Zvezda (ish) 1/72 Bf109Z conversion

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:49 pm

OMG, what have I done!!!!

Well I'll tell you. The wheel wells were removed first, then all the plastic in the way inboard of the wells. Then the ends of the part were squared off to avoid panel lines running at an anle on the next to be built wing section. A little more cleanup to do, mostly around the gear attachment points and then its out with the glue, sheet styrene and filler.

plaese let it all go back together properly

Post by **Lee** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:58 pm

Holy crap! lol

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:23 am

Lee wrote:Holy crap! lol

Not what I was expecting but it made me chuckle

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:34 am

Holy Mary mother of god

Website · Post by **Gav0909** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:35 am

No going back now!!

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:48 am

Oh &*%£ *#+( and &?#$ can anyone tell the MASSIVE screw up?

Post by **Bagpiper** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:13 pm

UKscalemodeller wrote:Oh &*%£ *#+( and &?#$ can anyone tell the MASSIVE screw up?

Now tell me if I'm wrong but this does not sound good.

Cheers
Jim

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:16 pm

Well, the wings of the 109 are of course tapered, meaning that the panel lines are tapered.

So as I said I would, I squared off the panels on the lower wing insert (above) so the panel lines wouldn't look wrong when inserted into the constant chord center section.

This was a success,

as they are nicely squared off.

But can you tell me why oh why did I do it to ALL FOUR,

including the two that are to be normal wings.

D'OH!

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:25 pm

UKscalemodeller wrote:Well, the wings of the 109 are of course tapered, meaning that the panel lines are tapered.

So as I said I would, I squared off the panels on the lower wing insert (above) so the panel lines wouldn't look wrong when inserted into the constant chord center section.

This was a success, as they are nicely squared off.

But can you tell me why oh why did I do it to ALL FOUR, including the two that are to be normal wings.

D'OH!

Whoops

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:53 pm

I see a vision of the future, it involves putty, sanding, cursing and the stamping of feet.

That said I did console myself by turning this

Into this

I'm not sure I could have done it on just one canopy but with two I can sacrifice the middle of one to get the ends and the ends of another to get the middle. I wanted the eduard cockpit set to be seen.

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:00 pm

Great job

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sun Jun 16, 2013 2:05 pm

A little more progress made last night.

The gear attachment points have been removed

And moved inboard to match up with the new gear wells

And the old wheel well detail filled.

This has of course been done on both sets.

I also pur-chased for myself some better 'finishing abrasive' otherwise known as sand paper

More chopping soon.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:36 am

So, a bit more chopping later and this is all that is left of the wings from one of the kits

Of course the same but opposite butchery has been done to the other set.

And then, as a little light relief I decided to start adding s few of the cockpit details.

Here is the bucket seat

It's not too bad for detail but I'm hoping the etch will make it the best cockpit I have ever done.

Then, because there was little on the TV and the pale ale was flowing nicely I decided to add a few details to the fusalage halves, first, those cowling gunports

Which I will be filling in anyway

. Next, the air filters, they needed hollowing out a little and they have sink marks too grrrrr.

The last job of the night was to add a fillet of plastic between the upper and lower halves of the inboard side wing root

To try to remove the dihedral on the remaining parts of the original wing that will form the center section. It was weakened prior to gluing into the upper wing to aid in realigning it.

So, at the moment, this is pretty much where it is at

.

What I have realised will be the REALLY hard part

is next, building a 28x30mm wing from plasticard that fits around the mess that is left.

Wish me luck.

Post by **Bagpiper** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:46 am

Huge amount of work done. Coming along great.

Cheers
Jim

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:54 am

Bagpiper wrote:Huge amount of work done. Coming along great.

Cheers
Jim

Thanks,

not too bad considering it has mostly been done on the dining table. Bonus points to anyone who can identify the placemat under my cutting mat.

Post by **Paul** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:00 am

Nice,progress

Post by **chief5437** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:10 pm

This is looking great so far! I don't think I'd have the guts to start chopping kits up like this!
Exciting watching you do it tho! Lol!

