1/48 Airfix Bf-109F

[Stikpusher]

Stik is building a 109? Yup, actually this will be my 3rd in the past 10 years. But I am gonna do my utmost to keep this simple and quick.

So here is the kit. It is Airfix's mid 70's vintage Friedrich version. I will be doing mine as a North Africa version.



I bought the kit at a local shop 20 years ago, that has since closed, for the princely sum of $9.98 plus tax. I think that I'll get my money's worth out of this...



So one of the first thing I did was take my Dremel to the pilot's seat. The part was way too thick as molded, and I'm not gonna use the kit pilot on this one. After about 5-10 minutes of careful work, here it is, before and after...





next I glued the rear cockpit wall to the floor and then placed it into the fuselage to set at the proper angle





Then I assembled and cleaned up the hub cannon cockpit housing, and assembled the propeller. Each blade is a separate part glued into place after seam clean up. And I drilled out the bore of the hub cannon the spinner.





and lastly I finished up basic cockpit assembly... all ready for paint now...

[speedgraflex]

WTF. Perfect. Subscribed. Here are a couple of frames that might be of interest...

[Stikpusher]

Thanks Bruce! Those are some nice detail shots. I love those Signal color photos. Probably Agfa film, not so vivid ad Kodak, and a Leica camera...
So far I am having a hard time finding real color (not computer colorized) photos of F model 109s in Africa. Mine is gonna be Red 3 (Biggs?) from 5./JG27. I have decals for Marseille's F-4, Yellow 14, but everybody does that build...
I hope that you enjoy this build, since you're gonna follow along...

[speedgraflex]

A few more BF 109 Afrika in color. I will keep looking...




BONUS: these frames are of Spanish Hispano's that were stored in a barn after the filming of "Battle of Britain." Excellent BF 109 details!

[Stikpusher]

Thanks for those photos Bruce! I love the movie "Battle of Britain". Those Buchons look like the need some serious TLC since their movie star days...

Just some minor progress today before work.

Here are the markings from Aermaster that I will be using



Then I did a little work in the cockpit. I filed the hub cannon housing to shape it more like the actual item, and I scratched up some rudder pedals. They are not exact, but they look better than what was there, and will hardly be visible once the cockpit is sealed up...





Just about ready for paint in there...

[speedgraflex]

Lookin' good, Carlos! Do you plan to add the elevator trim wheel next to the seat?

[Stikpusher]

Lookin' good, Carlos! Do you plan to add the elevator trim wheel next to the seat?

Thanks Bruce. The trim wheel is molded into the fuselage sidewall... I'm trying to keep any additions minimal so that this can proceed as rapidly as possible.

[speedgraflex]

Gotcha. I read the first post about this being a "simple and quick" build, I just thought you could use an old button if the kit did not offer up an alternative—which I am glad it does! You rocked that seat, my friend. That was a nice bit of carving action in 48th scale! Also the reshape of the gun cover—the breech cover for the MK 108—that came out well! Lookin' forward to see the paint drape over this work and give it the full effect!

[KSaarni]

Those pedals look great!

- Kari

[Stikpusher]

Those pedals look great!

- Kari

Thanks. I'm glad that you like them. I did a bit more detail work on them today. I drilled some lightening holes, thinned down the heel rests with my Dremel, and added some foil top straps...



then with some wire, I made some anchor points for the seat harness decal. I did not add side anchor points as those will not be visible.



and lastly, I began drilling out the exhaust stack ends...



that's all for now...