BF110-E Eastern Front Russia

[SprueSurgeon]

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There are a lot of firsts for me in this kit, for example it will be my first time with PE (Photo Etch), it will be my first Eduard Kit and first ProfiPack at that, its my first German model of ANY kind, and it is my very first competitive entry in a group build, i hope i have not bitten off more than i can chew! i hope I've left myself enough time to do this there are about 8 weeks left i think, but i'm a slow builder, anyway lets crack on with the build as always i'm going to start with a review of the kit so follow the link through to You Tube and watch that, for those that don't want to watch the video (shame on you! I need subscribers and thumbs up ) there are a few photos taken beneath the you tube link for you to look at.


CLICK FOR VIDEO >>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<< CLICK FOR VIDEO



BF110-E Eduard 1:48 ProfiPack Edition


BF110-E Eduard 1:48 ProfiPack Edition Box lid off



BF110-E Eduard 1:48 ProfiPack Edition All Sprues laid out prior to building



BF110-E Eduard 1:48 ProfiPack Edition Sporting a winter Camo (NOT MY IMAGE)

[SprueSurgeon]

So lets get underway, a quick browse through the instruction manual shows it to be a very detailed in depth kit with four pages dedicated to the cockpit areas alone, the manual starts instructions on page 3 so that is what this part will be about, its going to be a slow build initially with lots of photo etch, which brings me to my first point, tools it is my opinion that with kits like these you benefit from certain tools unfortunately these tools can be expensive but they will make life considerably easier, my apologies for the first two images they've been snapped and cropped on a web cam so resolution is low.
Firstly Photo Etch Shears the ones you see below appear to be the popular ones and are made by Xuron they are fantastic at cutting through the fine metal in tiny areas, don't get me wrong you can still use a sharp blade and sometimes it may even be the better choice, but these are an invaluable aid to PE Builders and those who build the Metal Earth series too. You can buy them for around £15



Secondly we have the Photo Etch Benders i would say these are a necessity there are various types all of various sizes, i opted for the large all singing and dancing set this means i should be able to tackle everything from small frets up to larger sizes, prices vary and you can get PE Pliers also that have smooth face jaws that help with bending and shaping the small pieces of metal, the ones you see below were around £35 and come with some pieces to help bending.



What struck me first upon building this 1:48 kit was just how small it was the pieces were extremely small and ive included a comparison of the real part in step 1 to the drawn part in the step, and after i started adding the seatbelts to the build and other PE i had to stop building and go out and purchase a LightCraft headband magnifying set aka (an optiviser, click link below for a video review)
Over the next few hours (and i do mean hours) the cockpit slowly came alive. It felt like back breaking work constantly bent over with my forehead hovering just above the table, some of the more unscrupulous among us may even have taken photos of my struggle

*******A review on my LightCraft Headband Magnifying Set******




Never the less it was satisfying and a huge learning curve in my first time encounter with photo etch, pieces were painted as they went on with mainly Revell Aqua Colour No9 Tank Grey thinned with 50% Ultimate thinner, the final stage of the main cockpit was the instrument panel of which there were a few choices, a flat panel with a decal or a detailed panel with a wash or my choice a three piece panel that just looked the dogs dangly bits when inseted at the front.


The flight seat and yoke are fixed in place everything is sprayed Revell Aqua Colour N09 Tank Grey mixed with 50% Ultimate Thinner



The control columns and foot plates which stretched my patience to the limit were buckled up and added also. Also note the control levers these had to be glued on seperately.


The instrument panel in all its blurry glory! sorry i was tired


Only the instrument panel to be added and then some dry brushing


Thats where i shall leave the build for now NEXT TIME i will finish the cock pit and start on the rear flight area. Thanks for taking the time to read my thread, why not take a look at my you tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbLl0 ... X9i3z5U1Wg don't forget to like and subscribe though, ATB Mark

[Bissyboat]

Nice work. The office looks great.

[SprueSurgeon]

Thanks BissyBoat you should see the bathroom

[Bissyboat]

Thanks BissyBoat you should see the bathroom

Hahaha. Plenty enough space if they squat.

[DC87]

Very nice, seatbelts look great.

[SprueSurgeon]

Very nice, seatbelts look great.

really Dan C, my very first time with PE belts, i really struggled, more with the glue than anything else, but its a learning curve, its getting better each time i try, thankyou for your kind words.

[SprueSurgeon]

Welcome back brother and sister modellers , progress has been slow for many reasons, i've been slightly unwell and for a time i became obssessed with getting into the offline hangouts which saw me poised like some decrepit super unfit ninja or like a knackered spring coiled ready to strike just unfortunately always to slow! anyway i digress lets get back to the build.

