Hasegawa 1/48 Bf 109K-4

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I decided to add the circular rivet pattern on the upper wings above the wheel wells which are shown on the K-4 line drawings on the 109Lair website.


Using the Rivet-R Mini on a curve line is much more difficult than tracing a straight line. You can see how far off the line I am.


Another issue with the Rivet-R and tight curves is that you have to pause the run at short intervals to change direction and each time you do that, the Rivet-R teeth in the plastic move a bit and cause irregular holes. Not too noticeable after a light sanding.


The characteristic wide wheel well bulges are glued into place using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. There is a small sink mark on one of the bulges that needs to be filled.


After doing a bit of research, I turned my focus on the fuselage bottom. There are a number of small differences between the 109G and 109K in this belly area. The central armament system changed a bit for the K-4 from the previous G-series. Instead of collecting spent ammo for the center cannon in an internal tray, the K-4's MK 108 cannon ammo casings were ejected. So, an additional ejection port needs to be cut into the bottom. I started the slot using a small drill and opened it out with an x-acto. Also, the small square vent that is behind of the twin MG 131 ejector chutes, which provided ventilation for the internal ammo tray has been filled in with Mr Surfacer 1000


Next I've drilled a few small holes. A couple for the drop tank connections. The two holes forward of the ejector chutes are oil breather outlets for the DB605D engine.


The drop tank holes got too big so I "filled" them in with short pieces of brass tubing. The oil breather outlets are also augmented with brass tubing. Note that these tubes are not quite flush. I made up some rectangular tubes for the ejection ports using brass sheet.




I used the article by Vincent Kermogant on Hyperscale as a guide for the belly modifications.
Correcting the K-4 Belly by Vincent Kermorgant
 
Just a short update but representing quite a few hours of attention. While working on the bottom, I looked at the wheel wells and wanted to add a bit of detail. Using photos of aftermarket photo etch as a guide, such as RB Productions 1/32 109K Detail set, I thought I could cut something similar out of thin sheet brass.


After tracing out the details of the wheel well insert, I found that I could not cut a smooth curve at all. FAIL.


Tail between my legs, I tried again using thin sheet styrene. At first, it seemed like another failure since the initial cuts for the inner half moon were very rough. But I was able to scrape out a finer outline using a sharp x-acto and then turned the smoothing responsibilities over to a round file. I managed to hack out a couple of reasonable shapes. I'll try and add some detail on these.
 
I gussied up the wheel well inserts by adding rivets, scribed lines and stretched sprue. I need to straighten one of those ribs! Not completely happy with the results but I think it is better than the empty wheel wells.


Time to rivet the fuselage. Again, the guidelines are drawn onto the fuselage pieces with a soft lead pencil. The plans show lines of rivets next to the vertical panel lines but I am not going to do those as I do not want the rivets to stand out too much.


For the majority of the long rivet runs, I am holding the fuselage half steady against the table surface with my left hand and running the Rivet-R with my right. For my last run on the port fuselage, I thought I could get a better angle by holding the part off the table with my left hand. That resulted in the wobbly line you see above.


Holding off the one light sanding and polishing process, I filled the errant rivet line with Mr Surfacer 1000. I will do the sanding of the port fuselage AFTER the corrected rivet line is complete.


I didn't repeat the mistake on the starboard side, keeping the fuselage half on the table at all times.


The puttied area is sanded and polished before the new rivet line is applied.


Can't see it all that well but riveting on the rear fuselage is complete. There also is some minor rivet work to be done on the fuselage forward of the cockpit.


Once that is done, the fuselage sides can be glued together. The prop shaft gets trapped between the fuselage halves at this stage. The square protrusion on the angled wall behind the cockpit has been shaved off as this is a characteristic of G versions with MW-50, not the K-4.


After the glue is dry, I sand the glue seam down and then apply Mr Surfacer 1000 to fill in the small imperfections.

 
Good work John. Not sure if it's your plan but there is an argument to be made to scribe a panel line along the centerline of the fuselage spine between the pit and the tail. Also along the bottom in the same area.
 
Thanks guys! Yes Andy... scribing the panel line along the fuselage spine and bottom after the putty work was my intended plan. I just wanted everything to be nice and clean. I'll have to rescribe some of the hatches as well. I've actually gone through the effort of rescribing every panel line on the airplane just to get rid of any molding imperfections.
 
I hollowed the gun barrels with a sharp x-acto knife. No need for brass replacements IMO since they are reasonably accurate in shape and only the tips show.



Before I go any further with the fuselage seam work, I need to fabricate the closed wheel well doors. I started by sawing a piece of sprue in half.


I attach it securely with Tamiya Extra Thin and make sure that it is bigger than the actual doors. Once the glue dries, I can whittle it down to the correct size and shape.



I hacked at it with x-acto blade, sandpaper and sanding stick. As I get closer to the correct shape, I use finer and finer grits of sandpaper.


I dabbed the outline of the new piece with Mr Surfacer 1000 to bridge any noticeable gaps. After final cleanup with fine sandpaper and Micromesh, I carefully scribe the outline of the doors and a line down the middle to represent the closed joint.


There are some hatches close to the center joint that have either lost detail due to sanding and/or had soft detail to begin with. I'm going to fill these in with putty and rescribe them.


The small hatches between the windshield and engine cowl got completely erased by sanding so I'll have to scribe new ones.


After the puttied hatches are dry, I can scribe new ones. I like to avoid running new scribe lines over putty so the new hatches are a size smaller than the original. Sometimes it's hard to tell the true results so it is a good idea to put some primer on to check your work.


The hatches near the fuselage spine look ok after the primer coat is applied. I like to use Mr Surfacer 1000 diluted with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner as a primer. You can also see the panel line I've added along the spine.



The tail wheel doors look ok but they could use a little cleanup along the panel lines. Sometimes it's really tough to get a clean recessed line along a glued joint. Note the recessed panel line I've added down the centerline of the bottom fuselage.



A look at the joint under the nose. I've rescribed the lines around the chin bulges and a few lines of rivets have been added.


This hatch on the bottom didn't come out too well for a number of reasons. I'm going to fill it in with putty and re-scribe it.
 
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