least one decent irish pub in every larger city here in Europe. Good beer, that Guinness - and Kilkenny, too. And a wonderful people.
Go raibh mile maith agat for the compliment about my irish, you're being very kind.
I must admit that it's been a while since the last time I used it, so it was great fun to try and dig out the proper phrases from rusty memory here.
I hope you'll enjoy your Carlsberg, I'll go see if I can find half a pint o' Guinness somewhere in Copenhagen on Paddy's Day - that is: If I can get into the pub for all the happy irishmen celebrating, and turning the pub green all over.

I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of your build. You're doing great, keep up the good work.

Is mise le meas,

Maria.

Lovely detail!!

Thanks again, Maria and Tony. Right, this is what has been keeping me out of the pub for the last few nights...

Photo 1. Is the work I did on the undercarriage sub-assembly. You can just about see the brake pipes I added to the front of the legs. The coloured wire represents the leather covered flexible brake hoses and I have added masking tape gaiters to the oleos. The wheels and tyres are still separate, as they will be painted different colours. I want to try painting as much as I can with my airbrush, as I feel it gives a thinner, smoother finish. Again the tail wheel will be disassembled for painting.

The canvas covers, for the wheel wells, were made out of the soft metal found around the necks of wine bottles, to give a fabric effect and are flexible enough to fit the shape. These will be painted as canvas, before installation. I started with a ring of paper (bottom) which was marked and trimmed to form a template, after a couple of fittings. This had to be done for both wells, as originally I thought I could get both by simply reversing the template but that doesn't work. The shape was traced onto the foil with a sharp pencil and cut. From the back of the foil, I imprinted the stitches as relief, using the back of a scalpel blade for the zip line from the front, in the same way.

Photo 2. The radiator and oil baths. The radiator baths were modified to Wurger's and Terry's (Airframes) instructions on their 109E builds, sides thinned down and with the notch in the starboard trailing flap filled with thin plastic card and the drain pipe fitted to the port bath. The oil bath got a new plastic card horizontal divider at the front and the curved trailing rear shutter (arrowed) replaces the thin shutter on the kit part. The cannons are out-of-the-box but I have drilled the barrels (I think you'll have to take my word for that!) and although they will be hidden in the wing, will be painted up.

Photo 3. Is the wing assembly, showing the work on the undercarriage tunnels and wheel wells and strengthening struts. I tried Terry's tip of using a cut straw for the tunnels, but just couldn't get it to work for me. I found them too springy to be able to position and glue. I reverted to very thin plastic card, with liquid poly and found that worked better for me. Holes have been cut in the tunnel walls to reveal the retraction jacks (arrowed) made from old sprue. The 'canvas' well liner has just been loosely positioned to show fit.

Photo 4. Everything was to get a coat of primer before painting, to see if any sanding/filling is necessary before painting, but ran out of grey primer before everything got a coat. So decided to finish here for the day and make this post. Need to make a trip to my local Hobby Shop or Halfords (there's only one that I know of in Dublin, and not even sure they stock plastic primer) in the next day or two to restock.

More photos to follow when I get some painting done.

Tony Hill. Sorry, Darryl, calling you by your forum identity name, without realising.

Gerry all i can say is excellent, always looking forward to your updates.

Gerry said:

... Right, this is what has been keeping me out of the pub for the last few nights...

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OK, stop NOW! You've gone too far and you need to stop, breath deeply, slap yourself on both cheeks if necessary and think about what you just said! This hobby can not replace beer.

Nice job, by the way.