Eduard 1/32nd Messerschmitt Bf109E-1
This Bf109 features decals from Kagero and lots of modifications. Slat widths and landing gear lengths corrected, lower nose reworked by cutting away the bottom of the oil cooler and replacing with Evergreen stock. Leather wheel well covers made from Tamiya tape with zippers simulated by bits of beading needles. Leading edge of vertical tail was straightened. Supercharger intake piece was hollowed out and thinned, with vanes replaced using Evergreen strip. Tip of propeller shaft replaced with drilled out Evergreen rod. The Eduard DB601 and MG17 mount were cut to bits in order to get the cowling pieces to fit while still showing the relevant parts through the vents. Cutting Edge seat & Quickboost exhausts were also used. Paints were Floquil Military Flats.
This model represents the machine flown by Uffz. Leo Zaunbrecher, of 2./JG-52, belly landed on a British farm on August 12, 1940.
Very nice! Well done indeed.
Gary
Ohhh my, that is just plain beautiful. Flawless !
Sounds like you had a few issues with the kit accuracy wise. I heard about the leading edge slats, but what's that with the gear and oil cooler?
Thomas, the main landing gear are approximately 3mm too long- not much I know, but it truly affects the model's sit. I fixed that by sawing the upper connection of the oleo scissors free, the sawing off the oleo where it met the strut, drilled out the strut by 3mm, re-inserted the oleo and reattached the top of the oleo scissors. Fiddly, but Tenax 7 wicked into it made for a very strong graft. Eduard foolishly (imho) molded integrated the lower nose into the fuselage halves and the lower sides of the nose did not fit well along the marrying surfaces and the angles were acute (like a shallow vee keel) when viewed from the front. I actually re-shaped the entire lower cowl area and since the bottom of the oil cooler was so thick I decided to solve both problems with a piece of Evergreen stock.
"Da Chief" strikes again! Superb model.
Holy Cow (ala Phil Rizutto)...that's a lotta "corrections" - I thought Eduard was one of the better manufacturers re quality & accuracy - or were they simply things you wanted to do?
In any event, that's one of the better Me-109's I've seen modeled...superb workmanship, sir.
By the way, what's the difference between an Me-109 and a Bf-109..? Is it something akin to a TBF or a TBM Avenger (just a matter of where they were made?).
Craig, I believe that the 'F' was Navy abbreviation for 'Grumman' and that 'M' was that for General Motors. In the mid-30s when the 109 won out over the competing designs, Willy Messerschmitt was forced by Erhard Milch (who favored Heinkel) to license out his production to Bayerische Flugzuegwerke. Hence, the "Bf". Today, one may use "Me" or "Bf" interchangeably, but official RLM documents favored the latter.
I always thought that this kind of camouflage, before mottling came around and with almost entire fuselage sides in blue, was one of the coolest-looking camouflage schemes ever. Well, maybe its just me. In any case, you have done it justice! Beautiful work.