Kit Manufacturer: Airfix

Kit: Messerschmitt Bf109E-1 / 3 / 4

Kit Number: A05120

Scale: 1:48

Decal Options: Three provided in the kit

Price: £13.99

Review References: Histoire & Collections Messerschmitt Me109 Volume 1 ‘From 1936 to 1942 by Anis Elbied and Andre Jouineau.

SAM Publications Modellers Datafile No 9 The Messerschmitt Bf109 Part 1: Prototype to ‘E’ Varients by Lynn Ritger.

Prologue: As iconic to the Germans as the Spitfire is to the British, Willy Messerschmitt’s compact and hugely distinctive little fighter remained in service throughout World War II, proving the durability of its core design principals.

By the time Germany stood on the North Coast of France and looked across the Channel towards Britain, its Luftwaffe was already fielding the latest production version of the 109 – the ‘Emil’. Mounting the new Daimler Benz 601A direct fuel injection engine, producing 1100hp, necessitated increasing the nose length by some 25cms over the 109 ‘D’. The air scoop under the front fuselage was made shallower and a pair of radiators either side of the lower center section appeared.

The inevitable penalty in all this, as well as changes to the armament packages, was increased weight and the Emil tipped the scales some 360kg heavier than its Dora cousin. Pilots reported a hardening in the control commands and a widening of the turning circle at combat speeds.

The Boxed Varients: Airfix list the E-1, E-3 and E-4 as options straight from the box and endorse this with their three decal choices by giving markings for one of each variant.

Now, I’m no 109 experten but I believe (given the parts in the kit) that you can, if you have decals to match, build the following –

E-1 DB601A1 engine fitted. Two MG17s over the engine, two in the wings.

E-3 DB601Aa engine fitted. Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings (may sometimes require a small scratch built canopy mirror).

E-3B Fighter-bomber version ETC500 rack and an SC250kg bomb. Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings.

E-4  Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat.

E-4 Tropical Air filter modified. Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat.

E-4B Fighter-bomber version ETC500 rack and an SC250kg bomb. Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat.

E-4N DB601N 1200hp engine fitted using C-3 fuel (96 or 100 octane). Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat.

E-7 DB601A or DB601Aa engine fitted. Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat. 66 gallon (300 litre) drop tank fitted.

E-7 Tropical  DB601N 1200hp engine fitted using C-3 fuel (96 or 100 octane). Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat. Air filter modified. Mauser Kar 98 rifle installed in rear fuselage in case of forced landings.

E-7B  DB601A or DB601Aa engine fitted. Two MG17s over the engine, two MG FFs in the wings. Modified canopy and armour plating behind pilot’s seat. Fitted with ETC50 rack and four SC50kg bombs.

E-8 Long range fighter. DB601A engine fitted. 66 gallon (300 litre) drop tank fitted, together with E-1 type canopy.

That’s eleven varients perfectly possible, straight from the box with the proviso that you may need to scratch up a rear view mirror depending on your references. To my knowledge and understanding, that’s never previously been offered within a single boxing before, so very, very well done Airfix on providing a product that can draw from pretty much every aftermarket Emil sheet ever produced and at a very affordable price too.

The Parts: The following is merely my personal, very much ‘non-expert’ opinion and is in no way intended as any kind of deal breaker – quite the opposite in fact.

The Propeller The blades give the impression of being a little lacking in width and their chord, compared to close up photos of crashed Emil front ends, is a bit narrow. This doesn’t bother me and a decent coat of RLM70 won’t exacerbate the feature either.

The one prop feature that is very prominent (and insufficiently represented), are the pitch adjusting cuffs at the foot of each blade. They sit proud of the spinner cut-outs and while an attempt to depict them has been made it’s not emphatic enough.

The undercarriage legs A commentator elsewhere indicated that the legs appeared to be too long and demonstrated this by the brilliantly simple expedient of simply laying the legs in the wells of the lower wing piece. Sure enough, the axles were too far outboard. Looking at the legs to me suggests that the slider / torque scissor combo is modelled in the ‘unloaded’ state (i.e. aircraft off the ground) and that the slider needs shortening by some 2/3rds.

I know what you’re thinking – ‘how did he know the wells are the correct length’? The SAM Publications plans verify the shape, position and size of the wells and so appear to bear out the test. With the exception of the apparently unloaded oleos I’m not sure it’s an issue beyond simply that, so my build will just replace the slider with a piece of rod suitably reduced.

The legs are very helpfully fitted with square pegs for alignment and security and Airfix provide clear diagrams to assist in rake and splay, although I believe the pegs are a very tight fit and so may need to be slightly slackened to facilitate adjustment.

Wheels These are gently weighted with good realism and have separate outer hubs for crisp painting. Tread is recessed and ‘wraps’ over from rim to rim (it’s the same in the Tamiya kit) but my photos show tread only in the contact area with the ground. Tyres which appear to show wrapped tread are instead seams that are slightly raised. So, either leave ‘as is’ (I did in my Tom Meyers E-3 build of the Tamiya kit http://agapemodels.com/?p=3602 ) or fill the tyre sides or fill completely and replace with fine stretched sprue.

Fuselage Knowing that the Tamiya kit is in error on this point, I checked the fuselage stations (the vertical panel lines from the rear cockpit back to the tail) to see if they were equidistant from each other. They weren’t and are therefore correct – full marks Airfix.

Surface engraving is very well handled and will respond perfectly to your favourite weathering and accenting techniques. A more ambitious depiction of the DB601 engine (compared to Tamiya – that’s just a simply block) is moulded into each half and comes with separate bearers on the sprues if you intend to leave the upper cowl off. It’ll look ok ‘as is’ but if this is your preference it’d benefit from as much scratch building as you can throw at it – or better still, cut out the relief moulding and shoe-horn a resin engine into the space that comes with ammo boxes and MGs.

Slats and control surfaces They’re all separates. Better still, Airfix have rounded the contact areas to make them genuinely positionable – great for a more animated pose, just make sure your rudder and stick match.

I believe the slats were spring loaded and only deployed close to the stall, so your parked 109 should theoretically depict them deployed.

Wings Detail matches the fuselage beautifully and the word on the street is there’s absolutely no gap to the root. Marvellous.

Cockpit Thirteen parts end up here and will build up into a great pilot’s station – speaking of which, Airfix supply one! The instructions show him with a right jolly expression of carefree happiness – clearly Goering’s just told him the RAF will be a push-over and 30+ plus miles of cold sea each way will never be an issue with the fuel gauge against the stop. By the time our pilot appears in plastic, his expression has changed to more properly reflect the reality of the task ahead. I think I’m going to use him.

Beyond that, the oxygen bottle is somewhat anaemic but a bit of thin card cemented over it and suitably drilled will bulk it out to proper dimensions. The IP will benefit from some of Mike Grant’s superb cockpit instrument decals (the sheets also provide placards too) so do your lovely Emil a favour and get some.

Ordnance With ETC50 and ETC500 racks in the box you can dress your Emil as a Jabo raider with four SC50, one SC250 or one SC500 bomb. With so much in the box you’ll have supplies for the spares box that can also be added to the Tamiya E-3s, 4s and 7s as well.

