Franz von Werra's Bf109 E4

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks everyone for looking in and your kind comments. I think this is my first build of one of the modern Eduard kits. I have one of the ancient Hannover kits partially done. That was a limited run kit and we all know how limited run kits tend to go.

The fit on the parts is quite reasonable on this kit. Nice for a change. Only part I have had a little trouble with is the oil cooler under the engine. It isn't bad, but it is taking a little fit work to get all the gaps closed up. Definitely changing the assembly order on that part and it will make it much better.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I have been working on this fairly steadily. Hit an miss in the evenings during the week, I have been doing a bit of work on the weekends. In addition I decided to also start the new Bf-108 in 1/32 and build it along side this. I have not started a thread for it yet, but it will be along shortly once I get some time to spend on it.

 

[sharkman]

Wow, quite a few great updates there Paul! I really like what you did with the pit and your technique for thinning out panels, will have to keep that in mind.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Wow, quite a few great updates there Paul! I really like what you did with the pit and your technique for thinning out panels, will have to keep that in mind.

Thanks for looking in Warren! Yeah the technique with the holes works quite well. I figured it out a number of years ago when working on the early Eduard Hannover CL.IIIa kit. It is one of those limited run kits that are just horrible. The sides of the fuselage at the cockpit were so thick that it just didn't look right. The cockpit interior was PE, but it was too thin as there was supposed to be some box framing inside. By thinning the sides with this method I got a nice, even, thinned, look to the panels and with some extra styrene added to the PE it changed the whole look. I think it could be used on tail parts of planes with nose gear to lighten the rear portion a fair amount as well.

Now for another followup with the results of the tail straightening. By splitting the seams, it allowed the fuselage halves to flex against each other. By clamping the parts where I wanted them, THEN adding solvent to the seams and clamping them together with the desired positioning, it took and stayed. My guess as to the twist cause was that there was a slight warp along with going along and gluing the halves together a bit at a time, it allowed the twist to exist. I left the cockpit area glued, because it is fairly well constructed and thus is pretty square and aligned, and then the vertical stabilizer was kept glued as well to keep it true. When the corrective twist was added, the separate sides shifted just enough against each other and when glued, they held. In fact i believe that some of the problems I originally had with the seams corrected themselves as well.

That's all for now. I have been so busy and wound up in this build that the 108 has stalled at the gate. It has a little work on the cockpit, but not enough yet to post.

 

[jeaton01]

Paul, I use the clear resin for airliner windows. It takes weeks to get to final hardness.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks for the info John. I had a hunch that was the case, but you never know for sure with a product you have just used for the first time. Your comment though kind of just gave me a solution to putting all the windows in the Me 323 that is on the Shelf Of Doom.

 

[moon puppy]

That's some update Paul. Keep at it!

 

[ausf]

I admire your precision and attention to detail.

In terms of resin, I'd recommend Smooth-On. I don't know if they are more expensive than hobby shop offerings, but they are the industry standard and I haven't had an issue with any of their products going back 30 years.

Urethane resin is very moisture sensitive, that's usually the reason for them having a short shelf life but with some care in pouring and storing, you can great improve it, I have stuff that's close to 4-5 years old that still works perfectly.

If you look into Smooth-On, they have trial kits that are enough for years worth of projects like this one. If you do decide to try them, order from Reynolds Materials. It's actually next door to Smooth-On and has the same pricing, shipping, but doesn't charge sales tax. The perk to getting it straight from them is the stuff hasn't been lingering on a shelf somewhere for years. Another thing, the shipping may seem high, but it's Fed Ex and I usually have it in less than 24 hrs, most cases before they update shipping. They're in PA, it's only a few hours from me, but they are great at shipping, plus serious tech support and the products come in an array of pot lives. You choose the best for your needs, choose the time you want it to set and you're golden. I usually lean towards 7 minute pot life, that allows me to mix and vacuum, then turn around and redo it in an hour. If you're just mixing and fill, you could go faster with a 3 minute, but unless you're doing roto type of hollow stuff, theres no advantage.


I'm not a shill for them, they are just that good. All my product or prototyping is with their stuff, from silicone to resin and beyond.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I appreciate it Jeff! I will check them out.

I have used the 3 minute stuff before and I like it for little tiny parts that are simple castings. I know the longer stuff would be more useful on things like this. I will probably just make a trip to Hobby Lobby though as I don't need much and the old resin was probably about 6 or 7 years old. Even the rubber I had was fully set up and wasn't any good any more.

 

[lupanzer]

Amazing building!...as always

Luiz.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks Luiz! I have some more to post for everyone. If anyone has one of these kits you will NEED to make note of something in this post.

The spar as of this post has been checked out and the pattern is good. Feel free to use or pass it on. Note that I used some 3/32 thick acrylic for it and it needs that for strength. The wing in my kit wanted to set flat which was entirely wrong. It also gave some HUGE gaps along the wing roots. With the dihedral fixed everything fit into place properly.

Thanks for looking in!

 

[moon puppy]

Really nice job Paul

 

[Piet]

As usual Top class Photo explanation and research.

 

[sharkman]

Nice execution Paul!!

 

[jknaus]

Love the extra work on this. I did the same with the guns years ago on my first one but did not do the engine. I really like it. I'll have to give it a try unless you are going to sell some of those engine plugs. Never noticed the dihedral issue before. Will have to attempt that fix also when i do mine. Now just to wait for the Bf 108 corrections to start rolling out before I start mine
James

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks for looking and commenting Bob, Piet, and Warren!

James, I am not sure what I might do with the engine plug. For sure you cannot build the model with the whole engine in place as the cover absolutely will not fit in place over it. As to the plug, I am debating about doing another mold and trying something a little different. Once I figure out what will work well and what I want to do, it should be easy to do a few pops for folks on MA as needed.

As to the 108, so far I have messed with the cockpit and am fairly impressed by it. The PE that Eduard added to the kit pretty much does the job. I have a bit of really good reference on it including one B&W photo that I am sure is original. It has that ancient German carpeting and side panels that once I looked are the same stuff as is found on the ancient VW beetles from the 50's and early 60's. In that case some of the PE should NOT be used as that detail is actually covered by the thin carpet and not seen. I am referring to the PE around the 2 control sticks and the landing gear pump stick in the center. That carpet or covering was quite ugly and had no pile but was like a very coarse burlap in a dark grey with cloth edging.
Here is that photo.

This very much reminded me of the early VW's I owned back when. This is also a plane with the funky automatic prop pitch adjuster so might be a D model. Otherwise it is an excellent photo.
Also here is a wonderful informational video on the 108 which explains clearly a lot of items.

 

[lupanzer]

Great building, so far!

Luiz.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks Luiz!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

After my somewhat failed attempt at making a decent machine gun barrel, I ordered the Master Model set from Sprue Bros.

The last pics pretty much show why. I was not all that happy with the ones I made, After looking at a video which showed a very clear close up of the wing gun I ditched the ones I made. Then thought for a minute and looked on SB and there was this set ready made. They should be here in a few days.

 

[sharkman]

Can't beat those Master Model barrels!

I really liked that video on the 108!