1/48 Airfix Messerschmitt BF109-e Build Thread

[antonowski]

Hi everyone,

After finishing the 1/72 Spitfire, I thought the 1/48 'schmitt would be a good next project. I've had the kit for about 10 years and only recently found it, so here goes a bit more of an in-depth thread than my Spitfire...


I love the box art for this kit, alyways thought the grey looked a little metallic though! No shots of the kit in its entirety though, sorry about that!




So here's the tools I've been using for the build so far, I'll get a list of paints and other materials for when those stages are complete...

Snippers, Tamiya 10mm masking tape, the Ultimate sanding range, a cotton bud and a sharp bladed hobby knife


I started this build by actually masking off the canopy using the 10mm tape. I wanted to make a decent go of it so spent a work zoom meeting (ssshhhh don't tell) masking and cutting.




I then cleaned up all of the cockpit parts ready for assembly. I painted everything in situ for this build as opposed to doing it all separately and assembling afterwards.



Unfortunately I didn't take any step by step pictures of the painting process, but I'm sure you've all seen/done that many times before. here's a few pics of the cockpit assembled, painted and integrated into the right side of the fuselage:




As you can see I extended the seat belt a little from the original kit and put some very awkward looking buckles (not historically accurate!) made from 3mm curve masking tape from tamiya. And here is a pic of the cockpit with both halves of the fuselage together...




Well, that's it for the first post. I'll be uploading the progress on the fuselage preparation for painting later on.

Cheers!

[Tomcat64]

That's off to a really good start

And you wouldn't be the only one to take advantage of a less than scintillating work call to do modelling stuff

[antonowski]

Thanks for the kind words Neil!

So, next step was preparing the fuselage for priming. I haven't used primer for the previous builds but figured I'd do the right thing this time just to see those pesky join lines.

First step was to fill and sand the gaps as best I could. This included the usual parts such as the area behind the canopy, infront of the canopy and the underside where the fuselage joins together. I used Vallejo plastic putty for this and let it sit for 24 hours before filing down...



Once this was done, I gave the engine area a coat of Tamiya X-1 Black, then used PVA glue to fix the canopy and engine cowling. I masked off the areas of the cowling that have holes in from the inside in preparation for the yellow colour to be applied later.



You can kind of see what I'm doing on the first picture where the 2 air holes are in front of the machine gun mounts in the upper engine cowling.


Because I'm wanting to have the canopy open eventually, the little tabs at the bottom of the middle piece of canopy wouldn't allow it to sit flush to the cockpit area, so I had to improvise and block those gaps up with some blu tac...

If there's any areas that need touching up later on, at least it'll be where there is a solid colour.


Here's the model so far after letting the PVA glue dry...



After I'd let the glue set, I hit the entire model with Ultimate grey primer and began sanding the areas that were filled...




Once the primer was levelled, it was time to start applying some paint. I'll go over the details of that in another post once I finish work!

Cheers,
Ant

[Garion77]

Miss the beginning of this one. Of to a nice start. What you can do the next time for the belts, is to use the decals as reference for the size. You can also use copper or led wire to recreate the buckles.

[antonowski]

Thanks Francis! Appreciate the advice about the seatbelts, I can still add to the cockpit before the final build so may do this still.

Ok....so onto part 3 - the painting!

I gave the entire plane underside, upper fuselage, wings/stabilisers etc a coat of Tamiya XF-80 Royal Light Grey. I knew this was going to be a little light but it's fine, I can "try" and unify everything with the wash and weathering stages later, right?

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of this or the freehand airbrush work on the sides for the camo pattern, but trust me it isn't that great as you'll see later.

I then masked off the areas that were to remain in this original grey colour to lay the darker grey down (Vallejo Model Grey). I checked the ref a couple of times during this and found that I'd masked too high just behind the canopy leading to the aft of the aircraft, so I carefully cut away the extra masking tape to make this area larger on both sides...



You can see here where I'd masked off (this pic was taken after the darker grey had been applied)



Next step was to mask off the areas that I wanted to keep this darker grey tone and decide on which green I was going to use. It was a toss up between Gunship Green and Dark Green, both from the Vallejo Model Color range. I opted for Dark green in the end as the grey itself was already pretty desaturated and the lighter gunship green (I thought) would've been too much of a contrast.


Before painting


After painting


Here's the model after CAREFULLY removing the masking tape. That sure was stressful!


I know there isn't a huge amount of contrast, so I may apply some panel highlighting before the weathering and decal process...though I do kinda like the subtlety at the moment. Besides, once it's been varnished that usually brings the colours out anyway!


Next up was to mask off the nose and rear areas for the yellow painting. Conveniently I'd used PVA glue on the tail too so I popped that off and attached it to a cocktail stick with some masking tape, then masked off the nose area using some cut pieces of cardboard for the areas that would receive the most amount of overspray.