The clear bits You get four front windscreens, armoured and unarmoured, including that adapted to accommodate the telescopic sight Galland used to identify targets at distance (rather than in the cut and thrust of combat). There are two centre sections and two rear sections – the E-4 centre canopy has a bracing frame across the middle of the top panel and sides, which I believe was copied by Airfix from the Hendon Emil that has (I think) a ‘G’ mid section canopy, presumably retro-fitted during the restoration as an expedient. Some sanding and polishing will cure it – the panels are flat and as amenable to this kind of work as you could hope for so don’t sweat it.

Miscellaneous Parts will need careful removal in some places but happily there is a tool available on Micromark in the US that will make that much easier in many cases – I know because I have one – http://www.micromark.com/TWEEZER-SPRUE-CUTTER-DESPRUING-TWEEZER,8012.html Called a Tweezer Sprue Cutter, it access very narrow, hard to access sprue gates with ease. Highly recommended.

Decals: First up, a Bf109E-4N flown by Major Adolf Galland, Geschwader Kommodore of Stab JG26, Audembert, France in late 1940.

Second option is the hapless Bf109E-3 of Johann Boehm, 4./Jagdgeschwader 51 ‘Molders’, France, 8 July 1940 – the first Luftwaffe fighter to be shot down over the UK, crash landing at Bladbean Hill in Kent.

Lastly, a Bf109E-1B, pilot unknown, from II (Schlact) Lehrgeschwader 2, Calais-Marck region, France, September 1940.

The decals are backed up with a superb four view glossy colour guide for each aircraft, presented on a single sheet that also includes a very high quality parts map.

The markings have a matt finish and no comments on their performance are possible at this stage as they’re yet to be tested. I’m sure they’ll be fine and while commentators elsewhere report something of a ‘dot matrix’ finish this is not discernible to the naked eye. In any event, aftermarket decals exist by the bucket load, so there’s acres of choice beyond the box options.

Conclusions: Airfix deserve great credit for doing such an all encompassing, ‘belt and braces’ job on their quarter scale Emil. Proof of its success lies in the fact that Airfix sold out in short order following its release – I never even saw one at Hannants in Colindale they flew out again so fast! I only found my one at Modelzone in Croydon by chance, tucked away and none too obvious – and very glad about it I am; it won’t be my last.

That success is owed to four main factors I believe: 1. It’s a perennially popular subject / 2. The Airfix rendition is incredibly well appointed and the box overflows with variant options and equipment fit. / 3. The price is very competitively placed. / 4. The quality overall is truly excellent.

With many kits achieving stratospheric prices, the Airfix Emil will undoubtedly continue to make an absolute killing. Manufacturers that offer quality and realistic pricing will emerge triumphant from the madness we’re currently witnessing. There will always be a percentage of modellers able and willing to ignore whatever ‘high end’ price is on the box but I sense a groundswell of support for this kind of intelligently marketed and presented product that will hopefully result in some manufacturers and importers having to rein themselves in.

Support Airfix and buy with confidence – just don’t blame me if you can’t decide which marking options to choose; just buy more Emils!

Happy days.

Now I feel a compulsion to model something I have very strong memories of building and finishing in those pre-teen years. I can still feel the keen excitement, all those years ago, of acquiring a 1:48 Monogram Hawker Typhoon with the tear drop canopy, the box photo reflecting the markings of ‘TP-F’, a 198 Squadron 1B that allegedly took part in the Falaise Gap operation.

Why ‘allegedly’? I was advised, after the project was already underway, of the following: “TP-F” as portrayed by Monogram and in various drawings, was possibly a composite of 2 (or more!) Aircraft, I am not going to mention names on a public forum (but will pm you with further details if you wish) but apparently a well known person in the field of A/C drawings was asked by a well known Author to make a drawing from a description the Author supplied. The
job was done and the drawings were published, artwork turned up a while later based on the drawings, “TP-F” was by this time had become accepted as a real machine, both the “Artist” and the Author being well known and respected in their fields. At this point we move on a few years, I was researching Typhoon’s for a decal sheet, quite fancied “TP-F” and was a little surprised I could find nothing about it, met the chap who had done the original drawings and he told me how they were based on the description as supplied by the Author, he had asked the Author, some years after doing the drawings, if he had photos to confirm the A/C and at that point was told they were based on descriptions of 2 (?) A/C. So it would appear that “TP-F” was at the least a composite, the drawings that is, or possibly did not exist at all. I have a feeling that the serial “RB222″ will not tie in either, I cannot get to my Tiffie stuff at the moment but will try and do so later or tomorrow. I have a feeling I have seen Chris Thomas frequent BM in the past, if so, and if he reads this, he might be able to comment further.”

Notwithstanding this revelation I saw no reason to deviate but merely to press ahead – as I would have done, had I been privy to this disclosure when I first built TP-F all those years ago. After all, what kid could resist a ‘Tiffie’ with a bright yellow spinner, red and yellow codes and the stencilled inscription on the port fuselage: If fate decrees that I should fail, then fate will not have watched my tail and the polite starboard advisory message: If this engine catches fire on starting, don’t just stand there waving your arms at the pilot, try putting the bloody thing out as well. Topped off with truck and tank kill markings, a leaping tiger emblem and ID stripes it was a ‘must do’, ‘must finish’ model.

Today I no longer have the Monogram kit to build so Hasegawa’s lovely effort (number JT60) has stepped up to the plate and it really is a beaut, with a slight but curable hitch. Like the Peggy Hurri, this one’s out of the box too, with just a set of Edward coloured etched belts to follow.

Time to unbox this brute of a tank, train and truck buster…

The normal Hasegawa m/o is to squeeze different versions out of their kits using plug in inserts. For the Tiffie, this centres around the cockpit and enables car door and tear drop canopy versions to be extracted from a common fuselage.

The hitch I referred to pops up with the port insert that has the correct width fore and aft (in fact, it’s tight and needs slackening with a little sanding) but lacks depth; so much so, that the resulting gap accepted a piece of strip 0.25mm thick by 2.00mm wide as a plug along its lower edge. On with the photos.

A The starboard insert almost makes it for depth but not quite, no strip possible or necessary here though. Filling and smoothing will be via thin CA, run in with tiny drops applied with the tip of a piece of fine wire.
B You get some idea of the shortfall in depth here. I don’t recommend the alternative of fitting edge ‘B’ flush as this transfers the gap to the fuselage centre line and throws out the vertical joins fore and aft too. The excess strip protruding from the surface of the gap was gently cut back with a number 11 blade before sanding the remainder flush. Seeing when the excess really is removed is easier with a 3.5 mag Optivisor…

…teamed to an Actulite polarised daylight task lamp:

Sanding the strip flush inevitably damages the large circular fastener detail directly below. This was restored easily using a Grainer set (also called a Beading set – used by armour modellers to create domed rivet heads out of thin plastic or aluminium sheet over a block of vulcanised rubber); in this case, the largest grainer matched the size of the fasteners perfectly. A gentle pressure over each fastener position immediately re-cut and restored the engraving. I like to do this several times during removal of the strip before a fastener disappears completely.

Flipping the fuselage halves over reveals how the strip was laid up, aligned and glued.

