International Scale Modeller

Hi , a new entry in this SiG with a 1/48 Bf 109E-4 from Eduard with a Wwl converstion Set and decals .

The idea is to depict something that I discover when was doing some shop in the Owl site for some fabric seatbelts for my 1/32 Corsair ...also there is in the forum a thread in the aircraft build from 'Scruffy' and already is building it , but I found it interesting and I saw some already built all Black 109 and it seems a very nice and unusual kit to have...

So...

here it is the Eduard Kit :
The Owl conversion set :
The conversion set is made of the decals , a different rudder (the diference is because it was needed a different rudder because of the cahnge of the gravity center and new aerodinamic charachteristics of the inclusionof the random and a PE of the Peilg IV antena (not a radar but some sort of locating antena ...it is similar of the ones used in JU 88 , it the dorsal , that round thing on top ..)

The plane depicted is this one :

A Photo of the real 'bird'
and a detail of the PeiG IV anthena
In terms of success ...seems that wasn't any ...at night was hard to the pilots to see any , and the nightfighter role was more to lead AA guns and only if there was some searchlights they could see anything ...no radar , they lately were used at dawn or before night ... later replaced by the more sucssefull BF 110 now with radar .

But I think it will be a nice kit to build and a different subject in nightfighter planes ...

First will end the Hellcatt and will place the sprues and the set in some days from now ...

Nice idea. 109 night fighter.

Good luck Antonio.

Good luck. Looks like a good build.

--Bill

So , beginning with this Buils ,

The idea will be to do the Messerschmitt Bf109E-4 of 10./Nachtgeschwader 1 ,Flown from Dusseldorf in 1940, Koln Osthgeim Air Base in July -August 1941,

Not have many info on this -'Nightfighter' they exist or co-exist in complemet of some already in use BF-110 , as I mention , no radar they use the searchlights to see the bombers ...

The sprues :

More sprues :
The converstion parts from Owl,resin rudder , decals , a cupula (vacform) and some PE to depict the PeilG IV antena :

Nice subject buddy,

A black 109 is going to look sweet.

Well , another update on this build ...

Not much done I'm affraid ;
Cockpit done and painted , No PE this time on this , only some Fabric Seatbelts as we will see lately :

Painted with Vallejo RLM02 (All cockpit) and Vallejo RLM66 (The dashboard) , some Tamiya X-8 Yellow ,X7 Red and XF2 Flat White to some switches and so...
The fuselage , area fof the cockpit lready done , RLM02 as the base color and then XF1 Flat Black, XF 2 Flat white , X7 Red to the details . Some Clear Coat apllied so to start weathering , will use some W&N and Rembrantd oils .

So As i mention , I had some Lufwaffe Fabric SeatBelts from Eduard , Decided to use them ...

WARNING:DO NOT TRY TO DO THIS AT YOUR HOME !!!
Well the fact is that these are very nice , but a Hard Work to do ...we have the buckles , now try to pass a small stripe ...sorry belt and with only two hands ...

Here you have part of one Seatbelt ready :
The real stuff is that these are very nice , I bought ones for my Corsair , they are very 'natural' positioned not as the metal PE .

For ending today , I only manage to aplly the 'main' seatbelts ...not happy , they get with too much lenght , but still to finish and the final will be applying an Oil Wask (Black and Brown) to highlight (let's see ...) and apply a matt varnish will place photos of course on how it looks.
I bought some AK magazine about nightfighters and in it is a build how to on this fighter , was very surprised in the good way , as like this will have something to guide me , well one of the things mention in it is that if you want to paint a plan Black , do not use Black

About the magazine is the first number and it is great , some techniques are quite compreehsive and even have a tutorial about a figure (a Luftwaffe pilot) that I see it great as I still have alot to learn doing some stuff .

Enough talk now ,until my next update , Maybe next month, as I still have to finish those seatbelts

Those seat belts look a bit tricky but you made them look easys and the end result is amazing.

Your build is looking great

Love the look of the 109 as a night fighter, can't wait to see how it turns out.

Looks like a nice kit, Antonio....awaiting impatiently for your next update!