We left off with the forward cockpit almost finished and only required the instrument panel to be fitted, at this stage the decals were required to be fitted to the instrument panel, if you want to fit them over a raised detail panel then firstly liberally coat the area in your chosen medium, for me this was Humbrol Decalfix, wet the decal until it slides and then slide onto the surface and position, normally at this stage you would roll over a cotton bud or something similar, unfortunately i kept encountering trouble doing this so in the end i just positioned over the panel and left, after an hour or so go back and add a few more drops of Decalfix onto the top of the decal and leave again, should any small airbubbles appear beneath due to the small recess areas around the instrument panel just pierce these with a fine needle and add a few more drops of decalfix and leave.


The instrument panel after the Decal had been seated and top plate added (apologies for poor quality, the photo was taken as a quick snap in low light)

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Forward Cockpit Sub Assembly

Now we turn our attention to the rear cockpit/gunners area which begins with the assembly of a chair corner unit of some description and the smaller sub assembly of the base mounted forward MG FF canons and there magazines, be warned there are some minute PE pieces being positioned and i HIGHLY recommend the use of a PE pick up tool like the type you can buy from Ultimate retail, they really are invaluable once assembled everything can be painted in its respective colours Grey RLM66, Flat Black, Iron & Red Brown. All thats required now is to add one more foldable chair and a set of seat belts for each chair.

[URL=http://s1152.photobucket.com/user/mjldp ... i.jpg.html]
The front base mounted MG FF guns here in a base alluminium colour (it was all i had available) waiting for a gunmetal or dark iron


The rear facing cockpit/gunners area from above

From assembly of this area we now need to build up a main control panel which also makes up the most forward of the bulkheads covered with solenoids and mechanical relays and a myriad of other electrical controls and monitoring equipment thjis was quick and easy and upon assembling was coated with a primer and the sprayed in a daerk grey (should be RLM66)
Once the paint had dried a thick decal was placed on a bed of Decalfix as detailed in earlier steps and left to settle (Note this method of settling decals should only be used in areas where your positioning on top of lots of raised detail and should be monitored closely) This section when dry was added to the assembly.


The forward bulkhead control panel


The decal is positioned over the instruments and left to settle, but monitored closely.

Cockpit detailing is almost over in terms of steps all thats left to do is to add magazines onto the tops of the forward MG FF guns and behind the rear facing MG's which although finicky can be completed if enough care is taken and use of the correct tools especially when it comes to PE


Here we can see the main instrument panel in situ


And here we can see the magazines for the rear facing guns (before detailing/weathering

We now turn our attention to the side walls on each of the fuselages by priming and then painting the inside of the cockpit area (the manual gives you a greyed out area to cover, go just beyond this) Also with profipacks comes a generous amount of PE, some of it to adorn the cockpit walls and help bring it alive, there are various switches, knobs, buttons and displays that are added in the next few steps, Superglue will be your new best friend but whatever you do dont try and dispense from the tube instead squeeze some into a small container and apply with a cocktail stick, be patient and work slowly and methodically or the only things you glue will be your fingers which ironically is the only suface superglue is actually INSTANT on! After all this PE we can finally button up the plane, which is where i shall leave this diary.


Cockpit wall primed


Superglue squeezed into an old Ultimate bung but anything will do.


Fuselage halves joined together


PE on the inside wall of one side of the fuselage, my apologies i forgot to photograph it before i buttoned it up.

And that's where i'm going to end this diarys entry, i hope your enjoying the build, if you are pop on over to my you tube channel and have a look at my content and maybe subscribe and join if you like what you see, bye for now.

[pourquoi61]

Great job so far.

[Always48]

looking good. if its any consultation i put PE seatbelts as prob one of the most difficult modeling parts of a build, although that is said from a limited experience. yours look like you have cracked it.

[Bissyboat]

Nice job on the office. It´s looking good.

[SprueSurgeon]

After buttoning up the two fuselage halfs i decided for a change of pace i would remove the seams from top and bottom of the fuselage halves, the plan was to break up the sanding phase so i didnot have to do it all at once..... STOP THERE, PUT THE SANDPAPER DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE MODEL! at this time i happened to be in a hangout and it was pointed out that the BF110E actually has a seam line on the underside down the centre.
With disaster safely averted it was time to build up the four chin machine guns, imagine firing those alongside the 2 X 30 MK Canons, thats a lot of fire power, Assembly at this phase is very delicate, gun barrels are not my favourite item, they're a nemesis of sorts, removal of seam lines from guns and the cleaning of the holding clamps was painstaking work, ive included some pictures of the process below.


The chin turret/housing assembly begins with the first two machine guns being fitted.


All the machine guns are fixed in situ, only four teeny tiny fire extinguishers to add.


Here are the four fire extinguishers in dark blue.