C The strip was cut to the exact length via dividers and a number 11 blade and inserted from the outside of the fuselage. The strip between the arrows marked ‘C’ was pushed in and aligned flush with the moulded ledge immediately below it. Tamiya Extra Thin cement quickly secured it. The strip aft of the forward piece was gently bent inwards to follow the fuselage taper and glued in position as before. This makes disguising the presence of strip packing easy by turning it into part of the ledge. A hairline gap still remained in the centre third of the forward strip and thin CA was run in via tiny drops applied again with fine wire. This sealed the interior and allows CA to be run over the exterior of the repair, without the risk of it passing into the cockpit. The ejector pin marks are yet to be sent packing.

A quick check from above.

D Looking down on the insert confirms a mating edge in line with the generic fuselage half and ensures the turtle deck detail is unaffected. Happy days…

On to the ‘pit.

E The parts assemble easily into a convincing basis for the tubular structure of the ‘office’ and show the ‘floor-less’ design of the original. The plastic rod at ‘E’ is an extra, cut to spread the forward edge of the ‘pit’, as without it, a test fit showed the tub was a little narrow and didn’t meet the pins at the front of each fuselage half. Parts of the tub still need mold lines removed and the peripheral bits still await a date with the parts finisher (me). My armour building side is showing itself in assembling the tub before paint. NB: The pilot armour has five large ejector pin recesses, all clobbered easily with CA.

Comparison with the Cutting Edge resin pit indicated the kit offering is a little anaemic on the detail front, directly next to the driver’s right arm. A little card and a disc from the Punch and Judy set kicked off operations.

F I needed a card insert to match the ‘V’ shaped opening between the two angled down tubes. Dividers measured the width and a square of card was cut from thin sheet. The top two corner angles were clearly identical; the precise angle was determined with…would you believe it? An angle finder:

Simple trial and error revealed the tube angle as 54 degrees, so this was transferred to the square, already cut to the correct width. I was soon left with an inverted triangle of card and a straight chop across the upside down tip gave me the mounting plate I needed. Microweld provided the bond – it’s gentle, progressive action suits this application perfectly, giving plenty of adjustment time and enough initial ‘grab’ to keep things in place as you fiddle.

G The Cutting Edge set said I needed one of these too, so the same m/o as above was followed-ish.

H The Punch and Judy set provided a suitable disc for this position. In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last 50 odd years, high up on a Peruvian mountain, this is what the set looks like:

Returning to our scheduled programme:

I As the seat is open underneath, I’ll be adding the exposed rudder cables a little later.

J Ditto, the control column cables.

All this extra stuff would have been a little more straight forward if it’d been done before nailing the framework together…

K The additional bits and pieces have been arranged to fit in with the rest of the Hasegawa presentation, in effect, to look like it was supplied in the original box-ish.

What you’ll only see clearly from above is…

L I didn’t sand the trim wheel mount to allow it to sit exactly in line with the seat. I didn’t sleep last night…

M The console ledge should be the same width where it meets the angled kit part. This would have brought it too close to the seat and the seat height adjuster I haven’t made yet – so pragmatism rules…

N It’s amazing how much time a little bit of fiddling like this eats up.

The office was then primed with Tamiya Sky Grey to ‘proof’ the finish on the scratched additions – again, the Cutting Edge set was copied in providing the cockpit lights, cables and some associated nic nacs that sit by the trim wheel. As the cockpit lights are (in this scale) very small, stretched tube was used so that a piece of 5amp fuse wire would slip into the back with some CA and actually stay there (I’m not in the market for trying to drill out the back end of a piece of stretched sprue…lol). It also leaves an open end for a bit of unintended realism. One of Bob’s Buckles was used as a frame mount and a cable tie from lead foil seals the deal. The seat adjuster mechanism is visible-ish – another cut down punched card disc, one left whole and rod were assembled off the seat before transferring to its final resting place.

Across the way, the rest of the add ons are also ready for a bit of cockpit colour…

As the area under the seat is open, some cables have been run in from the rudder pedals, just to give a little extra lift to what’s provided in the kit. The ‘T’ section Plastruct under the feet area and behind the back armour provide the anchor points for 0.07mm mono.

After a series of very helpful replies on Britmodeller I’m happy the car-door Tiffie was Interior Green, after which black or combinations thereof apply to the tear drop canopy aircraft.

In essence, it seems there’s evidence to support all black (except the seat), black with NMF frame tubes and fuselage walls and both with the fuselage removable panels in Interior Green and what remains in black. The seat can apparently be in either dirty grey or NMF. Mine’s full black with an NMF seat.

Then there’s the seat back cushion I haven’t pictured yet – again copied from the CE set, made up from a piece of lead foil sized to fit the seat (a brilliant stategy that…lol), with brass wire CA’d round the edge and the interior main pad via Milliput White, that was left to cure long enough to go semi-hard so’s a number 11 blade could leave clean diamond quilting in the surface.

Tamiya XF1 Flat Black went on over the Sky Grey primer in prep for the Tam Nato Black overspray. The theory was to load up the shadows full black so’s the Nato Black would give a little contrast in advance of the inevitable dry brush session.

Once the top coats were on and dry a very dry, dry brush of Xtracolour Oily Steel went over the accessible bits.

The IP was left Nato Black and thin Humbrol 33 Flat Black was carefully run into the instruments, giving contrast with the panel base colour. Instrument details were dealt with via light grey enamel (white’s too stark), keeping contrasts more controlled. I dumbly failed to follow my own mantra of ‘acrylic follows enamel, is followed by acrylic, etc’ and loaded Xtracolour clear gloss varnish over the enamel grey detail, softening the edgework. Dumb. Some remedials sharpened it back up again but my school report now reads ‘…has done much better in the past’…lol.

The seat’s yet to be fitted out with the cushion, belts and oxygen hose and is also due to be masked and patchy oversprayed with Alclad II and a thin black/brown shade mix.

One thing’s for sure – the daft idea of trying to replicate the release button on the seat aduster with paint was a naff one. It was painted out and a real, 3-D button made up from the Grainer Set (see earlier post), which was then painted and fitted.

The interior sides had their adjacent mating surfaces masked with Copydex Rubber Cement via a toothpick, so that once the spraying was done it could be pulled off to leave clean surfaces ready for glue. Quick and easy to do – a blob of glue is touched to said mating surface and drawn along until a bead far enough away from the spray area is in situ. Repeat for all necessary edges.

The tootpick never touches the plastic btw.

The dry brushing over Nato Black carried too much contrast (an inevitability given the base coat) so was ‘cut back’ by washes of Lamp Black oil colour on top until test closure of the fuselage halves said it was right.

It’s important to assess contrast when closed up. What looks right before closure, will be too little closed up. The same m/o was followed with the cockpit tub.

Loosely plagiarising the MDC Typhoon cockpit, a wiring bundle was added to the port shelf. Copper wire was nicked from an old electric motor and foil from a bottle of wine I can no longer recall (hic!) provided the ties. Each bundle was sprayed Tamiya Sky Grey to prime, then Tam flat yellow, followed by Xtracolour flat varnish and a Lamp Black wash. Force dried with a hair dryer each bundle was CA’d into position and a light overspray of Xtracolour flat varnish killed the slight gloss traces of CA.

Same m/o for the starboard side.

Continuing with the ‘copy MDC’ theme, an oxygen hose, universal joint and leather shroud connector was knocked up from a section of stiff brass wire wrapped in fine fuse wire, weeny sections of rod pinned with more brass rod and a bit of stretched tube before being attached to the side of the seat. Tamiya Nato Black gives a suitable ‘rubber’ look to the hose and the universal joint was simply touched over with Kleer that renders the Tamiya Nato Black a darker tone and gives contrast with the hose.

