21st Century toys

[stona]

The advantages of dry fitting.

My pilot is going in so I thought I'd see how he sat. Answer,very badly. Three choices. First,sit him in the seat with his feet near the rudder pedals and have his head so high he looks daft and couldn't close the canopy. Second,put his upper body at the correct height and posture but have his feet above the cannon breach,also looks daft as his thighs are visibly too high. Third,remove the hideously inaccurate piece of plastic representing the "bucket" seat and sit him nicely on the floor.

I've gone for number three and if I hadn't just told everyone I guarantee you wouldn't have noticed!!!

Here he is on the floor next to what should be his seat.

Just going to sort out a bit of a gap along the leading edge of the mainplane.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Great job so far there Steve, that looks a cracking pilot.

[stona]

Zipped up,trying to get a bit more dihedral without major surgery. Also filling the screw holes. I should have cut some discs and put them in the holes first as Tamiya putty's propensity for shrinking might make this a multi stage process which is a shame as work will interfere next week lol.

The rear fuselage/empennage section is still loose but will fit okay.

Looks like a Bf109 to me.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

I had no idea it was screwed together, maybe over fill the Tamiya putty, with some milliput. Taking shape now Steve.

[stona]

maybe over fill the Tamiya putty, with some milliput. Taking shape now Steve.

Good idea, thanks,might just try that on my next day off! Just got to find the old Milliput (fine). I know it's in the cupboard,hopefully it's not too old.

Cheers

Steve

[Ian M]

And what are you going to do after dinner?!?!? lol

Tell you what that pilot look good. Compared to some of the blobs of plastic the come with some of the more expensive kits.

I like your solution for the to tall for the plane pilot by the way!

Ian M

[stona]

So I says to meself "that cheapo kit will make a nice G-14AS". I says to Ron "I'm building this for a bit of light relief". Dearo, deary me,there must be something wrong with me! The AS has a slightly different cowling I remembered. Does it hell,it's a very different cowling. I've got most of today off so I decided to fix it. I've moulded some Milliput lumps to re-model (is that a word?) the cowling. Obviously these will now need to be sanded, puttied in, and generally fettled,this is just stage one, along with the now filled screw holes ,wing roots,leading edges etc,etc,etc. Then it will just be a bit of rescribing and scribing.

Luckily I won't be able to do anything for a couple of days,so I'll come back all bright eyed and bushy tailed and attempt to retrieve what frankly looks like a bit of a mess over the weekend!

It's all good fun.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

It says on the box that a ten year old can build it so I should be okay.

Cheers

Steve

Good job you're doing well with that Steve, as you can never find a ten year old to help when you need one

[stona]

Having failed to find a ten year old to build this I've pressed on with filling sanding and adjusting the cowling to approximate the machine I'm representing. A squirt of primer has revealed a couple of minor tweaks that will be required before rescribing but as far as the fuselage (screw holes) and wings go it's fine.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Top job of getting rid of the srew holes, looking mighty fine there sir.

[stona]

I've applied a typical late war camouflage scheme,low demarcation and heavy mottle. Only odd bit is that the fin and rudder were in RLM74 with RLM83 mottle. Someone didn't like it and oversprayed a light colour,I've used RLM76,to tone it down.

All done freehand with my trusty Iwata Eclise and Xtracrylix paints.

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

Slow progress due to work. I have retro sprayed the undersize ( less than 900mm but that's how it is in my reference) red RDV band which I had completely forgotten and also fitted the gunsight. Thanks Graham (Fenlander) for the reminder! I've also beaten the somewhat recalcitrant decals,some from kit,some from spares,into shape. Sprayed thinned RLM75 over white border of fuselage Balkenkreuz,it was common to dull these down even early in the war, and then given the whole model a sprayed coat of grey tinted Klear.

Most of this is unnoticeable due to my photgraphic ineptitude so you'll have to take my word for it.

I'm very busy for the next couple of weeks but I'll see if I can squeeze in enough hours to get this finished. It'll never win a prize but on the top shelf it'll look like a Bf109 and the materials have cost more than the kit LOL.

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

I'm calling this done. Klaus Grothues of 9.JG300 has been sat in his cockpit since first light at "sitzbereitschaft" (cockpit readiness). He's just got the signal to go and is gesticulating to his crew to start him up. He'll finish today as a POW.

I'll stick some more piccies in my gallery when I get a chance.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Superb Steve, a snapshot in time made all the more interesting by the fact that it actually happened. A lovely 109 model as well, brilliant.

[Guest]

Another beautiful bird there Steve, very well done.