And here we see the final sub assembly in position

At this point i discovered that all the work i had put into this was going to be covered and not seen, i really hate it when that happens, the old saying 'well you know its there' does not carry any weight with me i spent ages doing the best i could so i could display my efforts, after another look further ahead in the instructions it was deemed that i could leave the engine cowling off as i had done beneath the plane, the only problem with that is it destroys the look of the wasp art on the nose which is quite striking. Thats it for today, a short one i know but next time we move onto wings. ATB SprueSurgeon AKA PhotoMorph/Mark Thanks for Reading and dont forget my you tube channel thanks.

[gaz45]

Very nice work there so far mate

[SprueSurgeon]

Thanks for your support Gaz, its most appreciated.

[SprueSurgeon]

With the cockpit and fuselage all buttoned up its time to move on to the wings, all these required were five holes pre-drilling on each side on the lower wing half, a couple of pieces had to be inserted into the wing and glued on the inside but apart from that nothing else was required, the wings were glued together, clamped and left to dry and cure.


Five holes had to be pre drilled presumably for the weapons pylons


Once glued together the wings were clamped and left to cure for 12 hours.

While the wings were drying i turned my attention to the Nacelles/Engines on each wing, there are no engines to build up with this kit, so it really was a case of just gluing them together, be warned though, it is imperative you make sure the fit is ok as there are a couple of parts fitted here that the manual is not quite clear about in terms of there orientation.


The Nacelles/Engine Shrouds and there internal structure


The Nacelle/Engine Shroud built up, there are two to build

Once these are assembled as shown above they then require fitting to the wing, its a very simple process as they just slide on to their respective wing.
With this kit i cannot stress enough how much your fitting needs to be first rate, anything that is not exactly where it should be will have a knock on effect causing gaps and fitting issues later, as shown below on the nacelle roots, these were dealt with immediately by means of filling with Humbrol Model Filler and in some areas Citadels Liquid Green Stuff and then used a range of Ultimate sanders and thinny sticks until any gaps/steps had been removed and blended in.
The general consensus is that Eduard kits rarely if ever suffer from fitting issues, well i certainly have them on the nacelle/engine shroud roots, so ive obviously made some poor fitments during the previous steps.


The Nacelles/Engine shrouds slide fit onto the wings.


Here you can see a large gap, left at the nacelle root


The beginnings of the wheel well and structure

Time to add a little bit more PE in the form of air intake grills, they can be a bit fiddly and i recommend the use of a good activator on your CA glue, over the top of this goes the housing for them and blinkin 'eck there are some more gaps here, more filler required, Humbrol Filler for this one mixed with some TET to make it flow a bit smoother and workable for slightly longer, time to attach the front wings and yes you guessed it more gaps, quite large ones, Humbrol Filler & TET to the rescue once again but not until after the wings had set properly.

*******TOP TIP*******
When you have gaps at wing roots always try and set the least gap to the upper surface so all the filling will be underneath where it cannot be seen, the only exception to this rule would be if your aircraft is to be hung in flight and therefore viewed from beneath.


PE Grills going in


Look at the gap left by the covers


Wing roots are now filled and sanded.

And thats where todays build diary shall end, next time we shall look at landing gears, thanks for taking the time to follow and/or read my thread if you get the chance pop over to my you tube channel [SprueSurgeon] and subscribe for more model making mayhem!

ATB
Sprue Surgeon
AKA
PhotoMorph
Mark

[Les]

A nice project Mark; it appears to be building up nicely!

[Bissyboat]

Looking good.

[SprueSurgeon]

The next stage involved assembling the exhaust stacks on the engine nacelles, i followed the recommended method in the instructions and let me tell you that was a disaster so i went my own route, Firstly remove the manifold shown in first image below and using a slightly larger drill than the hole thats already there drill it out a touch larger, but not too much, make sure to keep the part flat against a surface so you dont break or bend it, your doing this because some of these stacks just would not fit, once drilled out glue onto the specified area of the left and right nacelles then one at a time add the exhaust stacks in the correct order and the correct rotation eg one side face up rear and the next down rear


Drilling out the manifold for exhaust stacks


You can see in this photo where ive drilled the first two holes slightly, not all the way through though, just enough to add a taper to help the stacks push through.


You can see here the correct order/size and rotation on one of the sets of stacks there are three more to do like this.

Next we have to assemble the main landing gear, unfortunately at this point, i forgot to take any pictures and only have the one image of the landing gear in situ, I have drawn a black line extending from each of the landing gear legs to give you a rough idea of were they sit in wheel wells, i would advise using TET (Tamiya extra thin) regular position your landing gears and leave to thoroughly cure for 24 hours before you add the smaller elements to the landing gear area of which there are only one or two.