A leather back pad was made up from a piece of lead foil cut to fit the seat back. A piece of brass wire was CA’d around the edge of the foil and the ‘well’ filled in with Milliput Superfine White. Once the Milli was semi cured a scalpel created the cracked leather look that suggests the quilt pattern. The pad was sprayed Humbrol 33 and the cracked leather was created with washes of light grey and burnt sienna.

Edward pre-coloured etched belts finished off the seat. I chose what looked like a later style for no better reason than I preferred them, this being a fictional Tiffy.

The control column received a brake lever that was conspicuously absent and this was left in natural metal, although none of the pics show it clearly I regret. The firing button was painted brass.

The tub was test fitted into one fuselage half to decide if any more additions were appropriate before dealing with the radiator and shutting up shop. I think the cables that run on the control column pulley under the spade grip will go in next and then onto the rad…

To be continued…

Steve

This build stalled in 2007, Happily however, things are finally back on the road again, so we’ll see if the Soppy gets skinned this time around…

A recap – The original (Academy?) Camel kit was let down by shape discrepancies and the classic ‘starving cow’ method of wing rib reproduction. Hobbycraft re-tooled it some years ago, corrected the shapes, eliminated the rib issue and re-released what is a very good basis for the Camel. Puzzlingly though, all that effort went unsupported by any apparent effort to actually tell the modeling world what they’d done… Shame really. I discovered it quite by accident and immediately bought two. Glad I did as I haven’t seen any more since.

As I mentioned, the one area where the new kit really needs a boost is the cockpit. It really is very basic but provides a few bits for a bit of amateur tlc. Being blessed with some great references (via Ken Foran’s delightful 1:16 build) I decided scratching up a new interior was a real possibility. I got some distance into this and then stalled over the bracing wires. In the interim, those lovely people at Part knocked up a fab etched set, so that’s been added to the mix and effectively left me with no excuse for not resuming this one.

The story so far.

This is the Clerget engined version – here’s the basic engine (to be augmented later).

Rib tape detail needs knocking back (started in the lower wing).

The fuel tank immediately behind the pilot is absent from the kit. I made mine from two bits of plastic tube glued ‘over and under’ shotgun style – the gap was filled with card and the ends boxed (tubed?) off with more card, sanded and sprayed Alclad II.

The rear of the finished fuel and aux tank – I don’t waste time on what can’t / won’t be seen.

The finished fuel (with leather support straps) and aux tanks – the latter is part of the top half of a Bf109G drop tank with card and rod filler cap. The main tank is yet to grow a filler neck and cap…

The basic structure knocked up from stock plastic and card and added to the bare interior. Basic wood oils added on the right and clear orange’d on the left.

Some tube mocked up to accept the carb intake from the kit. Short sections will be cut and used from this either side to rectify the short width of the kit item…

The detailing fun begins – fixing plates on both sides (collared from a 1:35 scale Brumbar armour etched set) plus fuel pulsometer on the right with connecting pipe running aft to the tank location. The lower pipe is yet to be fitted.

Port interior, part complete. Bracing wires etc to follow.

Starboard interior, as above.

It’s been a recurring wish to carry off at least one scratch built WWI seat in my life and happily I’ve discovered a method that’s within my reach. My scratch build efforts are concocted off the back of a gorgeous 1:16 Camel created from raw materials by the very talented Ken Foran in 2004. I saved all the build pics he published to PC and these have been gold as far as knocking up my half sized 1:32 efforts in Hobbycraft’s really nice kit.
No, I’m not building a four seat Camel…

Going left to right, starting on the left, is the kit seat – undersized, solid, shallow depth and intended by Hobbycraft to be covered with ‘wicker’ decal that’s nonetheless really quite unrealistic.

Next seat along is a generic resin jobbie created by Mike West who, reading of my plight when I was in the opening stage of this build some years ago, very kindly sent me the item gratis.

Third seat along is the back of the Part etched jobbie, w-a-y to thin and unrealistic but it has yielded a reasonable representation of the wicker weave that could be used to cover the mock pan, if I don’t make a cushion.

Finally, my finished basic frame. This is the MkVI version after I discovered I was going no-where with wire and CA. I therefore resorted to building it to this point from plastic, really because nothing else had worked and it had become more obvious that I could succeed if I stopped trying to shape the top double curvature rail in one hit and instead broke it down into more manageable pieces.

So, here’s the thing on its tod…

…and here’s how it finally got to this point…

Stage two was to fit evenly spaced risers that ‘dog-leg’ to form the criss-cross pattern so characteristic of the seat. The basic seat frame grew brass wire ‘risers’ a couple of weeks back and progress continued with the bindings on the front rails either side of the front of the seat being added.The bindings on the top rail were about a third of the way round and going according to plan when a micro-joule of excess tension was applied to snug the un-annealed wire.

A miniscule but sharp crack signaled the sudden and catastrophic exit of a quarter of the top rail, together with various risers. It was a mess…It was one of those moments when it all hangs there in the balance, mocking you with that ‘so you thought you had it cracked’ thought circulating round your head in a closed loop. It could’ve gone in the bin but a tiny voice at the back of my mind (my wife calls it ‘reason’) chirped up and steered me back on to the job of repair.

A change of binding technique, some annealed wire and it was ready again for the horizontal weave top and bottom.

Several long sessions in the bunker saw the horizontal weave finished (a very relaxing exercise) – courtesy of Reflo fishing line at 3lb 6oz breaking strain.
The line is very soft and supple and perfect in this application. Just some binding along the seat pan’s leading edge and a representation of the leather cover on the seat’s top rail were then left before was ready for the paint shop (a Milliput seat pad is still to come).

A unifying coat of Gunze ‘Sail Colour’ was used as a primer to subsequent treatments, thinned with Tamiya acrylic thinner, to avoid damage to the fishing line.

The holes drilled across the front of the seat pan simply facilitated binding the forward edge and will be covered and hidden by the inevitable seat cushion to come.

This really is the bit I thoroughly enjoy – painting and finishing. I sat and pondered the primer (Gunze Sail Colour) that ended up that muddy, cold tone you see in the previous pics and figured that was a good start as it’d ‘pull’ the warmth of the Tamiya Clear Yellow and Tamiya Clear Orange to come.
The yellow was applied until quite a saturation was achieved. Orange in significantly less quantity biased the yellow in that direction. Once dry, homespun Tamiya flat clear coat (Tamiya Clear with as much Gunze flatting agent in it as I could get without frosting) was applied in half a dozen coats.
Flattening the finish lightened the tones – a deliberate objective. I decided I wanted a warm ‘cane’ colour (thanks Paddy)) so when the flat was dry I took some Yellow Oche oil paint and mixed it 50-50 with Liquin (Japan Dryer in the States). This was lightly applied taking care to avoid clogging the weave. The Yellow Oche was lightened with 50% white and applied – several times to lighten it back.

