Well executed session George , the cockpit is really nice . One trick to avoid poor fitting of the wing is , glue the upper half of every wing on the fuselage and then the lower central wing part (under the cockpit)
under the already dryed wing halves .

I finally found some time to work on this 109F. You would think that someone who was retired would have more time, but it doesn't work out that way. I made some good progress, and most of the major components were completed.

The fuselage was glued together, and the separate tail assembly was added. Being a former "diecast" kit, there were 3 screws to be used on the fuselage, as well as plugs to hide them under the skin of the aircraft. The plugs were made out of a hard rubber, and were cleverly designed so that there was no way they would actually hide the holes in the fuselage. Some putty and sanding took care of the situation. While I had the sanding tools out, I removed two small air scoops on the nose. After reading two build reviews of this kit from modelers who know much more about the 109F than I do, I discovered these scoops are on the 109G, not the 109F. (Thanks, Tom @tcinla).

The other item that was identified in the build reviews as a 109G holdover was the prop. The kit prop has very wide blades appropriate for the G model, but not the 109F. This was a little confusing, because when I got to my 3000th online picture of the G and F props, they all started looking the same. So...out came the sanding tools again and I took off a little of the mass of the prop. Hopefully they ended up being something close to what they are supposed to be.

Wings were up next. The landing gear is attached first. In keeping with its diecast heritage, the gear is designed so that you can move the struts from up to down, and vice versa. There is a plastic plate that snaps the gear in place when it is fully down. I assembled the struts and plate, added the requisite screw to hold it together, and then glued it all in the down position. The struts actually look fairly detailed, as do the gear doors, if you ignore the large ejector pin marks on the doors. I think the tires will hide pin marks.


Before I added the upper wings, I filled some rather large holes for the centerline bomb rack and underslung machine guns in the bottom wing. I had no plan to add these features, so I glued plastic rod of the appropriate diameter in the holes, cut them flush, and then sanded them.

With the holes filled, I added the upper wings, as well as the ever present screws to hold it all together. The wings also feature moveable slats, but the recess for the slats is empty. I added some thin plastic sheet, which I think will make everything look better. The slats can wait till the end to be added.

With the wing complete, it was time to glue it to the fuselage. The engineers had given this part of the assembly some thought, because they molded a small "shelf" in the plastic of the wing root that forces the upper part of the wing into the correct position. Once everything was glued, and the requisite screw added to the assembly, the wing/fuselage seam looked pretty good.

That's it for now. Up next will be sanding everything. The surface of the plastic has a pebbly feel, so I plan to smooth everything and then get the canopy ready for addition. Thanks for stopping by, and everyone stay safe

Thanks, John (@johnb). The screws come from this kit's birth as an already-built and painted plastic diecast model. Most 1/32 kits don't have screws, although they certainly strengthen the kit. I wouldn't mind them if they were somehow hidden without using plugs, etc.

Yeah, this is looking good @gblair. With just a bit of effort, this kit can turn into a really nice model, as you are so clearly demonstrating.

Yep, looking super, my friend @gblair!
Trumpeter uses screws on the 1/32 Sukhoi 27, hiding them under panels.

Progress has been slow for the last few days. We have had several days of severe thunderstorms, flashfloods, and tornado watches. In the midst of all of this, we keep losing power. Work on the model had funneled down to getting the plane closed up and the surface cleaned up in preparation for painting.

First up, there is a plate that is glued on top of the cowling to finish the forward part of the model. As several of the build reviews noted, this creates a horizontal "seam" that isn't present on the real plane, so putty and sanding was the plan. Did you ever have one of those seams that just never seemed to disappear? I would apply putty, sand smooth, check that the seam was gone, and then give it a quick shot of primer only to find that you could still see the seam. So, repeat putty, sand, primer...yell at the plane, then repeat again. After 4 tries I think I finally got it.

Next up were the canopies, which took some work. From its diecast heritage, the canopy was designed to open and close using slots in the front and rear canopy section and two pins in the center canopy. In addition, the canopies pushed into place using very large tabs that fit into slots in the fuselage. Unfortunately, a lot of the structure needed to make this happen, as well as the tabs, would be very visible on the model. The designers of this kit were very careful to be sure that each tab terminated in the middle of a canopy pane. I removed all of this unneeded stuff using sanding sticks, going from coarse to very fine, followed by an application of Brasso (remember the stuff you used to shine brass with?), and then a buffing on my t-shirt. I followed all of this up with a bath in Future floor wax. I was pleased with the results, so I let everything dry overnight.

Did you ever have one of those days when the modeling gods seem to be against you? That was my day today. The first thing on the schedule was to add the instrument panel and control stick to the cockpit. I left them out till now because I was fairly certain neither the gunsight or the stick would survive the previous steps, so I left them out. I had previously checked several times to be sure that the instrument panel could be added at this point, so I was surprised when it wouldn't fit in the cockpit. After several unsuccessful attempts and some very creative language, I realized I would have to sand off a little on each side of the panel. When I finished this, I realized I had popped the gunsight off and it was now in places unknown. 20 minutes of eye-level work on the carpet with a flashlight recovered the gunsight, which I glued in place on the panel, and then glued the panel to fuselage. Success!

Next step was to cut and add two pieces of "glass" to the gunsight. The first one went well, and was glued in place. Sadly the last cut on the 2nd piece sent it flying into the carpet. I didn't really expect to find a very small piece of clear acetate in the carpet, but I spent 20 more fruitless minutes on the floor in search of my missing glass. No luck, so my gunsight will probably have only one piece of glass.

I really wanted to get the canopy glued on so it could dry in preparation for painting. The front and rear canopy sections were glued on using white canopy glue. I checked the middle section and it looked like it would be a perfect fit. As I was getting ready to glue the middle section into place, I realized I hadn't added the armored headrest to the middle section. In fact, I hadn't even painted the headrest yet. So, I filled a rather prominent ejector pin mark in the center of the headrest, painted it, and then set it aside to dry. At this point, I decided I was making too many potentially unrecoverable mistakes, so I set everything aside and went downstairs to watch an old movie.

Sometimes it is wiser to do something else until your karma syncs with the universe again. Hope everyone has a great day and stay safe!

Besides some drawbacks, you made very nice progress, George @gblair

Your work on the canopy is very nice and I do like the approach of applying the black lines.

I do, unfortunately, recognize those sessions of thorough carpet inspection. For some reason those parts seems to travel to a location where you least expect them.

Taking a break after these happenings is a good thing.

Looking forward to the placement of the canopy.

All is looking great, my friend @gblair!
Yes, I know about those awful days where everything i fighting you!
Looking forward to your progress!