Beany's Blitz - Home Bargains Airfix Bf-109 E7/Trop *DONE*

[beany]

For the massive initial outlay of £2.99 for the kit, I will Blitz this fella starting tomorrow. For a change I will try to get organised first by assembling and stirring all of the paints to be used - all will be brush painted with Revell and Humbrol acrylics - and getting tools, tape and clamps etc. ready.

The kit will be done wheels up with a prop blur and will eventually be mounted projecting from a picture frame although this probably won't constitute part of the build.

I will use Humbrol's Luftwaffe acrylic range for the overall finish on Franz Elles machine, which is RLM80 Olivgrun mottled over RLM79 Sandbraun all atop RLM78 Himmelblau.

I hope to start about 8.0 am if I can get up in time - I've slipped into holiday lie-in mode this week unfortunately!

Entertainment will be Prog Rock on the CD player - I have just purchased the new Big Big Train album yesterday - very English Folksy Prog - the album is titled Folklore and has one track called Brooklands and another about a Beaufort bomber on an Air Sea Rescue mission (see excerpt from 2:26 in the video attached)!!!



Cheers
Al.

[fredk]

A man with a plan.
Sounds good

[jssel]

Such a beautiful kit. Good luck.

[beany]

OK - let's make that an 09:00 BST start...

[JamesPerrin]

7 minutes till the first update, can' t wait to find out what you had for breakfast!

[beany]

7 minutes till the first update, can' t wait to find out what you had for breakfast!

Breakfast - who has time for breakfast?! (I'll grab some later when I have to pop out with the wife).

Actual start time was 08:45.
PROBLEM - can't seem to use the Add images to post or Photobucket at the moment, so those photos are on hold for now.

Cheers
Al.

[beany]

Interweb seems to be behaving now so here are the photos:
Obligatory box shot. The notebook will be in use later to stream the England v. Pakistan Test Match commentary on the BBC. I am working out in the shed today although I had to clear a space first as it has become a little cluttered of late...


...as you can see if you turn to the left from the first photo! (That is my 1/32 F-15E in the green - my contribution to the current Large Scale Planes Group Build).


First hiccup of the day - battery light immediately begins blinking on the camera - fortunately I am prepared for this - not my first rodeo!


Tools laid out ready.


And we are off at 08:45


It would be nice to do a flaps down version - I may see if Home Bargains have any left - but for now this one will be in flight so the tabs on the flaps need to be removes.


15 minutes in and wing assembley completed


18 minutes in and wing assembly painted - well, first coat at least. I've used Revell 17 Africa Brown for RLM 79 Sandbraun as I discovered I don't actually have the Humbrol version.


Moving on to the cockpit construction. I am not enjoying the soft plastic used in this kits. It is brittle on the sprues and breaks too easily for my liking...


Out with the Xtracrylix RLM02 and blitz everything that needs it. You never get away with one coat when brush painting with Xtracrylics so hopefully it will dry quicly - like most of this range it is a Gloss finish, so will need matting or weather or both later on.


I have to go out for a while now so back about lunch time hopefully.

Cheers
Al.

[jssel]

Good start Al. Will be able to watch this one today.

[fredk]

A good start

[splash]

A brilliant start.

A quick question about the bf109, was it frowned apon to leave their flaps down whilst on the ground like it was on the spitfire squadrons?

[iggie]

Looking good so far! Nice to see someone else listening to TMS (although Aggers is missing on Olympics duty )

[beany]

A quick question about the bf109, was it frowned apon to leave their flaps down whilst on the ground like it was on the spitfire squadrons?

Good point Splash, not sure about that one. I'll research it when I come to that build and if necessary will produce a 109 landing diorama, and maybe even a damaged/alight/smoking 109 landing "dramarama"!!

Started the clock just after mid-day when we got back from running chores.
Spent quite a while getting the wheels to fit into the under wing bays - they needed a lot of cleaning up and thinning before they would sit flush. Likewise both the radiators. Also attached the Fuel tank hard point.


Another coat of Africa Brown applied to wings and to fuselage and nose panel etc. Interiors all re-coated with RLM02.


Propeller hub and spinner assembled and given an undercoat of Matt White. Fortunately I found out at this stage rather than later than Fritz the pilot did not fit in the cockpit so I had to take quite a bit off of his backside and flanks and also the soles of his boots if I was to retain the foot peddles that I went to so much trouble to repair and install earlier. I had to push these right back to a rear slanting angle or take them out altogether for Fritz to fit. The daft thing is probably none of this will be visible when the fuselage is shut, and yet I spent half an hour fussing over it.
.

Lunch now at 2pm.

[fredk]

Coming on nicely.
Does not the Airfix instructions indicate to leave off the rudder pedals if fitting Fritz?

A quick question about the bf109, was it frowned apon to leave their flaps down whilst on the ground like it was on the spitfire squadrons?

Yes. Only a poor pilot leaves the flaps down after landing. Normal practice is to put all the control surfaces to neutral after shut-down. On the 109 the slats would be open as well but the ground crew would push them shut - to prevent damage to them.
Also on the 109; the ailerons are interlinked to the flaps. When the flaps are down the ailerons droop by about 5 degrees. If one builds a 109 with this many others think you've made an error because they do not know this.

[jssel]

Looking good Beany.

[beany]

Coming on nicely.
Does not the Airfix instructions indicate to leave off the rudder pedals if fitting Fritz?

No, they definitely go in but on looking again I may have mounted them at too steep and angle - it looks like they should be laid back more as I discovered, but Fritz would still be a very tight fit!

Getting ready to close the fuselage halves. Instrument decals applied to the panel - as always seems to me to be the case these were larger than the surfaces they are intended for. A quick dab of Klear on top to hopefully seal them in place.

I had to trim down the cockpit panel; sides in order to get the fuselage to close without a gap at the back.

More work on the pilot - Leather helmet and brown flying jacket applied. Will wait for these to dry before applying flesh and straps/life jacket etc.


The Lichtblau doesn't look very "Licht" to me at all, [EDIT - my bad, that's because it's Himmelblau - Sky Blue] but I intend to weather this one up with light coloured chalk pastels (desert=dusty, right?!) so won't worry about it too much at this stage. Gloss white now applied over the Matt on the spinner.


Cheers
Al.