When I started to feel I had it where I wanted it I put it aside for a day to see if I had the same opinion 24 hours later. Happily I did. This is a worthwhile test in modelling and stops me going too far with a correction in colour – most of the time.
Humbrol enamel flat black was run over what will become the leather coaming. This is no more than a base coat – the wire needs to be filled so I’ll later use Lamp Black oil paint, again mixed with Liquin to achieve that. I intend the wire to be covered just enough to leave impressions in the ‘leather’ that there are bindings underneath. We’ll see how that pans out…
Test fitting it in the Camel’s ‘pit indicated a nice contrast between the cockpit walls and seat – another objective ticked off.

Having brought the seat to a point where it can be put temporarily to one side it was time to fashion a cushion of some description. Thoughts of shaping White Milliput were shelved in favour of a bit of 20 thou plastic card cut to shape and sanded to eliminate the abruptly sharp corners and Tenax’d to a piece of plastic tubing for ease of handling.

The appearance is ultimately  intended to approximate black leather – an item helpfully put together at the Front by the pilot’s mechanic, who was obliged to resort to horse hair for the stuffing by the way…therefore please interpret any dust on the finished item as scale horsehair…

A globe shaped dental cutter in my Minicraft drill routed out the button areas and other grinding bits made short work of the smoothing. Mr Surfacer 1000 was blobbed on via a paint brush to gently round out the curves and edges before my Punch ‘n Judy set had a day out in creating five ‘buttons’ from 10 thou card. These were tacked in place with gel type CA and Microweld was dabbed on each to gently de-bur the edges. It’s since been given a base coat of Tamiya XF1 black, thinned with cellulose.

The IP’s underway with the acetate instruments backed with Humbrol white. Finding suitable masks for the bezel mounts is proving problematic at the minute but will hopefully be skinned soon.

The Part set also yielded footboards and a combined bracket for the stick. The brass footboards are mighty thin so were CA’d to 10 thou plastic card. The mount was a flat bar and very visibly unrealistic so it was sliced off and the bracket liberated. A piece of plastic rod was cemented in place and the bracket placed on top of it. It’s better than the Part set up but not strictly accurate for a Camel – I made the adjustment first and checked my reference second…doh!

Gunze Dark Yellow was run in and oils used to add subtle grain, although this is hampered by the deep etched ‘grain’ already put there by Part. Clear yellow and orange topped it off, with the finish left noticeably worn compared to the rest of the ‘pit.

The fuselage was taped up to start test fitting the foot boards and figuring out how the control cables would be run in and tensioned after the fuselage is closed up. I have a cunning plan…

.5 and .4 brass tube is en route to Castle Von Budd for the bracing wires on the fuselage sides and big thanks go to Bob Von Buckles-Rsi for showing me where to buy the good stuff…and how to cut it. Happy days.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 4 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 20 posts. There were 66 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 64mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was May 26th with 176 views. The most popular post that day was Tamiya 1:72 F4U-1a ‘Ira Kepford’ Corsair.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were agapemodels.com, facebook.com, search.aol.com, images.yandex.ru, and britmodeller.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for grey alien, alien, alien grey, ira kepford, and panzer ii luchs.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Tamiya 1:72 F4U-1a ‘Ira Kepford’ Corsair February 2010

Accurate Miniatures 1:48 IL-2 Sturmovik July 2009

Tasca 1:35 Panzer II Ausf ‘L’ “Luchs” (Lynx) July 2009
2 comments

Testors Grey Alien July 2009
1 comment

Airfix 1:48 Supermarine Spitfire MkI / IIa June 2009
4 comments



‘Of all Germany’s possible enemies, Britain is the most dangerous’ wrote Oberst Beppo Schmid, Head of Luftwaffe Intelligence on 22 November 1939. It proved to be an astute observation in the build up to the subsequent conflict that became the ‘Battle of Britain’.

I was born in Croydon and it was my hometown that was selected as the Luftwaffe’s first target at the beginning of The Blitz. My early childhood, through to my mid twenties were spent in Wallington, only a few miles away before returning to Croydon following my marriage. The whole span of my life has been spent under skies that witnessed fury and fear in equal measure during those frequent and ferocious encounters between the Luftwaffe and the RAF during much of 1940.

Small wonder then that this small boy soon began absorbing the prolific number of publications that sprang up from the fertile breeding ground of the battle. I revered our pilots as heroes and developed great respect for the Luftwaffe’s more gentlemanly aviators, Galland and Molders. Having Croydon Airport, Kenley Aerodrome and Biggin Hill (described as ‘the most famous fighter station in the world’) on my doorstep merely served to endlessly feed my imagination. Fact or mythology, my unquenchable appetite swallowed it all. In later years I settled, comfortably sated, into a cultural knowledge of the Battle of Britain that was as recognisable and familiar to Britain as Nelson’s Column or Buckingham Palace. Further books on the epic clash between Britain and Germany could, I reasoned, only be mere reiterations of what was already well understood. My opinion was widely shared.

Fortunately, Stephen Bungay was of a different mind. A meticulous researcher and historian, he spent copious amounts of time at the RAF Museum in Hendon, the Imperial War Museum and the Public Records Office at Kew, as well as a week at Freiburg in Germany, examining their military archives…and it shows. His prodigious re-examination of the battle, from all salient perspectives has, as its wing man, a gift for writing and expression that has transformed it into the finest single volume on the subject.

‘The Most Dangerous Enemy’ contains within its pages many surprises and poignant moments, as it dispels and sweeps away the mythology which has grown up around the battle and replaces it with, for the first time, a clear, lucid and properly balanced understanding of this most pivotal of times in the recent history of the western world.

I share the author’s unequivocal view that the Battle of Britain has never really been accorded its true comparative status alongside other key events in World War II. The tendency has been to regard it as a localised or almost provincial victory but without that success there could have been no safe haven for American and Commonwealth forces to reside in during preparations for D-Day and no bases within reach of the German munitions industries by air. The occupation of Britain included documented plans to eliminate the English completely as a race by means of genocide, in the same manner as the Jews. The entire map of our existence today would have been impossible in the wake of defeat. It was a battle that had to be won.

The book reveals that the Luftwaffe’s defeat was, to a significant degree, ‘engineered’ by shortcomings in the German war machine but it also tells of the key contribution of Bomber Command, whose tale is largely, if not completely silent in other accounts. Regarded widely as a purely ‘fighter’ war from the RAF side, it was also very much a bomber campaign as daylight raids were thrown against the build up of invasion barges and associated equipment on the North French coast. The suicidal nature of the missions and the raw heroism of the crews who set off, knowing their return was at best unlikely, is finally given a voice. The disruption in the organisational plans in France, bought at a fearful cost, played no small part in preventing the Germans from attempting a crossing.

This is a magnificent book. The prose is quietly elegant, eminently readable and maintains the reader’s attention from the Prologue to the last page. In a couple of decades or so it’s likely that the last survivors of a struggle that played out 70 years ago this year, will have departed this life. ‘The Most Dangerous Enemy’ will remain a fitting monument of understanding and appreciation for all those who were there when Churchill said “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed, by so many, to so few”.

I mentioned near the outset that I’m a Croydon boy. A large RAF memorial stands by the Purley Way, next to the site that was Croydon Airport, in commemoration of the events and sacrifices connected with the area. I often wonder, as I motor past, one of the hundreds of thousands who do so every year, just how many are consciously aware of what the memorial and others like it actually stand for. How many hear the sound of Merlins in their mind and picture Hurricanes bumping across the grass at full throttle, canopies open, pilots hunched against their straps before resuming their relentless twisting pursuits of an enemy bent on our wholesale destruction, punctuated by the rattle of .303 machine guns. A minority I suspect…and that makes the existence of ‘The Most Dangerous Enemy’ all the more valuable and necessary.

