Another Special Hobby 1/72 Bf-109E

@Russelle It must be something with the climate, they really thrive here :grin: !

I’ve managed to do a bit during the week…


…plan is to get the fuselage glued tonight!

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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Nice. Do you know whether the landing gear doors fit in the landing gear door openings? If you wanted to do a wheels up depiction?

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@phil2015 I haven’t tried since I’m not a wheels-up guy but I see no reason why they shouldn’t! I have an Eduard boxing of these that I can use for a test fit. Stay tuned :wink:

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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@phil2015 I’ve tested the gear doors: they fit fine in a closed position so go ahead, do a flyer :grin: !

Not really a killer update tonight but it is built, masked and ready for a coat of primer!

I have tried, in a very un-Magnus way, to learn something from the earlier four kits I’ve built and the major thing is to built as much as possible before painting, that’s the reason for the landing gear! I have also broken off the tail wheel, this makes it five out of five…

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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I really enjoyed that series, although as you correctly point out, the narrative was fomulaeic.

But you’re right, they seemed to rely almost exclusively on 3D scans and photographic evidence to feed their CAD - which is all very well if the subject matter is ‘right’.

I think it slightly disengenuous to say that the senior management weren’t modellers - it was made clear on several occasions that the CEO had been building kits since a boy. But, although he had a good eye for detail, he, like most of us (I suspect) wouldn’t have a clue if the finished article was 100% accurate. It wasn’t clear from the series whether the designers were using other sources of reference material.

I hope they make another series.

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Roly, not to hi-jack Magnus’ thread, but Airfix have a policy that they will only kit a subject if one of the following two conditions can be met: Their first and preferred choice is a reliable set of engineering drawings of the subject matter exists, from which a design can be converted to CAD; OR, their second, less preferred option, is where an extant example exists which can be scanned…

Meanwhile, Magnus, the 109 farm is continuing to produce excellence :grin:

PS. Do you see Eduard’s new S-199 landing on your bench sometime soon?

There’s a certainly the dual combo kit will wing its way into my stash (quietly, no fanfare, so ‘her indoors’ doesn’t notice, of course :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

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@Russelle Regarding the S-199, that one is not a REAL 109 and I have my reputation to think of so I would of course NEVER EVER DREAM OF building one. Or two :grin: :grin: ! Just by looking at the sprues: it is a worthy addition to the stash and well worth risking the wrath of the Gods (or the wife) for :grin: !

And a small Emil-update as well:


Primer, some dark aluminium and salt-chipping. Let’s see if this works better than me doing the chipping with a paint brush, no matter the amount of practice and studying of Youtube videos, I still only end up with something that looks like smeared paint :frowning:

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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Some painting done, I’ll just need to do the black parts of the crosses, then it’s time for the green puffs. The high point of this project :slight_smile: !


It’s lost one of the landing gear doors, it’s stored safely and will be reattached soon!

My salt chipping makes the model sensitive to handling, I have to reapply my lost chipping every now and then. I have a small plate with salt at the building table, perfect for the breakfast egg as well! Next time I’ll probably try MikroMask instead, it won’t work as well with the egg though :grin: !

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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:joy: :joy: :joy:

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But tastes better than paint :crazy_face:

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After a Frantic Freehanding Friday with the airbrush, this is the current state of affairs!

Some minor adjustments to do, then a coat of clear and a bunch of decals to suffer through :slight_smile: !

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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Decals are on! I have to admit that I have grown quite fond of Eduard’s new decals where you can peel off the carrier film after the decal has settled on the model. Treat them as ordinary decals with setting solutions and so on and go back after a day to get rid of the film.


The plastic part for the filter was a disappointment but I choose to use it as it came anyway. With the decals for the grilles on it turned out just fine though :slight_smile: !

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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The title of your post should read “NOT just another…” Fantastic work.

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@HGBARNES Thanks a lot :slight_smile: ! The thread title refers to @Merlin and his 109-thread, he was lucky enough to get his before I got mine. On the other hand, by now I’ve done four of them with the fifth nearing completion so I am in the lead in the quantity-competition for the time being :grin: !

Just a quickie before going away for a few days:

A wash, some not-to-matte clear and beginning the detail painting!

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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Friends!

It got a bit drawn out in the end, mostly due to this:

As I’ve said earlier, the weakest parts in these fantastic kits are the canopies. They are clear but thick, with a closed canopy it is almost acceptable but with an open canopy it really sticks out!

I found an old Falcon-set where I could pick a canopy for an F, it felt just fine until I realised that I had to glue the armour plate inside it :frowning: . The vacformed canopy is non-sticky and extremely pliable so getting something to stay fixated long enough to nail it with some glue was almost impossible. The closest I got was white glue but as soon as I handled the canopy it sprang loose again :frowning: .

What solved the problem was fixing the armour in place using masking putty and then, extremely carefully, applying black super glue. Finally done :grin: !


I’ve already done my traditional portrait session but realised when I looked at the pics in Lightroom that I had forgotten to paint the red trim tabs! See this one as a teaser, I’ll be back in an hour :slight_smile: !

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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Another fine addition to your “Hundertneun” collection, Magnus! You must have finished more of them than me by now. Well done! :+1:

Torsten :beers:

UA

@BlackWidow Check below, there is a group photo of the “Evil Quintet” :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t say these kits are complicated but there is a fair bit of parts and a thing or two to be learnt for every build. It gets a bit easier and a bit better with each!

I’ll do something else now but I’m sure I’ll be back with more or these. I’m sure there will be a Galland-boxing (the telescopic sight he used in at least one of his machines can be found among the clear parts…) and I would like to do a more typical North Africa machine than this one, I would like one where the blue goes up on the fuselage sides. Also, even if I’m happy with this one, painting can be improved further.

I was fairly happy with the salt weathering, I especially like the effect on the prop blades (I have always had trouble weathering props) and I’m disgustingly happy with the very thin antenna wire (not really rocket science but I like it anyway :slight_smile: ). There are some painting mistakes (some of which I didn’t see until it was too late and some that I elected not to see…) and I managed to break the tailwheel on this one as well before it was finished so there is room for further improvement :slight_smile: !


Finally, the Evil Quintet. They do look menacing, don’t they?

As promised, the Legion Condor-machine got a new canopy. The Rob Taurus canopy was every bit as nice, if not even better, than the nowadays sadly rather hard-to-get Falcon sets. Highly recommended!

And with this, another 109 has been added to the collection…

:raising_hand_man:

Magnus

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Once again Magnus, you’ve excelled!

The “Evil Quintet” looking truly menacing in all the right ways :slightly_smiling_face:

Now, has the North African machine arrived on the work bench yet, to make this an “Evil Sextet” or is a change of subject on the cards? :sunglasses:

@Russelle Not yet! I’ll spend my time with these for the time being. As soon as there is another interesting boxing of the SH 109 I’ll get it though :grin:

Magnus

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Looking through Scalemates, I think that the plastic in all these kits is identical, it’s just the decals and instructions that differentiate them?