Working on the Hasegawa 1/32 109G-4 kit and not sure if the nose gun placement is correct or not? One gun protrudes a bit and the other is set back from the opening and does not protrude at all, anyone know for sure if the kit is correct or not?

After consulting several technical illustrations (not technical drawings) It appears that the left and right guns are the same, both should protrude from the cowling. Again this is only based on technical illustrations (by Rikyu Watanabe), if someone has better information, so be it.

I checked my references and it appears they should be even. I also checked my 1/32 scale model to which I am adding an engine and all the under cowling parts. They are even there also.

Hi Michael

Just to be different from Chuck and Carl - my refs say the kit guns are right. The Bf 109G-4 was the last version armed with 7.92 mm MG17s, mounted in a staggered arrangement. Here's one of the plans in Kagero's Bf 109G/K book:



Starting with the 'G-5, the cowl armament was changed to a pair of MG 131s, which were mounted level with each other and resulted in the famous Beule.

I hope this helps

Rowan

I built a G-4 last year and the references I found at the time showed, as Merlin says, the guns were staggered due to logistics of fitting MG17s into the fuselage.

The both protrude through the cowling though, again as per Merlin's image above.

Cheers
Wiz

Hi again Michael

I've done a test fit on the Revell re-box of the kit and spotted why one of your guns may not be protruding at all - you need to fit the barrels against the stops inside the cowling, not in them (which they actually look designed for).





All the best

Rowan

Thanks so much Rowan, you are a life saver, I can now continue on with this kit!

Just a word of warning, if you're leaving the MG's off and installing them after painting. Make sure they're easy to attach and that they don't fall into the fuselage easily. (make a simple shelf around the MG mounts for example)
While building Hase's 1:48 scale G2, I modified the machine guns so they could be installed after painting (in that kit, both barrels are moulded as a single part and are engineered so they'll be attached at the same time as the engine cowlings). I glued tubes of styrene inside the cowlings to mount the gun barrels, but because the barrels were short (and the mounts too far aft, thinking about it now), I ended up with two MG barrels rattling inside the fuselage!
Fortuntately I had a G6 kit in my stash so I could swipe a set of unneeded G2 barrels from it.

Wow, I need to go back and do some more reference checks. The value of good references can never be underestimated.