I dedicate my review, on this, the 70^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, to the memory of all those RAF pilots, wherever they hailed from, who fought and died selflessly in the skys above my home. This modeller will never forget them.

In Christ

Steve Budd

This is the Hasegawa boxing of Major Levine’s Vb ‘desert lady’. Hopefully it’ll be a pleasant weathering target.

A moderate session in the modelling bunker recently saw the pilot’s station finished. Out of the box was the order of the day but the belts wound up getting a small addition in the form of the ‘V’ brace behind the cross bar on the rear most bulkhead.

The Spitfire Site has superb cockpit references for an authentic (and immaculate) restoration of a Vb (Spitfire Vb restoration). The Sutton Harness routes through the head armour and attaches to a brace located at the base of the radio aerial. A couple of square section pieces of styrene stock made the ‘V” and the aerial was cut from a further piece and made long enough to give the impression it’s connected to the exterior aerial.

Half pound test fishing line was CA’d to the belt end and painted Oily Steel to represent the cables.
Someone forgot to eliminate the mould separation line on the panel bulkhead…

Initial work on the kit parts had them looking like this -

The green is too dark and some way off the correct colour I realise – I had lightened a jar of Tamiya XF71 with white and a touch of black but by not nearly enough. The stash is too large and life too short to re-paint it so I’ve corrected the jar with lots more white and a dash of black and will wait ’till my next Spitfire build (a Tamiya Vb) before giving it a day out.

As mentioned above, the assembled parts now include a rendition of the Sutton attachment point.

The oxygen bottle was an insecure fit so a piece of plastic rod was cemented into the main body. The fuselage was drilled right through and the long plastic pin CA’d into it. The excess on the exterior was snipped off and CA’d over before being sanded flush.

I didn’t bother overpainting the Interior Green all the way back as it descends into darkness back there with the fuselage closed up.

This was taken a little before the top two – the rear section’s since been altered to aluminium.

The kit would have you assemble the cockpit as a tub with lower sidewalls but that’s never worked for me in the past so I attached the bits to their ‘homes’ on the fuselage sides and accepted a little gapping when it all comes together – which actually gets lost when this happens, so no harm done.

Uncharacteristically. I managed to remember to throw some paint on below the cockpit.

Here’s the now nearly complete airframe held gently in the jaws of my Panavise Junior. The jaws have been lined (by me) with cake decorators non-slip rubber matting by 3M (the red arrows refer). This stuff has enormous grip. I don’t need to clamp the jaws tight – just compressing the matting some 50-60% is enough to hold the model in any position for photography without any risk to the surface of the plastic.

The cord of the lower wing section exceeded that of the fuselage wing root fairings leaving a step. It couldn’t be sanded out so the missing material was easily added via Milliput Superfine White, smoothed and feathered in with a wet finger and with a little re-working with rubber charcoal brushes (used wet) – see the photo after next.

Same hiccup on the other side but not so pronounced.

More Milliput tackled the red arrowed gaps – the blue arrow gap will be sorted by way of my oil paint filler technique after the primer’s on.

he forward fuel tank cap was moulded into both fuselage halves and was clearly stepped when test fitted. It was drilled out and replaced with a disc from my Punch ‘n Judy set.

I usually go nuts with CA on the joints before primer but this one’s just had a bit of a rub down and a tickle with Milliput. I’ll chuck the primer on, reveal the (many) flaws and Mr Surfacer them into submission. The shots will reveal areas where liquified Milliput has run into panels and so on. It’s easy to remove with a sharp toothpick or similar in the general clean up.

Primer soon. Then the fun bit with the colour coats.
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Friday 20 August 2010

Various bits and pieces of time have been pleasantly whittled away on some of the peripherals. The exhaust units are three sections a side. A bit of drilling and hollowing has them looking a little more the part. Everything’s been getting the grey Alclad II primer treatment – sterling stuff that here indicates a little more remedial work is in order…

I followed the paint guide in the Tam Vb kit and custom mixed some Azure Blue. from Gunze acrylic white, Tam Medium Blue and Tam Purple.

With the base blue on it’s ready for some disruptive mucking about with the airbrush, a scourer and some dark grey, maybe black enamel.

The problematic wing roots are all better after the Milliput / primer treatment.

A tin of Alclad II grey primer and a fine scourer quickly bring the finish to a bright egg shell, ready for the colour coats.

Stay tuned…

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Tuesday 31 August 2010

The underside abuse has moved on a couple of stages and (unusually for me) I’ll do the whole thing as a step by step so we can all see exactly how it all went horribly wrong…

Weathering, in the modern modelling sense, is in essence pre or post shading or both, with our without washes. Pre shading is (as far as I’ve ever seen), spraying the bare or at most primed plastic with black paint in panel lines and around structures.

I break with that tradition in priming, then applying the lower colour as a solid coat before applying any kind of weathering. The reasoning is simple – it’s easier to knock back any pre-shade to the required level with a thin version of the lower colour, as you don’t have to fiddle around getting solid colour in between the shaded bits and pieces.

The second break with tradition is that my second step (after applying the solid coat of lower colour) was to smooth out the paint in a patchy way by light sanding with 1500 wet ‘n dry. This led to the lower colour being penetrated in a few places and thinned (and therefore a bit lighter) in others. No need to fret – it’s what was intended as the dust and occasional grit and patches of pebbled paint were knocked down smooth.

You’ll see in the pic above that a lamp black oil wash has been run in to all the usual suspects. This is what you might otherwise term a ‘pre-shade’ accent wash.

Brace yourselves for the next pic – it’s about to get weird…

So far, the soft edged tramlines of conventional pre-shading are conspicuous by their absence. In their place are nicks, scrapes, patches and streaks. Application is random with the proviso that the heavier treatment is at the centre of the airframe out to mid wing and then gets lighter in bulk and so on.

Humbrol 33 matt black was thinned to the point that its opacity was halved. A medium paint brush was lightly dipped in paint and then used to ‘paint’ the ends of the bristles of a course, rough old, rubbish quality kid’s one inch paint brush. Said kid’s paint brush was dabbed, stabbed, streaked and flicked over various places. As soon as paint was transferred to the undersides I used a finger to wipe the mark in the direction of airflow with differing pressures. I wear latex mechanics’ gloves btw…

This allows the surface marking to be controlled and ‘steered’. Several times a patch of paint was deposited. Don’t wipe! Instead, dab lightly with absorbent paper to preserve it and its random shape.

The next stage will be to lightly overspray the marked lowers with Future (Kleer in the UK) to ‘bank’ the weathering. This is important – a barrier coat against the very transparent overspray that will be diluted with Cellulose Thinners is essential to prevent the aggressive thinner from blurring what’s been laid in.

Once the hard edged marks are tinted with the Azure Blue the next stage will be the post shading and post marking of the lower colour.

This method is one that I’m still playing around with – here’s a look at what its first run out looked like on the RLM65 of a 109E-3 once the thin overspray was on:

Some of the peripherals edge closer to the finish line.