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:24 pm

Looking great this will be really striking model when its done.

And it Thomas the tank engine I believe

Post by **Lee** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:46 pm

Great work so far

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:18 pm

Thanks all

Will update soon with tonights progress.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:18 pm

T3hGuppy wrote:
And it Thomas the tank engine I believe

Correct.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:19 am

I'd like to say thanks again for the comments guys.

It's really great that people actually take an interest in what other people are doing on here.

I stopped posting on a certain other forum because of exactly the opposite, no one was interested, presuamably because my WIP at the time wasn't good enough

Anyway thanks for the encouragement and on with the frankenstein-esque project.

Will this ordinary piece of plasticard really be able to become a wing?

Damn right it will

More

then clamp it and leave it to set overnight

I was first planning on using a much thinner material and actually forming the aerofoil shape but after a few dummy runs I decided against it and went down this, 'build it up and sand it down' method.

Now flipped over, another small sheet of plasticard fitted behind the wheel wells

While that sheet was drying I added the detail back into the wheel wells, made out of thin plastic from a drinking straw. But here is a warning, liquid poly melts plastic (which is good) but also I have now discovered it melts squadron white putty too (which is bad). The starboard most wheel well may look shabbier than the rest when painted.

Once the wing was dry I used the same putty to fill all the gaps ready for sanding tomorrow evening while the 'ladies' are out shopping.

Post by **chief5437** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:40 am

Coming along nicely! I'm really impressed with this, it's certainly not an OOB build!

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:04 am

chief5437 wrote:Coming along nicely! I'm really impressed with this, it's certainly not an OOB build!

It certainly isn't but boy oh boy am I doing an OOB next model I do!!!

Well, I have had a little bit of an enforced break due to everyone here having the plague and trying to sell my house to some poor suc…..someone.

Now all that is out of the way, I can get on with the butchery

Fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, this scratch building malarkey is getting a little old now…….but I’m reasonably pleased with the result on the upper surfaces of the wing with the finer sanding papers, The bottom needs a little more work, so while MORE filler dried I started marking out for the horizontal stabiliser (MORE scratch building

).

And the rear half of the center section mounted radiators, these have to be made square instead of the tapered ones on the outer wings

So, with these parts glued together ready for MORE filling and sanding, here are the flying surfaces so far

And a sneak peek at what it is starting to look like with the two fuselages placed in position

Next, more sanding

Post by **Nige201980** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:08 am

Looks great mate love the concept and the build.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:22 am

Nige201980 wrote:Looks great mate love the concept and the build.

Thanks,

Once this is finished, I'll do a nice simple one build to calm down and then I may attempt a 109z production version using a pair of Gustav's with all the bells and whistles, bombs etc.

Post by **panzerman** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:52 am

Great build.....lots of surgery and conversion going own.
It will be one unique bird once you get it done.
Keep building and having Fun.
Bill.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:37 am

Starting to take shape nicely.

Post by **Lee** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:57 pm

Really liking how this is coming along

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 1:20 pm

Me too, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, (just hoping it's not a train)

Post by **Lee** » Wed Jul 03, 2013 1:28 pm

UKscalemodeller wrote:Me too, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, (just hoping it's not a train)

ha ha - know that feeling!

Post by **Bagpiper** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 1:44 am

I think I will lower my standards to make a comment on your lowly build mate. Man can I really be bothered?

But yeah. I found that in other forums too mate. Everyone was too busy to take 1 minute of their time to just say 'good job". It made for a very one sided forum that's for sure as it was all about them and not really building a community as such.

Love those brutal looking clamps too

Looking great and you have wasted enough of my ever so valuable time on you, I must away

I think Superman said something like that - didn't he?

Cheers
Jim

Post by **DC87** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:46 am

Coming along swimmingly, great to see an outside the box build utilising scratchbuilding

.

Post by **coladito1** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:19 am

Wow!! That's all I have to say about this Ian!! coming along nicely!!

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:04 am

Thanks for the comments.

