Great progress, John @j-healy
Always nice to see a 109 getting together.

I worked on the Heinkel today. This really is a nice kit. Painted up the interior, added PE, installed it and closed the fuselage up.
Not sure about underside colors on this one. References show the He-51s were delivered in overall gray 63. When they were camouflaged, some received blue 65 bottoms? Seems unlikely they’d paint some blue, but not others. Any thoughts?

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Exactly my thoughts too, Tom. Especially on biplanes like this. I see photos in my references that show a hard edge between the top camo and the undersides on some of them. I imagine this could have led some to think bottoms were repaints. I could see them being masked just to keep a demarcation between camo tops and 63 gray bottoms.

Looking great, my friend @j-healy!

Net profiles show RLM65 undersides too commonly and I read a few discussions (which, as usual, end in speculation). I believe our friend @tcinla has a strong point there. RLM63 (greenish gray) would be a suitable underside color once the top camo would be applied, so, the too much of a hassle of painting the undersides at the field could be avoided. I also believe that from B/W pics you cannot really tell if the underside is RLM63 or 65. And yes, I believe they would have used tape to obtain a hard edge, but that does not mean that the undersides were painted RLM65.

I needed a spreader beam to get a reasonable fit for the cowling top. The lower wings are a tight fit with some serious anhedral, as everybody else who has built this kit has said. Some trimming and sanding resulted in an acceptable fit. Tape will help it set up. The bottom and top of the cowling both have scoops/vents with nothing behind them. I put a chunk of styrene behind both and will paint them after the main colors are applied. The front of the lower wing/fuselage join had a significant step that I reduced before gluing the wing on. I made a point to drill out the drop tank attachment points so I wouldn’t lose them when sanding. I’ll let this cure and start painting the 109 tommorow.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I agree, Tom. I really liked the cockpit. Looks busy when built and installed.

Looking great, my friend @j-healy!