1/48 Bf-109E-4 NJG 1

[Scruffy]

Here is what I have been working on recently, and what should have been a simple little project has turned out to be a PITA

Between July and August 1941, 10 Staffel NJG 1 used a pair of Bf-109E4's equipped with PeilG direction finders as night fighters. The direction finder was mounted in a clear bubble on the lower fuselage aft of the wing trailing edge. No victories were scored by either aircraft.

I started out with the Hasegawa special boxing of this night fighter. It came with a bunch of half used CMK detail parts, of course the half that was left was of no use to me on this . The Hasegawa kit really needs a cockpit upgrade, which wasn't in the modeling budget, as well the Hasegawa decals were, well, Hasegawa. So I got Owl Decals set for this aircraft, and in hind sight, should have just gotten their whole conversion set as well, but that is water under the bridge now.
Anyway, I grabbed a Tamyia BF-109E-4/7 kit I had, that had a Eduard cockpit set included as part of a trade. I figured I would use the direction finder bubble from the Hasegawa kit, along with the Owl Decals to finish it off. So, off we go, the Tamyia kit is very nice, and the Eduard set adds a nice extra level of detail to the cockpit.





Most of the side wall detail in the kit has to be removed only to be replaced by the Eduard items. These are pre-painted, and I don't know what the heck Eduard uses for color matching, but the color does not match the RLM O2 I was using, so any detail to remain, such as the data placard on the oxygen generator was masked and the whole interior shot with RLM 02. The wires were added from epoxy putty rolled out into fine worms. This worked really well and I like how workable they are when being placed.



The instrument panel built up well, the ends of the levers had a drop of Krystal Kleer added to give them a more 3D appearance, and then repaint in the appropriate color.



The multi-part seat belts are very nice, though the slot in the back of the seat needs to be drilled and filed out to fit them.



And the complete cockpit before closing up the fuselage.



Next up was modifying the rudder, two additional tail lights were added from Evergreen rod (.030 dia.) fitted and blended into small notches that were cut in. An extension needs to be added as well to offset the added side area of the direction finder bubble. Owl provides a template for this on the decal instructions. This was cut from a piece of .020 Evergreen sheet and added and final sanded to shape and to blend it into the trailing edge of the rudder.



The cowl guns were drilled out for an added bit of detail........



And together
The model is now in the paint shop, so hopefully pics of that soon!

[chief5437]

Great work on the cockpit, looks very good!

[AchtungPanzer]

Cockpit is awesome . Chief is right

[rodrant]

Very nice moddeling ideia , about two weeks ago I was checking the Owl site to buy some US Navy SEat Belts to my Tamiya Corsair , as checking and saw this Peilg Antena , decals and tail rudder conversion for an ME 109 E 1/48, actually I bought recently an Eduard 1/48 BF 109 E4 and I thought to make this kit also with the JG G9 markings , I check on Internet and some doubts on the color of the JG leters identification seems that the Owl one is Grey or so and I saw in some place that the color should be Red , even I get some pictures of the fighters in this site , it is really good and you also have a photo of a 109 with Japanese marks , really nice to make some research :

the site is http://www.wwiiaircraftphotos.com/luftw ... index.html

The Photos :

Me109E_G9_1f-s.jpg

In the next you may see the Peilg 4 direction atenna under the belly ...

Me109E_G9_2f-s.jpg

it is really good and you also have a photo of a 109 with Japanese marks , really nice to make some research :

Nice Build so far , I expect to follow with my build (expecting the Owl conversion kit ...), I saw some Photos and an ''All Black BF 109 is really nice to see .

[Scruffy]

Finally finished this one.













Turned out okay, the pictures really do not show the various shades and tones in the black finish all that well, though they are fairly subtle on the model. Still, something different for a -109, and looks cool!

[bobbydrake]

Thats a really nice job of the inst. Panel and the rest of the cockpit !

[Willem]

Turned out more than ok! That looks great. Decals look painted on. I like the chipping around the canopy and wing root.

[rodrant]

Hey , I thought that you give up on this .

Wonderfull job here ! Much better painted than mine , and we can see slightly the shades and tones in the black . Perfect job here , also the detail that you made of the fading in the wing and the cockpit entry , very nice !

Look , to be honest with you think that the Owl is not that good , the tail rudder lacks a lot of detail , in my build I end up using the one from my kit ( it was an Eduard one ) and the decals aren't that complete , you do not have any decals for those yellow marks that indicate the fule octanes , neither any stencil ones , only the letters and Balkencrosses , the antena and the cupula will be the only part that is usefull , but it is an opinion , I would like to do another in future as I had a lot of issues in final with paints , oh abd careful with the Owl instructions for decals , I didn't pay attention and in the wings change the bottom crosses with the upper ones , you should check what type to use , do not follow the instructions like I did , you get it wrong ...

Ok enough of talking here , you should have entered the SiG Nightfighters here , you did a hell of a job !

Congratulations , great clean Build !

[cib2265]

Indeed thats a great paintjob - definitely can see the tonal variation which is so important when doing black jobs. I did a 1/72 110 nightfighter awhile back and learnt the hard way that straight black doesnt work!

Youve made me think about getting a Trumpy 1/32 E-4 kit to turn into nightfighter...mmmm

[chadclevenger0326]

awesome pant job through out the build, I just finished an e-3 out of the box and Im quite impressed with it , it went together really well no problems. you just inspired me to build one with that scheme great job on the build!

-chad

[Polly]

I like that very cool model very well done sir now to find one for the stash

[davidowers]

nice to see a different scheme of 109 nice job

[UKguyInUSA]

I love it....fabulous job, and as Willem said, those decals look painted on. I was going to ask if you had made stencils and sprayed them on.

Where in NH do you live, I'm in NH, too.

Cheers,

Martin