Cheers,

Martin

A new update , have the afternoon for myself and my modelling so I make some advance with this build :

Ok , I prepare now some oils to make the weathering in the seatbelts and cockpit :



Here are the seatbelts cockpit and fuselage halves now weathered with those oils misture , a little too much dirt , but I like the 'worn' effect









Now Painted the rest of the cockpit parts that also will connect with the engine , already painted and ready for more details , make the first test on the cockpit fit











Think it is a very nice cockpit , i paint the gauges ith XF-1 Flat Black and try to make some detail with X2 White , X7 Red and also X8 Lemon Yellow

On to the engine now , place now the engine exausts , painted them with X34 Metal Brown and weatherd it wiht my Tamiya weathering master set B with rust for making the exausts not so bright and soot for depicting the smoke exausts , also put some brush before of Tamiya Smoke , but it was the weather that make the final finish . I use also some MiG Oil and stains , but then i noticed that all this motor part will be covered , but like the effect that it gives , a real oily and greased motor .













Now , this kit has a very nice detailed motor , and you could have in final an open motorbay and guns bay or all closed , and I will make it all close , however i was very impressed by the detail of thos kit and in future for sure will have a go at an open kit , as it is very nice detailed kit , not a kit to someone starting as it is hard to glue and join the parts , also the instructions are 'crap' not very informative , misses some steps and somewhere on where i'm now on the build I have the instructions all open , but we live on it as in my opinion is a great detailed kit .Ok as you see in the instructions we now go to page 11 and put everything togheter , i hope ...





ok , then we have small airbrush session to paint wheels bay in RLM02 (Vallejo) and also the area of the wings where the slats are to be fixed/deployed . I really getting some of the ideas of this build from that magazine step by sep build , and I'm enjoying doing it as it discover some new techniques ...





Also the radiators from bellow of the wings



And before all glued , that part behind and upper the seat , also RLM02 (vallejo)



Now glued the fuselage , I need to buy more clamps



Wings ready , wing cannons ready !



Beggining to look like an ME109





Now , I only have this Photo of the tail ...explaining what happen ...the Owl resin tail wasn't the best detailed one , fr a resin should be in my opinion more detailed , the kit tail was more detialed so I make some scratchbuild and make a small conversion using some resin parts from the Owl conversion and make som small pins out of a part that I will not use , the result is nce I think , and for sure this tail is much better that the one form the conversion set .Seems that all are like this as also the modeller in the magazine found the same issue .



Ok Engine and guns coverage done , tail will have to stay'quiet' as it is very fragile , and tomorrow will start with some filling (needed in one or two places , one by my mistake on the uper fuselage ...) and then primer and start painting experiments with Balcks and grey tones , I think I will use NAto Blak by Tamiya , and then will do some postshadind with some greys , but let's see , is not simple to paint as probably seems .



That's it for today guys , hope you enjoyed this large thread , but I will take advantage of a Bank Holliday until next Tuesday here in Portugal to go on this build .

See you !

Looking good, the 109 will look cool in all Schwarzgrau.
Tried these fabric seatbelts ones, not easy but yours turned out great

Excellent work

I see here good work . Well done buddy

Great progress!
Its looking really good, nice cockpit and the belts turned out fine.
They look very realistic, cant wait to fiddle with mine.

Will be very cool to see this all black 109!

Another update ...

Now going ready to primer , but first some Eduard masks ( make the build more expensive , but I defintly will buy these whenever possible , it take a lot of worries , some work and the end result should be a lot better .)



Noticed that I painted the frames in the moveable parts (Flaps and so ) , the result wasn't the best , I use the brush but since they will be covered Black will see how they will be in the finish .

Oops , almost forgot to mask the engine exausts



Some parts already prepared for painting them in Black , I glue the bay doors like this in some masking tape to paint them out , as already painted the interior with RLM02



Now for paint , I'm always complicate this , in the Owl sheet of instructions only two colors

Fuselage RLM 22 -Black ...

Propeler Blade - RLM RLM 70 Dark Green ...

I check in the valejo guide from my paint set of RLM colors and decided to use for Black Tamiya XF-69 Nato Black and for the Dark Green , well Tamiya Dark Green XF 61 ...







