SPA Modeler

This is a little side trip for those of you that wanted to see a comparison between the Henri Daehne prop and the AMUR Reaver prop. But firsl, I wanted to share this pic...

No, this is not a future vintage build! Consider it a photographic expression of how much I hate those end-opening boxes that Revell insists on packing its nice kits in. I can't stand those things so I am using this empty box to house the Revell sprues for the duration of this build.

Let's have a look at three Bf109 spinners. The shiny one is by HD. The cream colored spinner is AMUR Reaver's. The remaining one is the Revell spinner. More alike than different, they all feature the correct teardrop shape of the blade openings. The HD and Reaver spinner go one up on the Revell offering by presenting some very fine rivet detail. The Revell version is knocked down even further by a strange decision to cut the spinner in half. By Revell's reckoning, the modeler is supposed to glue the blades into the lower half of the spinner and then glue the top half on. Makes no sense... leaves a very awkward seam line that is difficult to fix due to the blades getting in the way. And how are you supposed to put a spiral on the spinner with the blades in place?


Looking at the spinner alone, I would call the HD and Reaver even steven. However, HD goes that extra step and presents a complete prop hub and cannon barrel assembly. Granted that much of this detail is lost with the spinner mounted, it is nevertheless nice to look at before it gets covered up. HD also provides a spinner backplate with detail molded onto its face.


Profiles of the three spinners looks to be very similar. The Revell and Reaver spinners follow a very similar curvature. The HD prop has little bit less curvature than the other two.


Note the different sizes of the holes in the spinners. The larger hole on the HD spinner can be explained by the separate cannon barrel that is provided. The Revell and Reaver spinners have the cannon barrel molded as part of the spinner. I may modify the Reaver spinner and add a piece of hollow brass for the cannon barrel.


The prop blades have some interesting differences. The HD blade has the bluntest tip and has a generally parallel outline. The Reaver blade has a noticeably wider waist, giving the blade a slight pear-like profile. The Revell blade shape sits between the two, sharing Reaver's pointier tip but not as wide a waist.


Looking at the trailing edges of the blades, HD's is razor sharp. Surprisingly, the Reaver's trailing edge is on the fat side and is in need of a sharpening, which should be easily accomplished with a few whisks on the sanding block. The edge of the Revell blade commendably thin, almost as sharp as the HD blade. In terms of overall thickness, the Revell blade is the thinnest. Too thin I would say. It gives the blade a weird twisty look from certain angles.


Another view of the blades, comparing their outlines.


Once again, I have no judgements to offer regarding the accuracy of these spinners and prop blades. Just a comparison for comparison's sake.

This is sure to be another great show!!!


I too can not stand those side opening boxes...I keep several (various sizes) normal boxes handy for the very same reason!

Pure awesomesauce all over the place! Your dedication to the particulars is so likable.
Hartmann took great influance on the rebuild of the Luftwaffe after the war. Due to known historical reasons here in Germany we don't worship our "successful" soldiers of WW2, but Hartmann is still a well known name amongst the troop.

Barracuda Studios Resin



Did you not find this worth investigating due to lack of wing detail? The shape looks great and on the large scale forum at least one fella used these with good results.

Re Three Propellers, One Model

The Peanut Gallery Verdict

H.D. wins the three rounds but not by a TKO. The Reaver is exceptional as well, but points go to H.D. for fitting an interior structure within... and the interior dictates the exterior form, which is why his version has a stronger taper to it.

What are you planning? Still “Full Reaver” Mode?

Additionally I read up both on Anders using large scale forums where he appears as Cpt. Farrell and on his website devoted to profiles as well! Fascinating and talented fella! I would be mindful of following his profile where it comes to the amount of mottling on the sides of the fuselage. It would be far more natural to begin applying the darker green in an arc following the curvature of the wing root. Both photos show a little less fuselage side cover than in the profile. Perhaps what happens is the loss of softness to blended camouflage.

Yeah, I considered the Barracuda wings but ya never know with resin. I went with the Revell G-6 kit thinking it would be a sure thing fit-wise. Plus, I thought it would be more cost-effective... $30 for a whole kit vs $12-$15 for two wing parts. I have both the Alley Cat small bulge wings plus the G-10 large bulge wings to use on a future G-6 build.

Thank you for the insights regarding the profile. Those are always taken with a grain of salt. Helpful to be sure but not an absolute!

I did some playing around with the G-10 today and actually crossed a few big hurdles unexpectedly. The kit cockpit floor and wing spar was put into place to see how they relate with the fuselage parts.



I then sawed the Aires resin sidewalls from their casting blocks and dry-fit them to the resin cockpit floor.




To my utter surprise, the Aires cockpit seemed to fit WITHOUT any removal or trimming of any kind! What the??? Fits even with the ginormous casting block in place.



