Marek Bf109 E-1 (1/48)

[Siwi]

With the Ju-88 finished it was time to tackle a kit that had been sitting on my hard drive for over a year but I had so far not felt ready to take on - a Messerschmitt Bf109 E-1, in the colours of a machine flown by Kurt Ubben in 1940. Ubben was amongst the highest scoring Luftwaffe aces of the war, and up to his death in 1944 he had 110 confirmed kills in both Bf109s and FW-190s. This aircraft, 'Red 13' has the distinctive 'witch' fuselage art of his Jagd/Tragergruppe 186, although I can't confirm whether it was in this aircraft he achieved his first victory in May 1940.


The Bf109 needs little introduction, suffice to say that the E-1 model was the first to make significant changes over the pre-war versions, notably the introduction of the DB601-series engines over the former Junkers Jumo types, and with it moving the radiators to under the wings.



Anyway, to the build. I needn't have worried about the difficulty of the kit, which is excellent and goes together just as well with the scale reduced. As per the part numbering sequence the first cuts were to make the cockpit. I like to scratchbuild 'minor modifications' to quote one Youtube plastic modeller, and so added a seat cushion, and made my own seatbelts (those required a LOT of breath control to do the minute cuts and pen markings). The kit cockpit does have a couple of inaccuracies, not least a particular irk of mine which is when seatbelts are mounted to the mid sides of the seat rather than correctly at the rear - not only would this not hold the pilot as well but would have to be loose not to interfere with his ability to control the rudder. I also removed and rebuilt the throttle lever to a position at idle, rather than improbably at cruise power seeing as the machine is intended to be built on its landing gear with no pilot! A second lever on the throttle mount (which is somewhat too far back...) was added based on references. Also painted over everything again copying what people do on Youtube, so a dark base layer and then the use of lighter dilute colours to create shadows and highlights, a bit of wear and generally make things look more interesting. References show all manner of shades so I went with a likely RLM dark-ish grey.



A nice technique I discovered by accident was when gluing the two layers of the instrument panel together was to score gently around the cutouts with the knife - this pushes the top layer in and gives the effect that the gauges are proud of the panel itself.

[T haf]

Just based off the cockpit alone, this is gonna be a cool airplane to watch come together. The seatbelt and seat assembly is tiny. Very nicely done so far. Clean cuts and edges, great start to a great plane.

[Siwi]

In between worrying about phantom leg injuries and rehearsing a concerto by CPE Bach, I finished the cockpit. I did add quite a lot of detail in there which wasn't included in the kit, in fact I find the absence of certain quite prominant items strange.


The pedals are practically invisible, I may have set them slightly too high. Ah well, they did look good with all the holes punched and a drybrush of aluminium. Home-built items include the throttle lever, the prop pitch control, the seat height lever, the cyberpunk-looking oxygen system with the holes in, the handle to open the radiator and oil cooler (yes, this was manually controlled and was actually quite an important skill in combat), and a storage pocket which I guess would be convenient to store some frankfurters or a photo of your sweetheart in a dirndl. There should actually be two trim wheels side by side on the pilot's left, but it's hardly noticible. I used a wet blend of grey, yellow ochre and burnt sienna to get a worn wood effect on this.



Two parts I was a bit confused by: the gunsight, specifically how far out it should protrude from the panel; the position to glue the panel in; and part 20 (top edges of the cockpit) which is indicated as being pushed through the panel from behind but this seems kinda wierd and it better matches the real thing glued the other way round, attached behind the seat.


Now that's basically done I started work on the fuselage skins, adding rivet holes. The fit is excellent so far.



Fun fact: #BF109E is a colour code that produces a very similar red to that on the '13' on this aircraft.

[Siwi]

Concert and half-marathon out of the way, I could finish the fuselage. As usual, excellent fit and instructions are easy to understand, my assembly skills leaving a bit to be desired when it comes to attaching formers. However Marek somehow forgot to depict the large hatch and the first aid symbol on the port side? There are small intakes and slots around the nose which were cut out, I then missed the presence of two formers for the very front which hide the interior. Guns are receipt paper rolled very tightly.

Will be going over the model with paint to hide the scuffs from gluing and handling once assembled.

[gomidefilho]

Great start! I watch with great interest!

[Siwi]

Next I put together the wing formers, which make a strong and well-fitting structure, and then the wing skin. Following some diagrams I made all the rivet marks with a push pin to enhance the texture. Also cut away the control surfaces so that the plane will have flaps down, slats out and seperate ailerons. I had to make some inner pieces and trim the ribs to get these in. The gear bays also have to be put inside the skin.

[Siwi]

More progress over the weekend:


Wings are skinned and got the flaps down halfway by cutting the formers so they bend. The ribs in these and ailerons were done by pencilling on the reverse side over a soft beer mat to create raised lines. The skin slightly buckled in the centre but this is mostly disguised by the radiators. By the way, there were no clear instructions for these but they are mostly easy to figure out if you look at some references. The meshes slot into a cutout in the wing giving a good fit and no gaps.



Wheels and tyres were made using the sandwich of parts supplied. I found I needed to double each piece and add an extra two layers in the centre to make them match the width on the diagrams, so the complete wheel is 14 layers of 160gsm paper. The tyre treads are ribbed but as they are small I decided just to score these rather than add the tread pieces seperately like on the Ju-88.



The propellor uses the smart idea of a triangle in the centre so that the blades can easily be positioned 120 deg apart. Blades theselves call for a sanded toothpick at the centre and have a diagram of how big to make these.



I also tried out a plastic model technique of using pre-shading. Having scored the panel lines and rivets I painted some grey lines over them and then built up layers of light blue, approximating RLM65 adjusted for scale. The effect is quite subtle but when panels are re-scored it does put some dark colour in there. I like the way paint not only gives a lifelike surface but also makes the subtle distortions and wrinkles that real aircraft get in service.



I've found two faults in the colouring: firstly the wing roots should both have the opposite colourto the other, and secondly the seperate aileron pieces are mirrored, with a distinctive colour change somehow on the opposite wing? Will do my best to correct these when the green shades are painted.


I took a nice shot of my workbench from above too.

[Siwi]

After a break to go and do the full marathon, I finished the aircraft this week.

The E1 has the more elegant canopy found on the earlier 109s with the rounded top. I found a great piece of plastic on the box my superglue came in which was almost a perfect match to the shape of the canopy. It is possible to allow the canopy to hinge in order to display either open to see the cockpit or closed to stop dust.

Be sure to add the spinner before you glue the prop blades to the centre, otherwise you'll have to do what I did and cut the spinner to get it on there



Generally looks good, the very small parts were a fiddle especially as I was watching the London marathon action at the same time. It's a shame the kit is marred by silly printing mistakes because it otherwise came together easily.

[gomidefilho]

Congratulations for a great build. I like a lot!