Jim, thank you for lowering youself to the gutter <wrings cap in both hands>

Luis, from you that is a great compliment.

Not much done recently. I'm going to call the wing done now that I have tapered the radiator covers. More because I've had enough of it rather than because its how I want it to be.

Also I messed up the horizontal stabiliser trying to push my skills beyond what they are currently capable of. Grrrr.

Consoled myself by doing simple stuff, adding the exhausts and reshaping the starboard cockpit opening to help with fairing it over.

It now stretches much further forward.

Post by **spruecutter** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 1:20 am

Good for you for taking on such a weird and complicated build.

Pete

Post by **Nige201980** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 9:21 am

Can wait to see this finished mate this is an epic build.

Post by **Lee** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 2:44 pm

Yep - Kudos for pushing yourself mate

Post by **chief5437** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:11 am

This is looking good so far. Excellent scratch building, I wish I had your patience!
It's been said before, but this will be such a unique piece of work! Well done.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:06 pm

Thanks for the comments guys. It will be a great thing to have in my tiny collection at the end of it all but I so hate filling and sanding.

The fact that this one has a deadline is one major factor pushing me on. I'm hoping to get all the building finished in the next week or so. Then I have to start on the mystery of photo etch. I have been watching various how tos on YT and I think I'll do a decent job of it.

Here's hoping for a decent result.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:17 pm

UKscalemodeller wrote:Thanks for the comments guys. It will be a great thing to have in my tiny collection at the end of it all but I so hate filling and sanding.

The fact that this one has a deadline is one major factor pushing me on. I'm hoping to get all the building finished in the next week or so. Then I have to start on the mystery of photo etch. I have been watching various how tos on YT and I think I'll do a decent job of it.

Here's hoping for a decent result.

keep going dude I really want to see this finished. Doing great so far!

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:03 pm

So, I have finally managed to get some more done on this monstrous creation, but at this rate ( I don't get much modelling time) I may not finish it in time. I'll give it a good go though.

First things first, I mentioned that I would be creating some tools after watching people do etch and other stuff on YT. So I created these.

A sewing needle snipped in half and each given a handle, one for making small holes, one for superglue.

The half a needle eye should hold a small drop of superglue for more accurate placement.

Anywhoo, on with the build. I stuck the port fusalage halves together (sorry no pic) after tracing the shape of the cockpit to be fared over. Then cut a piece of hardwod roughly to shape.

Then, sand, dry fit, sand, dry fit, repeat until happy with shape

Next, use my new superglue tool to stick it in place and fill with putty.

While it dries, paint and wash (although I over did the wash) the cockpit.

Now the putty is dry, time to sand the fairing to shape using progressively finer papers

And thats me done for the night, I interspersed the steps above with giving the beriev three coats of clear and undercoating the revell StuG. I am pleased with the evenings work.

Post by **DC87** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:15 pm

Good golly what an update, well worth the wait. I may be doing some scratchbuilding and sculpting for my group build but a wood carver I certainly am not so a very big well done for that awesome carving

. You have shown skills aplenty with this build already.

Keep it up

.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Thanks, I'm really pleased with the fairing, I honestly didn't think it would look as good as it does.

Next, the mystery of photo etch.

Post by **Paul** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:50 pm

Brilliant work, good luck with the PE, I'm sick of the sight of the stuff lol.

Post by **DC87** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:52 pm

UKscalemodeller wrote:Next, the mystery of photo etch.

A mysterious creation it is, you must visit an old woman who lies in deepest Dartmoor and seek out her blessing from the gods of precut metal

.

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:55 pm

Paul wrote:Brilliant work, good luck with the PE, I'm sick of the sight of the stuff lol.

Why?!? Have you ever used it?

Post by **HobbyModeller** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:46 am

A great range of skills displayed

Post by **Coen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:25 am

We should have and eyes popping out of the head smiley.
I've discovered that I need one.
My hat is off to you UK, this is master stuff.

Post by **hansolo** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:39 am

Yeah, great job on the scratch building!!!

cheers