However... the wing spar will definitely not fit without removal of at least part of the casting block. So I started removing it bit-by-bit to see if I could get the wing spar AND the Aires cockpit into the fuselage.


It didn't take much sawing to get enough of the casting block out of the way so that the spar would fit under the resin cockpit floor.



Fit of the cockpit is very preliminary as no positive tabs or location pins are available. The fit of the rear bulkhead MAY be an issue.

The fit of the Aires cockpit is going to be complicated by the addition of the Reaver cowling. So I started looking at the Reaver resin next. The casting block of the big cowling piece is on the nose so this has to be removed and cleaned up.



Yes, I am planning to go full Reaver and use the Reaver prop on this build. Just a quick check to make sure the spinner and the cowling are a good fit. Unlike HD's prop, which supplies EVERYTHING needed, the Reaver prop is going to need a 1/8" dowel or rod to serve as the prop shaft.


Checking to see how the kit guns fit into the Reaver gun troughs. Of course, I've hollowed out the ends of the gun barrels.


The supercharger intake is a very nice fit and shouldn't need any filler.


Problem with the Barracuda exhausts. They are meant to be a drop-in replacements for the Revell exhausts. Meaning they tab in from the INSIDE of the fuselage, which I hate because that means you have to install the exhausts before gluing the fuselage halves together. Seeing that the exhaust openings of the Reaver cowling were blocked off, I thought cool, I can simply glue in the exhausts from the outside at any time. Wrongo! After cutting the Barracuda exhausts to fit the skinny exhaust openings, I found that they stick out way too much. Those opening aren't meant to be blocked off, the resin is just flashed over the opening. I think the flash is meant to be cut away and the exhausts to be installed from the inside, just like the Revell kit. I've pretty much botched the Barracuda exhausts from being installed this way. Time to put on the thinking cap. Good place to stop.

Great work! ...and more to come, too.

jkim wrote:To my utter surprise, the Aires cockpit seemed to fit WITHOUT any removal or trimming of any kind! What the??? Fits even with the ginormous casting block in place.

On this point I was shocked and amazed at once!

However... the wing spar will definitely not fit without removal of at least part of the casting block. So I started removing it bit-by-bit to see if I could get the wing spar AND the Aires cockpit into the fuselage.

Reading this was a relief. It's still Aires.

Oh man this is gonna be good!!

This one is going to be a challenging build, no doubt about it. Here's a look at the inside of the Reaver cowling. I've cut out the resin flash from the exhaust openings. What I'm thinking about doing is to build "boxes" from sheet styrene to provide a deeper backing for the exhausts to be installed from the outside. That's the thought anyway.


Performed the simple task of thinning the Reaver prop blades, especially the trailing edge. I tried to photograph but it was too hard to make out. Here's what the assembled prop looks like mounted on the cowling.


For whatever reason, I felt a rush of inertia to do something MAJOR and I went about cutting the fuselage apart to start making room for the Reaver cowling. I wish I would've thought about this a little more cuz I could've gotten a photo of the kit fuselage + gun cowling as a comparison to the Reaver cowling. Oh well...



With the fuselage surgery done, I wanted to see how this puzzle of kit fuselage + AMUR Reaver cowling + Aires cockpit was going to go together. Here is the cut I made to the bottom of the resin cockpit floor to accommodate the wing spar.



I kept the first dry run very simple... cockpit floor into the fuselage with wing spar... no cockpit sidewalls.


Roadblock! The forward bulkhead of the Aires cockpit is in the way of Reaver gun breech cover.


I disassembled the parts to cut the top part of the Aires bulkhead. And then reassembled. This time I left off the wing spar... I'm pretty sure I've taken care of this piece of the puzzle at least. But I decided to add the cockpit sidewalls this time.



Dry-fitting is so vague and imprecise at this stage so it is hard to make any concrete assessments of what the REAL fit is. I think this is a decent start. But I think there is still an issue with the thickness of that forward bulkhead not letting this Reaver part to slide all the way back to the fuselage join.



I've stuck the Reaver breech and cowling pieces together with Blu-Tack to see how the complete cowling looks. Again, it's hard to judge since there are no positive tabs or keys... the Reaver is just sitting on the fuselage by gravity, no tape. Looks workable. I have to be very careful with this join but I can't really do much more about it until things start getting locked down with glue. The fit looks workable to me.



A quick check to see how the windscreen fits onto the breech part... no problems here.


A minor issue: sanding the casting block area of the cowling revealed some air bubbles. Most of these will be covered by the spinner but I am going to fill them in with putty just to be sure.


I'll end this update with one of many little things that should be done on this Revell kit. For whatever reason, Revell chose to put these exaggerated circle things on the fabric control surfaces. I thought the easiest way to get rid of them was using a power tool.


I found it easier to slice them off carefully using a curved x-acto blade. Tedious work but at least I don't have to fork out for aftermarket replacements.