Landing Gear Leg in situ


I also added the smaller hydraulich flap movers!! (I'm sorry i just do not know the correct term)

While waiting for the Landing Gears to dry i started work on masking the canopies, the Bf110 has a complicated set of glazing, however it came in a profi pack so came with an Eduard mask, ive never used these before and have to say they are fantastic, they are perfect in size and shape so with a careful hand and some patience you can get some good coverage and excellent results which had i needed to make my own would not of been anywhere near as good. So once fully masked i then dry fitted canopy and added a small amount of TET quick dry to the seam and let capillary action seal it, as long as your very careful, if your having a closed canopy use a pva glue around the smaller topo canopy that sits over the pilot, if your having an open one leave these parts off and fill all holes, gaps etc with foam, tissue, paper, plasticine or whatever your chosen medium is and then spray with your base primer which for me was Vallejo Acryliv Polyurethane Black primer 74.602.


Here i have started attaching the included Eduard masks, which helped massively.


The Main canopy is in Situ with the pilots lid attached, this proved to be a problem as it kept getting knocked off.


Top primed with Vallejo 74.602 black


Here is the bottom primed with Vallejo Surface Primer 74.602 black, the line on the bottom of the rear tail is P.E not a gap, however do not remove the seam line from the bottom as the original actually had a seam line of sorts.

NEXT TIME: We shall be paintuing the fuselage and adding the final bits and pieces before the big reveal. Thanks for reading this thread and please take time to look at my channel and subscribe to it also, all my thanks, Sprue Surgeon AKA PhotoMorph, Mark.

[Tomcat64]

Nice progress mate - looking forward to seeing the winter paint work on this.

[Bissyboat]

Coming along nicely.

[SprueSurgeon]

So the final part of this build and we start with the paint work, in world war 2 Germany shipped european BF110-E' over to the eastern front where they just covered the european camo with a basic white wash over the top, its my intention to replicate this so i started by masking the plan where required and then painting with the appropriate colours.


The BF110-E primed with Vallejo black with all the colours and weathering products required.

The general basecoat is then laid down over the top before leaving to dry and then masking up with a variety of masking tapes and solutions such as Airfix Maskol and Mr Hobby masking solution, the second tone is then sprayed lightly over the top and left to dry. Once dry the BF110-E was flipped on its back GENTLY and placed on two blocks so nothing would snap off such as any aerials you may of placed, the entire base is sprayed a light blue colour.


Basecoat is down and the model is masked up ready for the next tonal variation



Top Euro Cam is done, i've left areas slightly darker to try and add some detail, as you can see in the picture above.


The base is all one colour, so nice and easy this time.

We now mix up a very thin whitewash, 2 parts Ultimate thinner to 1 part paint (Tamiya X-2)and very lightly start adding coats of paint over the top sections only, allow to dry and then respray again until your left with only a little of the camo showing through, allow to dry thoroughly before masking off and spraying the yellow flashes with Tamiya X-8 Lemon Yellow. It was at this stage i added a couple of clear coats in the form of Humbrols Clear Coat. Allow the paint to dry and cure thoroughly, i left mine for 48 hours, The BF110-E is now ready for decals.


Here the whitewash is down


Now the yellow flashes have been added and the model is now ready for Decalling

For decalling i used the two step system from Microscale industries, in the form of Micro Set N01 and Micro Sol No2, the method i used was to place the decal in some water for around 20 seconds, draw excess liquid off with a kitchen towel and place off to one side,i then brush Micro Set over the area where the decal is to be seated. By now the decal should be able to slide free from the paper and onto the plastic, position using ref guides and instructions and the brush Micro Sol over the top, re-position if neccassery. I decalled one side at a time and left 12 hours mini mum between sides often going back and brushing more Mico Sol on.


Decalling starts with the one insect i hate a wasp!

After the decals we now need to simulate the white wash that went over the decals about half way down the sides, so again mix a very thin wash and spray in light coats until you have the effect you want and allow to dry, mix up some Tamiya smoke x-19 and give light coatings in area of heavy use and heavy oil/smoke travel, and for the final step give the top coat of your choosing, i chose Matt by Vallejo, once done allow to dry and check for any mistakes and touch up as required.
So there we have it, a fabulous kit with many firsts for me all the finish/reveal shots will be in the reveal thread and i will post a couple below once theyve been taken all my thanks for everyones help, and i hope you have enjoyed following my build, maybe i have even inspired you to go and buy one!

ATB

Sprue Surgeon
AKA
PhotoMorph
Mark

[SprueSurgeon]

Here is a sneak peek at a couple of the Final reveal shots







You will find many more on the Reveal thread here viewtopic.php?f=583&t=22210

[Bissyboat]

Looking good.