Hi all.
Heres my completed Me109E-7/Trop.Its the Airfix 1/72 built oob apart from a vacform canopy kindly supplied my Phil.Finished in the markings of Oberleutnant Ludwig Fanzisket, 1 Gruppe/JG27, Lybia 1941.
Started the build 29/12/05 and finished today.
Its the first Luftwaffe subject Ive tried,and also the first time Ive fitted the canopy before spraying.Seems like the way forward but a lot more practice needed as I feel it lets it down somewhat.I masked the whole thing and then cut the panel lines out with a new blade.When I removed the masking there was a fine white line around each section from the primer and I had to touch it up by hand,and although the canopy was treated with Klear before masking it seems to have lost its finish.I gave it another coat of Klear and its bought it back a bit but Im still not over the moon with it.
Anyway,,here are the pics. As always,,please feel free to make any comments and give advice for future builds.










Thanks for looking.

hi nigel, thats a nice 109 there, the yellow nosed E series is my favouite version of the 109. as for your canopy painting troubles, what i tend to do is either paint canopies with a small brush, or as in the case of aircraft like He 111's, JU 88's any thing with a lot of glazing, i mask to paint the window bars, use the interior colour, then the external colour, then totally mask them over, then i use primer. i've had the same experiance of thin white lines myself, and i decided the best way to deal with them was to keep the primer away from canopies completley

Nigel - Very nice build, I too like those yellow nose 109's.

One suggestion, and it's only a suggestion. Notice how those underwing intakes look well unpainted ? Before you glue them on paint the inside with a dark color (black or dark metalizer) then go ahead and paint the model as usual, the pre painting of the intakes will give them some depth.

Hey Nigel
I have that same kit in 1/48 scale but haven't touched it yet. I've been waiting to improve my AB skills........and here you have gone and done it with a 1/72 kit!

No kidding mate, you're doing some bang up jobs with your camo paint lately! The weathering, especially the exhaust stains are what really set off that cool camo job.

(iced Tea....american style)
Hermon

Hi Niguel:

Very nice 109. Nice build. You really got the hand for those little Airfix kits.
What about a little weathering ?

Nigel, wonderful, your getting too good at this
Yes I used to have the same problem with primer, so I do as Phil, I mask with Parafilm M, (stick to low tac tape for the time being), cut out and remove the frame lines, paint the interior colour. Mask the canopy opening and apply primer, fit the canopy and paint the external colour. Because canopies are clear you can get light shinning through, making the paint look lighter. This shows up more if you hand paint, with airbrushing you shouldn't have the same problem. Anyway your canopy looks pretty good from what I can see
The Klear may be affected by your masking tape, which one are you using?
I agree, painting the radiator faces would add to the final look. In 1/48 these radiator faces would have relief detail which I would paint black and dry brush aluminium.
Not much more I can say, except slow down you're putting us all to sham
Nice one Nigel, keep it up.
Mal

Very nice treatment Nigel. I made lots of those Airfix 1/72 Bf109s when I was a kid, I don't ever remember them coming out that god though! I remember trying to hand-paint that JG27 Africa marking! :-)

Hi all and thanks for your kind advice and very constructive comments.
Great tips on canopy masking guys thankyou.Mal,,I am using Scotch masking tape,the one in the green box.The canopy certainly benefited from another coat of Klear to finish it off.Next project I will try priming before I attach the canopy.
Air intakes,,,,yep,,I will paint them before assembly in future.
As for weathering.I gave the whole model oil washes to bring out the detail and the exhaust stain was done with pastel chalk.I am nowhere near attempting to do this with an airbrush.Maybe in 10 years or so,, :-)
I resisted getting stuck in with a silver pencil a I wasnt really sure where the paint would get scuffed on a 109 and also wasnt sure what else to do with it so I left it as it was.
The mottle was done using a stencil I found on the Hannants website.Maybe "cheating" but I call it "resourseful".I would have liked it a bit lighter but looking at photos of 109's I saw everything from a solid hard edged blotch to almost a mist,so I guess it worked out ok.
One thing that noone commented on was the cannon in the wings.One of these flicked out of the tweeers into carpet oblivion so I made them both out of stretched sprue.I had a go at drilling them out but they were just a little bit too thin for my smallest drill.
I bought the Tamiya Spit MK1 in 1/72 a couple of weeks ago but Im going to build a few more cheapo Airfix kits for practice before I get into the better,more detailed kits.
Thanks again for the nice comments and invalualble hints and tips guys. Its great to share my work on the site and the standard of finished models on here certainly gives me something to aspire to.
Happy modelling

Hi Nigel,

I really like the way that you have built and painted this model.

I have been practising with my new airbrush and although I normally build AFV's, I think I may try my hand at a model like this for a change.

Thanks for displaying it and giving me some great ideas.

Regards

Mark

Looking good Nigel. You are really getting the hang of these 1/72 kits and the camo looks superb. I think the same as Mal, slow down i can't keep up. No seriously, go at your own pace, keep building and I'll keep looking. Thanks for posting the pics and a build well done.
Andy (++)