Saved by the Bell, 1/72nd Bf109E-3 Airfix A02062

I bought a kit on FB/Marketplace with a porch pickup, having to ring the bell after leaving the agreed payment in the mailbox. I left the payment, rang the doorbell and started walking back to my car. The seller then came out and added this kit to the purchase, saying that her son gave up on it and was going to throw it away. The gifted kit was partially built and had glue smudges all over, the canopy was missing, the stabs were broken off and the prop was bent out of shape . I figured it would be great to have some spare parts so I put the kit aside.

Upon further checks, the Airfix kit is very nice with nice recessed lines and nice nose gun detail. The plastic is a bit soft, but that's a characteristic of all the newer Hornby Airfix kits. I decided to do a little CPR on this little guy. I scraped the glue and filled some gaps. Things did not look too bad when I sprayed the primer, so I figured I'd complete the kit.

Checking my decal stock, I did have Rising Decals RD-72015 which would allow me to complete the build as a Spanish Emil flying with the Condor Legion Jagdgruppe 88 flying in the Spring on 1939. The "Mickey Mouse" badge was the emblem of 3rd squadron of Jagdgruppe 88.

When I compared AK Real RC270 RLM63 with Mr. Hobby H70 RLM02, there wasn't very much difference viewed with indoor light so I went with Mr. Hobby paint once again. Mr. Hobby RLM65 was used for the bottom the the plane. Tamiya X-18 Black was used for the sides and inner wings and XF-2 for the wing tips.

The RD decals worked great and I used the Airfix stenciling from the kit.

For the canopy, I had an extra E-3 canopy from Hasegawa kit. It fit a little small, so I had to add some styrene filler to raise it up a little and filled the gaps with Kyrstal Kleer.

Futuregloss coat, then panel lines highlighted and final coat was 50/50 Micro Satin/Flat.

I didn't fix all the issues found from the original build, but in the end I'm glad this build wasn't thrown out.

Thanks for viewing.

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.