Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4 by ccoyle - FINISHED - Halinski - 1/33 - CARD

[ccoyle]

And off we go again! I still have USS England on hold for the moment while I look into to getting some after-market parts, so for now I have decided to go with the hot hand and take on another airplane project. This time I will be tackling Halinski's Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4, a 2007 issue depicting the mount of Walter Oesau of JG 51 in 1940. I chose this kit for several reasons:

• I feel like I need a contemporary for my recent Spitfire Mk Vb. The Emils had largely been replaced by the Bf-109F in Luftwaffe service by the time the Mk V came into service, but close enough.
• Believe it or not, I don't have a single Luftwaffe plane in my finished collection as of yet, nor even a Luftstreitskraefte mount.
• It shouldn't take too long to build.
• It's a Halinski -- 'nuff said. But it's also not hugely complex by Halinski standards.
• It's small, so unlike the Hellcat, it will fit on one of my shelves.

 

Okay, on to the kit! Halinski kit covers always feature artwork of the kit subject in action. Sometimes the subject is shown in an interesting flight attitude. This is one such kit.

 

 

The kit features Halinski's usual high-quality graphics, including realistic weathering.

 

 

 

An unusual feature of some Halinski kits is that some parts are printed on the inside back cover.

 

 

Plenty of CAD diagrams are included.

 

 

And to round things out, I have the laser-cut frames (two frets) and molded canopy (but not the resin wheels).

 

 

So, first thing to do will be to seal the parts sheets and rummage through my paints to see if I can find some edge colors, otherwise it'll be off to Hobby Lobby tomorrow. Look for first cuts soon!

[Dave_E]

This is so fun! 😁

[Egilman]

I'm here Brother, wouldn't miss this...

[Canute]

Alright, an Emil. I'm in also.

[AJohnson]

I’m also in, I have the venerable Airfix 109E-4 on my 1/24 scale shelf! 

[popeye the sailor]

I'm in Chris!  

[Edwardkenway]

I wouldn't miss another masterclass from Chris! Hammock slung!

[ccoyle]

First cuts -- started work on the cockpit. Typical for Halinski, the kit has a lot of details that will not likely be visible on the finished model. This first bit contains 32 parts.

 

 

Rather fortuitously, I once again happened to have all the necessary edge colors on hand already. That's two kits in a row! 😮

[mtaylor]

2 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Rather fortuitously, I once again happened to have all the necessary edge colors on hand already. That's two kits in a row! 😮

Time to think about playing the lottery????

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, mtaylor said:

Time to think about playing the lottery????

 

I always told my kids that if I bought a lottery ticket, I had a 1 in however many million chance of winning, but if I didn't buy a ticket I had a 1 in 1 chance of saving a dollar.

[mtaylor]

2 hours ago, ccoyle said:

 

I always told my kids that if I bought a lottery ticket, I had a 1 in however many million chance of winning, but if I didn't buy a ticket I had a 1 in 1 chance of saving a dollar.

Probably the best philosophy to have about lotteries.  I tend to be the same.  I probably should have used the joke icon for my previous post.

[ccoyle]

Seat is completed.

 

[ccoyle]

Slowly adding various cockpit controls.

 

[Canute]

Nicely done, Chris. Halinski has every thing but the kitchen sink included.

[ccoyle]

Cockpit construction continues.

 

[popeye the sailor]

very nice progress!    the cockpit looks sweet!

 

the admiral complained about play'in the lottery a few weeks ago,  so I told her to play..........the darn ticket is still sitting on the fridge!   

[Ian_Grant]

Just curious - what's that big wheel to the pilot's left for?

[ccoyle]

3 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

Just curious - what's that big wheel to the pilot's left for?

 

The outboard wheel is for raising and lowering flaps; the inner wheel controls the elevator trim tabs.

[ccoyle]

Take a good look -- this is the last time you'll be able to clearly see all of the cockpit elements before everything gets closed up. Port side on the left, starboard on the right. The disparity in the number of controls on the two sides makes me wonder whether the Luftwaffe chose only right-handed pilots for fighter pilot duty. 🤔

 

 

 

[Baker]

Even in 1970(in belgium) when I learned to write, we were required to do this right handed.

Left-handed writing was "not done".

 

I don't think people were allowed to write left 30 years earlier and became left-handed.

Bolt actoin rifles from that time are all right-handed too.

 

Ps,

Its always a pleasure to watch your card models grow

[Jack12477]

Left-hand people are the only ones in their right mind ! 😁😁😉😊😇

[mtaylor]

4 hours ago, Baker said:

Even in 1970(in belgium) when I learned to write, we were required to do this right handed.

Left-handed writing was "not done".

 

I don't think people were allowed to write left 30 years earlier and became left-handed.

Bolt actoin rifles from that time are all right-handed too.

 

Ps,

Its always a pleasure to watch your card models grow

 

I'm surprised they kept pushing that late.  In grade school, I was pushed not to use my left hand even though I'm left handed. The end result... I can write with either hand.  Many of us learned to shoot a bolt action left-handed.   Just needed to use a small trick (rotate the rifle a bit) to keep the hot brass from going down your shirt collar. 

[ccoyle]

A nice milestone moment in the construction of a plane is getting the first outer skin on. On some Halinski builds, I have had a lot of issues with the inner cockpit skins not fitting correctly -- they must align precisely and have no gaps at the seams, otherwise the outer skins won't fit either. Fortunately, this time around only some light sanding was needing to achieve the desired inner skin  fit, and the outer skin thus went on without a hitch.

 

 

The nose frames were then assembled and mated to the cockpit section. You can see that there is a substantial amount of substructure.

 

 

After adding one more fuselage skin (it fit perfectly and won't even require any seam touch-ups), it's time to work on the nose. The Emil had a rather lumpy, bumpy nose (a characteristic that was addressed in the 109F), and that is reflected in the jigsaw puzzle-like nose assembly sequence for the model. Patience will be the order of the day!

 

[ccoyle]

Next we have the oil cooler. It's a tiny bit lopsided, but considering how complex the structure is, I'm happy with it.

 

[AJohnson]

Really neat Chris, intrigued to see how the “lumpy bumpy” engine cowling is done, that is quite a complicated surface to render in card! 🫣

[ccoyle]

One more for today . . .

 

[Canute]

Yellow nose boys from Abbeville.

[ccoyle]

Further progress:

 

First the penultimate nose skin was added to the fuselage. The last skin consisted of two pieces, which I chose to join together first before adding them to the fuselage. The last frame was also added to this piece.

 

 

Then that structure was added to the fuselage. The fit so far has been no problem. The letters WPS  indicate sections that are to be cut out after the part has been glued. These are of course the machine gun channels.

 

 

Those portions were duly removed, and the parts for the channels were prepped.

 

 

And here's the finished channels.

 

 

That's all for now!

[Captain Slog]

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

The letters WPS  indicate sections that are to be cut out after the part has been glued.

Hi Chris, can you explain how you cut these out without damaging the part and what with as I can’t work out how it is so neat without a cutting Matt under it and guide ruler etc

Edited August 18, 2022 by Captain Slog

[ccoyle]

7 hours ago, Captain Slog said:

can you explain how you cut these out

 

I always use a fresh #11 blade for the task. I do the job freehand, and I don't try to cut all the way through the card on the first pass -- score the cut first, then cut through on the second pass. On the curved section I use a jigsaw-like motion using only the tip of the blade and pushing the blade forward instead of drawing it back.

 

I should add that although I have been using the Evergreen Canopy Glue for most of this build, I did not use it for seating the channels, since that task requires more working time to get everything seated properly. I used Aleen's Clear for the job.