Messerschmitt Bf 110G-4 1/48 scale

[Hotntot]

Here's a diorama of a Bf 110G-4 with serials and werk number for Luftwaft Nachtjagd pilot Heinz Vinke, II./NJG1 1944. KIA on 26/02/1944 along with his crew BF (Unteroffizier) Uffz Rudolf Dunger and BS Uffz Rudolf Walter by F/Lt Lallemand and F/O George Hardy, both of 198 Squadron and flying Hawker Typhoons, in a shared kill.

He flew 150 missions with a score of 54 night victories making him the highest scoring non-commissioned nightfighter Luftwaffe pilot and was awareded the Ritterkreuz in 1943 and the Eichenlaub posthumously in April 1944.

Okay, enough history. Hope it helps a bit though as a bit of background info.

The plane itself took some time as I did a bit, then read further on the aircraft camo choices and looked long and hard at other builds in search of tips, advice, how to's and encouragement, and then carried on again. I 'took time out' along the way to give myself a break from the Me and deviated to the figures and other vehicles. So it all came together over a couple of years as I put it down and picked it up again.

The exhaust markings may be a bit thick but I wanted them to show up when the model was on the diorama. They look bolder in the photo's than they do for real. Either way, I did have a couple of goes at it but hopefully next time my technique will be better.

The sitting pilots are very good molds (handled with care when sawing extrenuous bits off as they're brittle) and, whilst they took some time, were great figures to do. The standing figure got a load of detail added which took a while.

The blackmen...and a few other maintenance crew members and vehicles etc.

I found someone to print up the kill decals. Then, to fit them on they had to be individually cut out and placed on - which took some time and was very fiddly. Plenty of microsol was used to get them to sit down. Frankly, they are not that well aligned but maybe next time I'll be better at it.


If you spotted the rod under the fuselage - well done. As intrusive as it is I'm afraid it has to be there to stop 'wee' figures of little people shoving and moving it about. There is a case too but even so - nudging and pushing that would send the aircraft crashing into the other wee diddy blackmen - not good.

I wanted to show plenty of weathering and wear to show some hard use.

It was a long slog doing all the different vehicles, figures and even the dio base - nevermind the plane itself, which is only one of three builds so far and for which I found there was plenty to do. But it was enjoyable none the less.

So - on to the next one...

 

[Crimea_River]

Wow, you did a fine job there , especially on the figure detail painting. For 1/48 the fine lines on the tunics are beautifully done. I do need to correct you on your aileron placement though. Deflection was always opposite on each wing and definitely not quite so severe. One side shoujld have the aileron deflected up. I really like the build and dio though. Great work!

 

[Lucky13]

Very nice!

 

[Hotntot]

Crimea_Rivera - I do need to correct you on your aileron placement though. Deflection was always opposite on each wing and definitely not quite so severe. One side shoujld have the aileron deflected up. I really like the build and dio though.

Thanks CR, I remember thinking about the angle of aileron deflection the next day after setting them. I should have attempted to reset them but worried about making a complete hash of it so I left them. They do get lost a bit for being so angular. Thanks for the tip on one being deflected up. Live and learn...I'll note that for the next one.

More advice welcome from anyone as this is one of only three aircraft built so far...plenty to learn from the seniors.

 

[jjp_nl]

Wonderfully done! So, what kit is this? The Eduard G-4? I have started work on that one too as of late. Come to to think of it, wouldn't the interior color on these later BF-110 have been RLM66 rather that what seems to be RLM02 (I know this is as per the Eduard instructions) on your build? I'm not exactly sure on how the use of certain interior colors developed on the BF-110, but I was always under the impression that in general early war german (fighter?) a/c inused RLM02 and as the war progressed RLM66 came more and more into use.

 

[rochie]

nice work

 

[Hotntot]

Come to to think of it, wouldn't the interior color on these later BF-110 have been RLM66 rather that what seems to be RLM02 (I know this is as per the Eduard instructions) on your build? I'm not exactly sure on how the use of certain interior colors developed on the BF-110, but I was always under the impression that in general early war german (fighter?) a/c inused RLM02 and as the war progressed RLM66 came more and more into use.

Yes - it's the Eduard Bf 110G-4 Profack kit 8206. As you say - Eduard state RLM 02 for the interior but you're right - it should be RLM 66...thread discussion here:

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/your-completed-kits/messerschmitt-bf-110g-4-1-48-scale-30620.html

Don't know how far you've got into your build but I found that the nacelles were not a perfect fit at all and needed some 'fitting' and milliput filler work (as did some of the wing fittings). Still - it got me learning more about shunting it all together.

 

[jjp_nl]

Funny you should mention the nacelles. With many other projects on the go my 110G-4 is slow going ATM. Only made a slow start with it here
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/start-finish-builds/eduard-bf-110g-4-weekend-edition-1-48-a-30258.html

I decided to get one of the most tricky parts of the kit out of the way first, being the nacelles. Mine are all but done right now. Maybe a few coats of Mr.Surfaces to fill up some final irregularities and a good polishing of the seams and that part is out of the way. I'll kick my topic for sure once more substantial progress is to be reported (as I think we've all seen the endless filling/sanding/polishing routine by now)

You're right though, the Eduard kit is a good excercise in working some tricky joins into a smooth surface.