I also grabbed a picture of the camo pattern on the side. I still need to marry this to the darker grey at the top of the fuselage just so the contrast isn't so stark.



This is the result I got from using Vallejo Game Color "Gold Yello". It was over grey to dull it a little as over a white primer would have probably made it a little too bright...




(The side of the fuselage there looks REALLY bright, but it's actually not as stark as that irl).

So, that's about where I'm up to with the build so far! Next steps are to gloss varnish before applying decals, then get the smaller pieces painted up and ready for weathering.

Hope you've enjoyed the progress so far!

Cheers
Ant

[digger303]

[BigWall]

It's really coming along nicely! It looks like you did a great job with the canopy masking.

[antonowski]

It's really coming along nicely! It looks like you did a great job with the canopy masking.

Thanks! Let's hope it turns out alright! Even if it doesn't it's been a fun build.

[Tomcat64]

That really is coming along very nicely indeed!

Removing the masking is always a "hold your breath" moment for me as well.

And that's a good go at the mottling effect too - that's something really tricky to tackle.

[antonowski]

That really is coming along very nicely indeed!

Removing the masking is always a "hold your breath" moment for me as well.

And that's a good go at the mottling effect too - that's something really tricky to tackle.

Cheers! Luckily it was all fine, was on relatively fresh paint too so I'm more confident in using tamiya's masking tape now at least.

Not too happy with the mottling effect, I'm quite experienced with using an airbrush just not in this way, and I've gone back to using my Iwata Neo as opposed to using my morr expensive HPCS as there's lots more being pushed through the airbrush on these builds in comparison to regular Warhammer 40k model paint jobs.

Going to be cracking on with the decals over the next couple of days now!

[antonowski]

Hi all, I'm back with a mini update - this time I've completed the decals and started the weathering process, I've also started to paint and assemble a couple of the smaller pieces.

So! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the in-progress stages of the decals, so here's a finished shot once everything was put on after a double coat of Vallejo gloss varnish (and flatening)...




Once this was done, I applied another 2 coats of vallejo gloss varnish over the whole model and flattened using the Ultimate sanding sticks. I then created a moderately diluted wash with black and burnt umber oil paints mixed with mineral spirits to the whole of the surface and left it in place for around 10 minutes.




Once this was "dry" ish, I proceeded to remove extra wash with a brush and some more mineral spirits. I want this plane to be pretty grimy as it's going to be part of a maintenance dio so I left a fair amount of it on:




And that's where I'm up to so far. Once I've got the smaller pieces painted, weathered and glued into place I'll post an update of the final weathering process!

[RangerNeil]

Looking good with the decals on.
One question - have kit manufacturers stopped supplying the Hakenkreuz (swastika) that goes on the tail fin??? Or was that personal choice?

[RangerNeil]

Looking good with the decals on.
One question - have kit manufacturers stopped supplying the Hakenkreuz (swastika) that goes on the tail fin??? Or was that personal choice?

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Very nice paint , don't forget to paint the guns (and one on the wings doesn't seem to be lining up).

[antonowski]

Looking good with the decals on.
One question - have kit manufacturers stopped supplying the Hakenkreuz (swastika) that goes on the tail fin??? Or was that personal choice?

Cheers!

The decals supplied in the box don't have that option available, and the kit is at least 10 years old so I'm not sure on when that changed. I was contemplating creating a stencil for it but I've not been overly cautious with historical accuracy on the rest of the build so I can't really justify having it on there. Always something I could add in the future I suppose!

Cheers,
Ant

[antonowski]

Very nice paint , don't forget to paint the guns (and one on the wings doesn't seem to be lining up).

Thanks! Do you mean the join at the fuselage? I've only just noticed that now you've said, I'll keep an eye on that for the next build

Cheers,
Ant

[antonowski]

Ok, so I managed to get the last of the kit together during lunch today, with a few niggles here and there which I'll explain in a little postmortem after the entire build is done. So, here's some images of the BF109-e:










The kit is finished though, so now it's onto the other elements of the diorama. I've got a couple of ideas on how I want to go about this, so I'll post up a sketch or 2 when I've got a minute to do them and then it's listing all the other kits/pieces I'll need!

Cheers,
Ant

[BigWall]

Very nice build. It looks great!

[antonowski]

Very nice build. It looks great!

Thank you! I'll update the thread once the rest of the items arrive for the diorama.

[Stokesy44]

That is a beautiful E.

Really well done

[digger303]

[Garion77]

great job !

[antonowski]

Thanks everyone! Still waiting for some bits to come in for the diorama (and payday, for more bits!) but in the meantime this lovely little kit from ICM caught my eye, specifically for the ground personnel at 1/48 scale. The extra BF109 is a bonus though, kit doesn't look hugely detailed surface wise but has a nice little engine that could be made up with some effort.



I've also ordered a Tamiya 1/48 Kubelwagen Type 82 (smaller 1/48 German WWII vehicles are surprisingly difficult to come by) so will get to building that once it arrives!