The marked under surfaces have had the semi-transparent, patchy over spray applied. This is a matter of personal preference in how far the underlying marks are knocked back – you can go further for a more muted look of course but I stayed with this desert bird’s very hard life garaged outside and worked on and dismantled on makeshift trestles, to say nothing of the constant abrasion and abuse to the paint from prop wash grit and sand thrown up by it and other aircraft in the unit.

Here’s a general view of where it sits at the minute.

The Humbrol 33 flat black ended up being supplemented by a couple of ancient Humbrol tins of what look like forms of pale Duck Egg Green and light blue – both applied exactly like the black referred to in earlier posts. This gave a bit more variety and is an aspect that may be added to again in subsequent builds. For those who’ve expressed interest in giving it a go – here are some closer shots preceded by a brief reminder of where we came in (the ‘Chris Wauchop’ mix of very thin Tam Nato Black and Tam Red Brown has been sprayed into the panel lines and used to discolour selected areas).

This approach is entirely reversible if you feel it has been wrongly executed – just over spray completely and try again.

You’ll see that the ugly gap that surrounded the oil cooler is history now in the wake of the oil filler technique – no fuss, no sanding and a guaranteed result.

The marks to the lower rear fuselage haven’t been knocked back yet – I’ll sort that shortly. It may be left ‘as is’ or added to with artists oils in the way that the blue top surfaces of this 72nd scale Tam Corsair were treated.

I appreciate what I’m doing here is a little off the beaten track – the reason I’ve done it is I’ve been aware, over an increasingly long time, that the existing ‘tram line’ method of pre-shade doesn’t address the issue of prop wash blasting loose ground material at the undersides of aircraft – particularly desert aircraft on take off.

It also misses areas where oil and dirt is wiped off by ground crew but leaves marks in the paint.

I’ve paid very close attention of late to photographs that show the incredible complexity that exists in a weathered paint finish when you really examine it in detail – from nicks, scrapes, streaks and stains to chips, scuffs, temporary repairs and so on. Post shading with the airbrush goes some way towards fading and bleaching but a weathered finish is sometimes so much more. Even the broad camo colours are shot through with subtle and not so subtle variations in tone that sometimes transition with a soft edge to surrounding areas, sometimes hard.

I’m not pretending for one minute I’ve ‘cracked it’ but there’s no doubt that there’s no recognised technique out there in general practice today that seeks to recreate marks and stains that fall short of penetrating to bare metal. Here’s a pic that illustrates something of what I mean -

The centre section is absolutely filthy and the outer wing areas are stained and marked. This is a Spit in a temperate, Euro scheme, never mind a desert aircraft operating off hard, loosely graveled surfaces.

Modelling aircraft is quite a conservative activity on the whole, with established techniques that only grow and expand relatively slowly – armour modellers on the other hand tend to be more adventurous and willing to experiment and the lengths they’ve gone to in recent years broadening and refining weathering, has moved this area a lot closer to the goal of realism.

I’m not commenting on individual freedom to weather, not weather and so on – that remains for the individual to decide and clearly when its your model that’s all that counts in the final analysis. My comments are instead more an overview of the current ‘state of the nation’ if you like – a look at what the modern repertoire is and what might be added to expand it.

If anyone has any Spit underside photos I’d appreciate as much as can be thrown at me please…

Until next time….

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You’re doing nothing in particular and up pops an idea and before you know it, another kit project’s on the table.

I was innocently touring the Hannants web site and punched Roden Sopwith Camel 1:72 into their search engine. I have a weakness for their Camels – petite, beautifully rendered, they’re little jewels. Scanning down the list I saw they now do a Bentley powered F1 and as this was the definitive engine / Camel combo my interest was piqued.

Clicking the tab brought up this box illustration:

First thing I noticed was the lovely black front end, I’ve always loved these RNAS Camels so I was poised to e-mail Garry at the shop and ask to have one sent down to London. Then I noticed the name emblazoned on the side below and behind the pilot. It didn’t quite say ‘Laura’ (the forward strut obscures the last letter) but knowing the RNAS’s pilots sometime penchant for naming their aircraft after girls (well, the ex-Tripe drivers anyway) was sure it bore my daughter’s name. Garry kindly drew one down and I collected it several weeks ago.

Laura’s my daughter and just at the end of her second year at uni, studying single honours French. In September she departs for France on a nine month stay to further her spoken French by working in a primary school as a classroom assistant (she wants to be a primary school teacher).

She always ribs (teases) me about my modelling so it seemed perfect to give her a little reminder of me while she’s away that also bears her name – a Camel to fly top cover over her while she’s abroad if you will. Besides, it won’t be the first time a Camel was sent to France…

So the clock’s ticking. Cutting of plastic has kicked off in secret. This is the girl herself:

According to Roden’s destructions B7234 was flown by Lt RL Hollingsworth, No 4 Sqn RNAS (No 204 Sqn RAF) – the kit places ‘Laura’ in Roulers, France, July 1918.

Some of Bob’s beautiful buckles await the end of the build. The only other addition to this one’s going to be Eduard’s RFC etched belts. The essential accessory for getting the top wing on properly will be Aeroclub’s MkII jig – a superb device and one that’ll be mated to that brilliant ‘clear wing’ wrinkle I first heard of via Mike Grant (who used it on his lovely 48th DH2) and tripped over again during Tony Bell’s fab Camel build elsewhere on The Aerodrome forum.

Disclaimer – I’m no WWI aviation expert so errors are possible (er, likely) in this and all other builds. However, the fun factor is and remains at a constant 100%…

A video update is currently in my Photobucket account…the intro is geared towards some friends in the US…

The first (and hopefully only) glitch cropped up a few days ago. The instrument panel needs to be fitted to the upper decking / coaming but no guide is given to indicate how close to the leather padding around the cockpit this should be. I opted for as far forward towards the guns as the part allows. Regretably, the control stick mounts right on the end of the forward protruding floor spar. In this position it fouls the instrument panel and prevents the coaming from lining up properly with the fuselage. The solution is easy – just re-locate the control column back towards the seat by some 3/4 of the spar’s length. With the stick re-attached it was smiles all round again. The other thing is to mount the floor frame as far back as the support lugs on the fuselage sides allow.

A little snippet that may surprise Alclad II users – I was in Hannants in Colindale in its new location a year or thereabouts ago and was talking to Garry about Alclad and appropriate methods of undercoating. He wandered over to one of the display cabinets and pulled out a late mark 1:32 scale Bf109. Being a late model it had a central underwing panel area in bare metal that he’d sprayed with Alclad II…and very good it looked to, just as we’ve come to expect from this great metalizer.

The fly in the conventional Alclad wisdom ointment is that an appropriate barrier coat, suitably cured is a must. “What did you use as a base?” says I to Garry. “Nothing” comes the reply, “I just misted it on to the bare plastic”. The ‘bare plastic’ was perfect, unmarked and unaffected. It’s still that way today…

Coming in from church last Sunday morning I put my head round the front room door. As I was holding it by the hair (difficult, not much left) I noticed blood dripping on the carpet…but as it’s Scotchguarded (the carpet, not my head) I wasn’t duly alarmed. The family screamed, proving my tactic correct in securing their full attention…”Just popping to the model bunker for some Alclad fun”.

