Hasegawa 1/48 Bf 109K-4

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A little thinking ahead. I want to create the hard edge spots on the rudder that is so characteristics of late war 109K-4's so I tried out a couple of methods using a spare fuselage half. First up was Micro Mask. This is thick blue liquid that dries into a plasticky film that can be lifted off easily.


The results were good except that the Micro Mask is difficult to remove since the edge feathers down so much. I ended up taking a little spot of paint at the point where the Micro Mask is lifted off with the point of an x-acto.


Next I used Blu Tack putty. Once a small blob of blue tack is placed onto the model, I can push it into random shapes using a toothpick.


The Blu Tack also yields good results, minus the lifted painted. The edge is a little softer than the Micro Mask but that is not necessary a bad thing. I think I'll go with Blu Tack.


I replaced the bar on the cockpit sill with thinner brass tubing. The instrument panel, minus the gun sight, is glued into place.


The cockpit is then inserted up from the bottom opening and glued into place in the fuselage. The seat belt attachments points can now be bent down onto the cockpit sill.




Some of the smaller bits were modified... the Morane underwing antenna for the FuG ZY16 radar is fixed up with some stretched sprue.



The pitot tube tip is replaced with some brass tubing.



The loop antenna for the FuG ZY16 is replaced with a strip from a soda can. It's a bit kinky... will have to smooth it out some.

 
The Blu Tack is nice... easy to shape and leaves no detectable residue. When I first started, a few years back, I was using Silly Putty which resulted in some silly results.
 
Hi John, I really liked how you worked with the holes in the exhaust, a very fine and well made work.
This practice in the application of camouflage is a very good tutorial.
I follow your work closely.
Congrats friend.
 
Thanks for following this build! I'm waiting for a sunny day to photograph my P-38 so Jeff and I have been able to work on the K-4. The gun cowling was attached to the fuselage. Fit is good... maybe better than the real thing.



The inner wing control surfaces are separate pieces and they have been riveted. I added the ribs on the inner surfaces from spare PE fret for the G-10. The extra big rib is a replacement... maybe I can file it down some.



I glued the wings to the fuselage. Fit was good and what little gaps I found were filled with White Milliput.




The oil cooler intake has been glued into place.


Due to the thickness of the kit parts, I cut out replacements for the exhaust shields from brass sheet. The folded port shield hangs too low since I folded along the wrong line.





I glued the spinner onto the backplate after verifying that the props can be added afterwards. The spinner has been riveted. I also added a brass tube to the opening in the spinner tip.



That's all for now!
 

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