 

[Hotntot]

Thanks for the thread. Looking good there on the nacelles. Drewes must have had the SN2 radar. You'd want the best available I would have thought. Look forward to seeing the next stage.

 

[jjp_nl]

Yep, Drewes' must have had SN2 by then, especially since G9+WD was refitted as a night fighter (most likely with the latest and best available equipment at the time, him being a top scorer) once G9+MD was lost in combat. You might read there's a few more possible subjects in the picture, but I'm still a long way off to deciding which one it's gonna be.

Possible subject of my build are:
One of Drewes a/c (G9+MD or G9+WD)
Joachim Jabs a/c (<<< G9+AA)
Still considering one of Schnauffers late(r) war mounts too.

That's the difficult thing about there top-scoring night fighters. It seems they were allowed to have their a/c modified according to personal preference in order to have them operate at peak efficiency. It seems there's only a few pic's in general of the top scoring aces a/c due to the secretive nature of all the high-tech equipment on board (think about the effort the Reich authorities put into making sure 'Wim' Johnens a/c was destroyed once it was forced to land in Switzerland)

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Excellent work!

 

[Hotntot]

Possible subject of my build are:
One of Drewes a/c (G9+MD or G9+WD)
Joachim Jabs a/c (<<< G9+AA)
Still considering one of Schnauffers late(r) war mounts too.

All good choices, of course, jjp_nl. Remember reading how the Swiss got twelve planes out of the Third Reich out of the forced landing but not before thoroughly examining the plane and all its wizardry pior to being blown up. Read also that he had a right knees up the night he landed with a load of Yanky bomber crews who had also deviated there and were billeted as POW's. One day I'm going to do an early 'Vinke' Nightfighter in it's all black camo - but I'll wait until I've done some others and up'd my game I think. I've got an Eduard W/e edition Bf 110E waiting in the wings for that day.

 

[jjp_nl]

Yup, that's the story. I think the story with Johnens landing was that he had an engine damaged (by the bomber he was chasing) and therefore had no choice but to land in Switzerland once he found out he was in Swiss airspace. Had that not been the case he wanted to pretend as if he was going to comply with the Swiss instructions to land, and upon approaching the airstrip throttle his kite up to full power and make a low altitude get-away back into German airspace. Apparently he and his crew indeed had a helluva party afterwards with the stranded allied aircrews and swiss aircrews present at the base.

Switzerland indeed got a bunch of BF-109G out of it..except they all had worn out engines installed prior to being transferred to the Swiss. I think Switzerland even took the case to court port-war and at some point in the 50's/60's (?) Messerschmitt and/or Daimler Benz had to financially compensate the Swiss for the crappy a/c they delivered during the war.

I too have the Eduard 'E' Weekend waiting in the wings which I intend to finish as a night fighter If you need any pic of Vinke's very first BF-110C-7 (G9+JM, werk.nr 2075) drop me a line. I have a few nice pics of this mount shorty after he crashed it sometime in mid '41 I think (severely injuring his back in it) A BF-110C can also be made out of the Eduard 'E' kit as far as I can tell.

Jelmer

 

[Hotntot]

Very interesting. Didn't know about the duff engines and subsequent court case after the war. Yup - definitely interested in the pics, many thanks. I'm pretty sure that's right on the making of a 'C' out of an 'E' kit.

 

[otftch]

Obviously a lot of work. Great job.
Ed

 

[le_steph40]

Very beautiful work Great model and great diorama !!!
The Eduard Bf 110G-4 is in my future project to build one of the H. W. Schnaufer aircraft... But I don't know when...

 

[Wayne Little]

I like it, a real nice effort!

 

[Airframes]

Looks very good, nicely done. A couple of observations on the aircraft and accessories; the radar antenna should be angled, with the lower forks painted with red/white stripes (safety for ground crew), and there was normally only one radio antenna wire on the '110G, on the starboard side. The flame damper 'tubes' were normally black painted, with little, if any, rust or heat discolouring. For the period shown, the vehicles, ground handling equipment, oil/fuel drums etc would have been finished in an overall Dark Yellow, with vehicles probably having a disruptive pattern of Dark Green and/or Weinrot (Brown-red).
To be honest, these are not too noticeable in the diorama, which looks very authentic.

 

[Hotntot]

le_steph40:- The Eduard Bf 110G-4 is in my future project to build one of the H. W. Schnaufer aircraft... But I don't know when

I know what you mean, plenty to get on with with the Eduard kit.

****************************************************************************

Airframes:-A couple of observations...

That's for the great observations Airframes. The radar antenna gave me a bit of jip and I had to re-glue them back on a couple of times (being sticky-out bits that easily get caught and snap/spring off). I didn't do the red/white stripes on the antenna you mentioned because I wasn't sure if NJG 1 had them on their aircraft but I will probably go back and do them now. I did wonder about the antenna wire and when researching I seemed to get conflicting examples. I can always take one off - ta for that. You know what -if I mess around with the flame damper 'tubes' I'll probably get myself into more trouble than it's worth and mess it up so I'll probably have to live with it now. On the Kettenkraftrad and oil drums etc I shied away from the Dark Yellow and disruptive pattern camo because it seemed a bit incongruous for a western front war theatre and the German Grey was given as the other camo option but that doesn't mean it's necessarily correct of course. (At the time I didn't find a colour image of one in the field or black white one hinting at that).

Thanks for your help. Really useful stuff to know.