As the Camel’s fuel and aux tank combo was already undercoated in Tam Sky Grey I misted Dark Aluminium over it in easy stages, blowing air from the airbrush to speed drying. It was parked to one side as the Bentley engine was mounted on a bit of sprue. Under the 3.5 mag Optivisor the Bentley reveals astonishingly fine detail – really as fine as it gets. It’s also the kind of detail that Alclad II will surely eat for (Full English) breakfast, if not barrier coated.

So, in the interests of science (the mad hair, wild stare variety) I misted some more Dark Ally on the bare plastic. Half an hour later I had a metalized motor. A 3.5 mag inspection throughout revealed the Alclad II has left the detail – all of it – completely unaffected.

It later received a good pasting with the weathering oils and this was biased towards some close up shots of a Camel motor at Brooklands I took the following reference shots of.

The upper decking comes in two pieces, front and rear. The fit is extremely good. The parts are just resting against each other and the joints are very nearly non-existent.

The slight gap between the front and rear decking here was clumsy handling by me – they butt up perfectly when the model’s flat and not tilted as it is here. There is a small gap at each wing root that I’ll loose via Milliput Superfine White and a wet charcoal rubber ‘brush’.

As indicated in the vid, it’s just bare bones work in the cockpit as it mostly disappears with the decking on. The sink mark in the aux tank has been left alone – it’s invisible with the decking on. In fact, only the top front face of the main tank plus the strapping can be seen behind the seat.

The destructions would have you fit the seat plus frame plus tanks after the fuselage is joined. I left the tanks off and the framing was a very tight fit. With the framing in place the tanks, that fit when the framing’s outside the cockpit, don’t fit when it’s in. A No11 blade whipped off some inner frame ’till all was well, a rough mod that also disappears with the decking on.

As I mentioned further up, the Bentley was sprayed with Alclad II, without the aid of a safety net primer and was been washed with Burnt Umber fairly liberally after the Camel I had a gander at over at the Brooklands Air Museum last year revealed itself to be a mixture of dirty metallic browns. The total loss Castor oil lube system makes the engine a muck magnet. The light blue fried egg behind it is the Blu Tac used to support it on the sprue rod it sits on…

Making a completely unexpected and unrehearsed entrance is Mr Eduard 1:72 DR1 that’s ready for primer. It’ll be an all red tripe in Von R’s markings so’s I can play mock dog fights round the living room with Laura in her Camel…yeah, right…Laura will more readily chew raw slugs three at a time than do that… Check out Von Beetle on the upper wing…a hitch hiker I failed to spot until after the pics were shot…

Some of Bob’s right good buckles lurk here and there on the model…

“I sink zer leetle triplane vill be too much for zer Englander Camel…mua ha ha ha ha ha haaaar”!

Laura and I fly to France on 23 September so in order to make the other Laura ‘fly’ on time – here’s a little more progress.

This was always going to a ‘black cat in a coal cellar’ shot. The Bentley’s cowl has been cleaned up and sprayed with Tam Nato Black cut with cellulose. Just a brief mention, attaching bits like this to a paint ‘handle’ is easy – a smear of Copydex rubber cement went on a bit of the cowl interior via a tooth pick and then the ‘handle’. Both were left to dry (15 mins in the model bunker with temperatures as warm as they are). Once dry just press together. Removal is clean and quick and doesn’t damage the part. The part awaits a satin varnish overspray and something suitable on the interior…

The prop suffers from its leading edges having flat spots and mould misalignment steps that were easily cured with semi thick CA set up with accelerator. 600 grit wet ‘n dry gives rough shaping, 1200 grit brings the profiles close and the whole thing is finished off with a ladies nail buffer pad (three grades of abrasive) that leaves the CA and plastic with a high shine gloss that also reveals any faults with the CA shaping – betchalife there was the first time I shined it so a repeat dose of CA went on and all was well second time around. The prop wears Gunze ‘Radome’ cut with cellulose after it was de-greased with methylated spirits. A session or three with oils will follow…

Setting up the tail feathers needs a slightly more formal approach as the horizontal stabs are a simple butt joint. A sheet of graph paper, taped to a thick sheet of optically flat plate glass, has had a centre line penciled on, with lines for leading and trailing edge alignment added. Position fuselage on centre line and check dihedral. Mine was off, with the starboard wing slightly low. Some gentle bending brought it up level so it was back on the graph paper and very carefully taped in place (Tam tape is translucent, allowing the lines to show through). A little Microweld was run onto the fuselage rear and the stabs were added. I still appear to be the only modeller in the Western hemisphere willing to admit to using Microweld…it’s the absolute kiddie in this application, giving a controlled set up that allows for the necessary tweaks to get it all square and level. The pic shows a small right angle of .30 plastic sheet cut and marked with a small dot to check final horizontal alignment – all basic stuff.

Same thing…but closer. It made the whole thing an assured breeze.

To be continued…

Tom was a believer and one of the original members of the site and after prayer and consultation with his family and those on the forums a memorial build in 2009 was agreed.

I chose as my entry, Tamiya’s ultimate ‘slammer’, their Bf109E-3 with Tom’s Possum Werks decals for ‘Macky’ Steinhoff’s bird during the Battle of Britain. I hope, when it’s finished, that it will do justice to Tom’s memory. I’ll certainly try…

Eduard’s now quite ancient brass fret for the Tamiya E3 and E4 kits was dragged out of the spares dungeon and yielded a selection of bits to busy up the pilot’s station. You’ll spot belts in there obviously and these pass through an oblong hole in the seat obligingly created by me and ringed with an etched oval of brass so tiny I left the CA alone and fixed it in position easily with gloss enamel varnish. The etched leather strap for what I think was the battery cover was dobbed in with enamel gloss varnish too. I’ll be loosing the hard edge wash staining beside it any day now…

Etched trim wheels, stand and chain were added. The chain terminates in a sprocket but has nothing else to connect it with the fuselage wall, so the Punch & Judy set yielded a disc of card to suit. The etched double panel had the instrument acetate back painted in light grey, not white, as it drops the contrast and looks more in keeping to my eye but that’s just a personal thing. The acetate was ‘glued’ using enamel gloss varnish to the panel rears and further dabs filled in the ‘glass’. The instruments themselves need edging in black and in this scale I ditch the enamel black for artists oil mixed with the UK version of Japan Dryer, Liquin. This viscous paint stays put and is perfect in this application.

Etched seat rails sealed the port side of the deal. The only addition on the starboard side was the etched map case holder – lots more convincing than the moulded version. It’ll grow a map later in the build. From there it was a simple case of closing up the fuselage, adding the wings and sending the lot into traction…

Here’s a gallery of full sized images from the build -

Sunday 15 August 2009:

Just a short update. This is the first aircraft model where I’ve had the foresight to fit the canopy so’s it can weather in with the rest of the paintwork at the same time. Previously I’d leave it off then try to recall what I did to the airframe as I’d frantically try to make the two match…

The white, narrow lines are oil paint used to blend parts together. The kit provides dropped flaps and deciding to buck the trend I whopped mine up. The upper and lower rear fuselage seams were zapped with CA then reinstated with a scriber ala the advice Floyd Werner hands out. The joint on the real aircraft was in the form of lapped panels but this is close enough.

22 January 2010

The little Emil was finally finished about ten days ago. The finished shot have been added to the gallery above.