Hasegawa 1/48 Bf 109K-4

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Good work there John, that rectangular hatch on the lower fuselage is always vaguely moulded on any 109 kit as it sits in a spot where there cannot be much detail due to the near vertical angle it sits at, the tool needs to release and open from the moulded part. If it were any deeper it would create what is called an undercut and catch on the moulded part and damage it during the opening sequence.
 
Thanks guys!

Nice scribing of those hatches John. Do you use templates taped to the model?
Yes, I have a set of scribing templates that I pulled off from EBay. They are a bit limited in terms of shapes. All of the rounded square templates have the same corner radii so if you need to do a square with more rounded corners, you have to scribe it in parts (straight lines and then the corners using the circle templates. That's what messed me up on the last square hatch... corners didn't match up.

Definitely tape the template into place to secure it, especially if you are scribing on a non-flat surface. You don't want that template to slip... learned that the hard way.

Thanks for the explanation of the bottom hatch and molding limitations, Wayne!
 
The bottom hatch was filled and re-scribed. The corners should be more rounded but I didn't want to mess with a multi-phase scribing process on such a small square.
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The oil cooler screen was painted silver and then given a black wash to highlight the mesh. I've added a piece of stretched sprue to the front end of the oil cooler fairing to replicate the brace that is there.
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Added the weld seam to the supercharger scoop using stretched sprue.
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The exhausts... these are quite small and the tips have a skinny shape, which makes it quite difficult to hollow out but I'm going to give it a shot. If I fail, I'll order some aftermarket exhausts.
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Each exhaust tip is given three tiny holes with the tip of a very sharp x-acto knife. Placement of these holes is very critical because if they are too close to the edge, the x-acto knife will simply blow out the side.
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The holes are "connected" using the x-acto blade. It takes careful, tedious scraping and gouging to give the exhaust ends a hollowed out look. Only one minor blowout occurred and that was repaired with a wee styrene scraping and Tamiya Extra Thin.
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Takes some effort but I think the result is worthwhile. Hopefully, the exhaust shields don't cover up too much of this work.
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Thanks for the comments! Hollowing out the exhausts was so tedious that I had to do it in a couple of sessions. I ended up blowing out the last exhaust tip, which should've been the easiest since it was the end one and no other exhaust tips were in the way. Go figure. It was repaired using a sliver of sprue.
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The exhausts have deflector plates that slot in above. They are on the thick side so I'll have to thin them out before I glue them into place, which will be after painting.
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I wanted to see what the white wheel well inserts looked like with some paint so I gave them a coat of RLM02.
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A dark pastel wash to bring out the details.
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Angled sill behind the pilot's head was spruced up with some details.
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After painting and a wash.
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The instrument panel has been glued in from the bottom opening. You can see some putty on the little hatches in front of the windshield. The rescribed hatches came out a little messy and needed some filler.
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Good stuff John. I was surprised by the big bar you added on the sill behind the seat.
I based it from the 1/32 Eagle Editions 109K-4 cockpit set.
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But it is a bit big isn't it? Shouldn't be a problem to resize it.
 

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