Already primed and with some sanding on the top of the fuselage ...this was a mistake done by me when sanding the fuselage , get enthusiasmed using the little sanders from Ultimate , but solve the issue with Tamiya sanding paper



Now off we go to some airbrushing ...

Some of the small parts and moveable parts already painted in Nato Black , the propeler is now all done , decide to place all this only at finish after decals .



and the ME 109 All Black , looks cool in this all Black scheme , and I think this could be one of the colors to use in this Nightfighter schemes , it gives the plane a Matt Dark tone with some variations of grey tones here and there , for example when following the magazine build that I Already mention ( it is Aces High from AK , it is its first number all dedicated to Nightfighters , great magazine by the way ) , the authir of the article mention that if a lane is Black never paint it Balck , so he uses a mix of Gunze Tyre Black and Tamiya Grey Saseebo Arsenal (XF-77) , should be ok and his work is perfect , but I decide to use this Nato Black and ok for me , I'm pleased , now some issues , this colors Black are very subtil to finger (grease ) marks and I discover that it is hard to cover , could be me perhaps ...



, now tomorrow will begin the post shading work ( or ruin all work ) doing some airbrush paint in some panels before apliying another coat with some filter using some very light grey mixed with some Black just to do some color variations in the fuselage , this will be a first to me , and maybe I choose the wrong model to iniciate this experiments, but hey ...we should try new techniques right ? Already prepared this templates to use painting the panels



Until now I recomend this kit from Eduard , I already ordered another to do it with the Wngine cover and Gun bays open , very detaild kit , with some very vague instructions , but a very pleaseant kit to build . It was pitty that I didn't order the PE for the cockpit and fuselage , but maybe in that next build .

Well guys , please comment , give me your opinion , that all is wellcome .

See ya in a couple of days with the results of this post shading and filter result

Agreed, looks very cool!
And the Nato black worked well...some changes in tone through some "bleaching" will really bring it to life.
Just thinking about wash...What are you planningto use?, not easy on dark colors, especially black.

Damn, it looks cool, building a black 109 is on the list!

patrickroos wrote:Agreed, looks very cool!
And the Nato black worked well...some changes in tone through some "bleaching" will really bring it to life.
Just thinking about wash...What are you planningto use?, not easy on dark colors, especially black.

Damn, it looks cool, building a black 109 is on the list!

Yes patrickroos , not easy the washing , but will try some oils , grey tones ..., I have some grey tones , also some blacks , but not an easy job that's sure .Also I have lso some Tamiya Accent Panel lines Grey , also to use some pastels , will see , but for now I have a more difficult task , that is the ''bleaching'' as you mention , a first to me ...

Looking good, man.

--Bill

Well , not went very good this , had a lot of issues with the final paint process and with decals and everything else really , I finished the kit but is isn't the finish I expected .I now will put some photos on the final reveal as this camo scheme is a very nice and different one I think . Will try to do again this same plane in the future , I like a lot this build and for ure will try a Eduard Profipack in future with PE and detailed cockpit ...

What went wrong then ? The Paint do not dry properly after apllying some oils (maybe excess of it ...) , decals ...I follow Owl instructions and wasn't that focused when doing , the Balkenkreuze on the upper wing (they are the ones with the thinner white lines for saying so ...) were changed with the ones from the bottom , I guess that if I checked properly the decals and the numbers on the Owl sheet I should saw this , but now I'm a little sure that OWl had two different decal sheet , one older , one from now , even they mention the yellow marks for the type Gas octanes (those yellow triangular ones ) and in my decal sheet there wasn't any , I finish using only one that I had from the Eduard kit ..., also in the wing Balkenkreuzes I finnaly use the Eduard ones as I must remove the ones from Owl , and thi was another mistake as then I melted the paint ...yes another big mistake ...then everything wasn't going well , always loosing the flaps , finger prints in the paint , everything wrong on this final , even the cupula antena build didn't go well ...

Then you have the final reveal in a small base I create for it , still must say a very good kit from Eduard , not a very good conversion set from Owl , the resin parts are no detailed , the antena cupula is good , decals are from a type that you must 'aim' and shoot , you do not have a 2nd oportunity as after they are put they do not move so if somebody use this carefull with the Owl decals !