Messerschmitt Me109 by Richard44 - FINISHED - Fiddlers Green - 1:40 - first card aeroplane

[Richard44]

 

I decided that I'd like to try building a card aeroplane model. Certainly not one as complex as a Halinski kit, so I searched and found that Fiddlers Green allowed you three free models (to download) if you signed up, in the hope you would buy models in the future. One of the kits I chose was the Me109.

 

This kit comprises just two A4 sheets with a total of 25 parts, there are no laser-cut pieces, no fuselage formers and no wing spars or ribs. Instructions are minimal. This build log will perhaps be the shortest one on MSW.

 

The two sheets of parts.

 

 

The basic fuselage assembled.

 

 

 

The forward fuselage is circular in section, so I added a former (scrap wood) to make it easier to attach the cowling and spinner.

 

 

The top deck, cowling and fin/rudder have been added. I have punched a hole through the fin to allow a short length of dowel to be used as a supporting spar for the tailplane as the kit simply has this glued to the fin with a short tab. This did not seem especially secure to me. And there was a problem with the tailplane anyway, which I'll come to in a minute.

 

 

The two halves of the tailplane. The starboard one is as printed and cut out. The problem here is that there would be a large gap between the fin and the inboard end of the elevator, if assembled as per kit. The inboard end of the tailplane needs to be trimmed, and the port half has had this done. The mounting tab that is visible on the untouched starboard half vanishes as a result of the surgery, making the spar mentioned above even more essential.

 

 

The tailplane (plus struts), tailwheel and canopy have been added. Also the exhaust stacks and the air filter on the side of the fuselage. The front of the cowling has been butchered slightly to allow for the fixing of the propeller.

 

 

The wing, fairly simple, one piece folded along the leading edge.

 

 

And now for the undercarriage. As cut out.

 

 

The wheel, hub plus tyre, is supposedly to be made by wrapping a length of card patterned to represent the tyre tread around two discs that are the hub/tyre. This and my attempt at doing this are shown below, though to be fair I didn't put much effort into doing this as I couldn't imagine the end result being anything like an aircraft wheel. So, I made two tyres from scrap wood and glued hubs to these to give a reasonable representation of the wheels, as shown on the right. The undercarriage legs were strengthened with strips of wood.

 

 

The fuselage and wing were joined together quite easily. Wing radiators, airscoop under the nose, wing guns (short lengths of styrene rod), the propeller and spinner were then fixed. Finally, the undercarriage. This was somewhat awkward as the kit made no provision for mounting this. Some scrap card was used to support the legs and to get, as near as I could, the correct angles. Seems to have worked.

 

 

 

There are some problems with the kit, but as it was free, I cannot complain. Interestingly, there is a notation on the bottom of one of the sheets that says "First design Spring 1987" and "Third redraw and design 9-2003".

 

Slightly frustrating at times, but a good introduction to a card model.

 

[ccoyle]

Great job, Richard! I recommend sites like Fiddlers Green and free downloaded models for first projects -- at least there is no pain to one's wallet if the model gets boogered. I built plenty of simple, free kits before I ventured into more complex kits. In fact, one of my first airplanes was a Fiddlers Green Piper Cub.

 

Cheers!

 

P.S. I removed the tags from your post, because tagging is not allowed in the non-ship area. Otherwise, hits from this area will show up in searches for ship-related topics.

[popeye the sailor]

pretty cool model........extremely well done    if one was to try one of these models.......thanks for the tip