Another Bf-109. This is the Hasegawa 1/48 Bf-109G-10, fully primed and ready for paint. I made a few modifications to the kit as I built it, namely some replacement resin wheels/tires from Ultracast, some scratchbuilt cockpit details, faired in the chin scoop, filled and smoothed the join between the gun cowl and the fuselage sides, dropped the elevators, removed the molded in wingtip nav lights and replaced with clear sprue, removed the external trim tabs from the rudder, added some missing panel lines, added a stretched sprue weld seam on the supercharger intake, and added some detail to the L/G struts.
Here are some photos of the detail work as I went:
Here how she looks today, ready for the paint shop:
Does anyone have a good photo of where the antenna mounts on the canopy side on an aircraft without the antenna mast? I just realized I haven’t done that yet, and probably should before I paint the beast.
She looks great frank, nice work on the cockpit and formation lights. You did lot of work on the control surfaces are you going to have the slots down as well? If so try this, to replicate the actuators just use small very thin strip styrene and glue it to the underside of the slot it’s self. Then cut to the correct length and glue the strip to the wing. I’s all you need to do in 1/48 scale and makes a big difference becasue you can easily see this on the top of the wing. It also makes the slot sit slightly down as it should.
G-10’s could of have the radio antenna attached in 3 ways. The most common (standered) is to the fuseloge spine just hehind the canopy and ahead of the fuel filler ports. A few mostly those fully equipted could of had it placed in the K-4 location (see pics). The third is NOT really a G-10, but really either a rebuilt older G or a mitt reg built G-10 which is actually a G-14 airframe. This would of had the sort mast with no tension system. The antenna would have hung slightly loose even with canopy closed.
Standered G-10 location. most common.
Late build mitt reg D powered G-10, with mast, note antenna droop. This one is unusual becasue it routed through the DF loop. either way this antenna would of had slack to allow the canopy to open.
The K-4 I just built, you can see the antenna attachment point is actually in segment 2. This is due to the K-4’s redesign. Some K-4 did have the antenna line attached to the fuselage in the standered G-10 location. No K-4 I have seen even carried a mast.
here a good line drawing I used before. It shows more clearly all 3 antenna attachment locations. Again I never seen a pic of a K-4 with a mast. It reads K-4 at the top but the antenna placement is correct.
Wow Frank! When do you find time to sleep. You have been cranking out some excellent work lately. Count me in also as one who will never get tired of looking at 109 builds in any scale.
Thanks fellas! I don’t sleep much, all that coffee keeps me up for days! Makes the detail painting a REAL challenge as well. [swg]
Thad- [:O] I dunno…how can a guy tell the difference between an E-4 and a G-10 and not know the difference between a Spitfire and a Japanese floatplane? [:-^]
Glad to see there’s others who agree- no such thing as too many '109s!
Stan- Once again, you demonstrate your 109 prowess! Thanks for the tip on the slots, I’m gonna go try that idea as soon as I finish typing this. [tup]
EDIT
Did you just take a thin strip of styrene, and glue it to the back of the slat? Then, run it over the recess in the wing up to the ledge leaving it proud of the wing inner surface?
Thanks also for the antenna info- that really helps! One other question about those- is the exit point behind the canopy just a hole for the antenna to poke out from, or is it a plastic fitting as seen on the rear portion of the spine? Also, is it centered on the fuselage or offset to one side? Thanks again! [:D]
Yep that’s exactally what I did. It’s got to be thin as not not lift the slot up too much. I forget what sized I use for 1/48. I had them so long I no longer have the package. I would take a close up pic of what mine looked like but my batteries are[xx(].
I have these 2 pics. You can’t really see much of it from these views. The strips are so thin they pretty much conform with the rescessed part of the wing. It really becomes surface detail almost. I highlight it with a black wash.
BW pic kinda helps.
Onthis pic you can see them better on the wing further from them camera.
It’s funny, just when I think a model is ready for paint, I find a bunch of things to do on it first. Last night and this morning, I opened up the four little scoops on the nose (thanks for the tip Guy!), added a tiny piece of styrene rod for the plastic aerial isolator, removed the plastic loop antenna and made a new one from a piece of a soda can, and a few other things. I tried making new exhaust shields from brass sheet, but wasn’t happy with those so I took the overscale kit ones and filed them back so they look much thinner (a little trick from the target modellers!). Here’s a couple more pics, she’s just about ready for the first paint layers. Thanks for looking in! [:)]
I also stripped the spiral decal from the spinner with oven cleaner. It looked OK, but I wasn’t completely happy with it so I removed it and am going to paint it on.
