Tamiya Messerschmitt Bf109E-4/Trop – Black-8 2.JG27
Presenting the well known Messerschmitt Bf109E-4/Trop, Black-8 of 2.JG27, in the famous dotted desert scheme.
During our last holiday in Greece, we took the opportunity to visit Spiros @fiveten and his lovely family. It was a special and wonderful day to meet in real. While showing his amazing collection of beautifully finished models and his huge stash of still to be started kits, he presented me this amazing Tamiya Emil. This kit is of course very special for me and therefore did my uttermost best to make it my best ever build.
The dotted desert scheme has always been one of my favorites but it always hold me back to try it because, to my opinion, it is not that easy to achieve. As usual, I started with the interior per instructions. The internal details are very nice molded, instrument panel with the colored decal makes it look really nice. Although decals are provided for the seatbelts, I chose to create them myself using masking tape to give them a bit more 3D effect. Tamiya offers you the option to extend/retract the slats and flaps and have the canopy in open or closed position. Extended slats and flaps with opened canopy were chosen in this build to give it a more active look. Machine guns opened up a bit to give them a bit more of a barrel look. Most of the air vents were opened as well, just like the leading edge of the cowl in front of the canopy, thanks for pointing that out Erik @airbum. The landing gear was upgraded by adding brake wires including the flexible loop. To get the camouflage done, I first tried to airbrush the dots freehanded, although some dots did turn out quite nicely, the reproducibility was not that great. Therefore, I decided to paint the entire aircraft with RLM80 (OlivGrün) first and create dots using patafix. With all the dots applied I painted the RLM79 (Sandgelb). Because of the thickness of the patafix blobs, the edge of the dots should be less sharp. The result however does show a sharper edge than I expected. Maybe the angle I used while spraying was not correct. Also, the size and amount of dots could be better, more dots and smaller in size. Weathering was done with a black wash and a desert sand color pigment. The weathering on the lower surface turned out a bit overdone to my opinion. The desert dust is mainly applied on the lower surface and the landing gear.
As expected from Tamiya, it is a real pleasure to build this kit, fitting is perfect, details are nice.
In the end I'm pretty happy with the outcome of this build, some improvements (mainly the dots) for a possible future build to look in to.
The model will get a prominent place on my shelf as a remembrance of the meeting with a wonderful friend.
This build is done in the Messerschmitt Bf109E Combo build group which already revealed some very nice results and upcoming ones. Thanks to all for your comments and feedback, @fiveten, @gblair, @tcinla, @airbum, @chinesegeorge, @holzhamer, @lgardner, @eb801, @mvtb, and other that I might have forgotten.
Take care,
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- 1. brake wires added including the flexible loop
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- 1. masking tape seatbelts
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- 1. air vents and leading edge of the cowling opened
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- 1. patafix dots applied
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- 1. removing them was quite some work as well
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- 1. barrels opened a bit
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- 1. together with my first build Emil, Adolf Galland's aircraft
- 2. not the best antenna wire :-)
This is a wonderful result, my good friend John! To me the mottling, the underside weathering and, of course, everything else, are simply perfectly executed! Also, the improvements add up a lot to the final looks.
The Tamiya kit is a nice, solid kit, but it takes your skills and perseverance to come up with such an excellent model.
To me, it feels very special that you gave this kit priority over your other builds and also that you invited me to build our Emils together.
I feel really honored that we became friends and our families have been met in person.
Congratulations!
@fiveten, thank you very much, Spiros.
Together with a Greek cup of coffee, this build gave a lot of joy.
Very nice John
@blackadder57, thank you, George
Excellent, John @johnb. Great photos. The two Emil’s side by side is a nice touch. Thumbs up, again!
@eb801, thanks a lot, Eric. Same aircraft but still looking quiet different just by the scheme.
Nice work on this one, John. I’m a big fan of that kit. It’s also awesome that you and Spiros got to meet!
@j-healy, thank you, John. The kit is indeed wonderful. The meeting with Spiros (@fiveten) was amazing, it would be wonderful if we could organize an iModeler gathering to meet all.
Watched you do this one. Great work and a superb result.
@tcinla, really appreciated, Tom
This one came out great, John (@johnb). It was a pleasure watching this one coming together, especially the great job on the camo. Well done.
@gblair, thanks a lot, George. It was my pleasure as well to have you in building in the Bf109E group build.
I'm impressed of Your painting skill!
@lis, thank you very much, Bernard. Always points for improvement, but I think the patafix blobs are an effective aid. Next time smaller and more.
Lovely build, John (@johnb)! I especially like the weathering- subtle chipping at the front of the wings and some mud around the wheels. Very nice!
@fxrob, thanks, Rob. Chipping on the wing edges was done with dry-brush.
Well done, John. Love the "busy" camo scheme and you did a nice job with it.
@gwskat, thanks a lot, Gary. It is impressive to see how effective this camo scheme was.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
You did a fine job on this one, John, nothing at all to be ashamed of!
@jetmex, thanks a lot, Jaime
I find it impossible to call a 109 beautiful, but this one proves me wrong, you’ve done a great job with this, definitely worthy of everything that this model means to you.
@chinesegeorge, thank you, George. Glad you like it this way.
Looks so much like the real aircraft John. Impressive camouflage for North Afrika and rendered effectively well in your model. The side by side with the other one you built is real nice.
@bernardbedeur, thank you very much, Bernard.
A fine work of a still good kit. You squeezed the best out of plastic my friend
@holzhamer, thanks a lot, Pedro. Yes, this Tamiya kit has stil a lot in it.
John,
What a great back story being, able to go to Greece and visit with Spiros and his family. Being gifted this kit and coming up with a warm special build of this Tamiya Emil. I'm impressed with the method you used to make the green dots and the weathering makes for a classic build. More importantly, I'm always impressed by how we modelers can be, geographically separated (thousands of miles) and may have different languages, live in different environments (-12 C) and come up with the same addictions or thoughts. 😉
Had to smash the like button.
@stephen-w-towle, thanks for your comments, Stephen. Indeed an amazing story resulting in great friendship. It is amazing to see friendship happening from all over the globe, currently having -4 C in the Netherlands during the night, where did you get the -12 C already.
I live in Minnesota, where "Gods frozen ones." 🙂 My Canadian friends would laugh -12 C is nothing.
Oh man, that bird looks great John @johnb! 😃 Beautiful paintwork on a superb scale model, and I loved hearing about your visit with Spiros and his family. That really did make me smile; I don't know of two nicer, more gracious modelers than you two! Well done all around John! 🍻
@garybrantley, thanks a lot, Gary. Meeting with Spiros @fiveten was a wonderful happening.
Thanks for all kind words, my friend @garybrantley!
NIcely done - I think the paint and weathering work looks fantastic!
@gkittinger, thanks a lot, Greg.