The Hamfisted Modeller: 1/48 Eduard Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4B

Depicted as aircraft WNr. 3726, flown by Fw. Erhardt Pankratz, 6.(S)/LG 2, Calais-Marck, France, October 1940.

From the Eduard Instructions

The Bf 109 E-4 WNr. 3726 was lost on October 5th, 1940 with Fw. Erhardt Pankratz at the controls. He was flying near English coast at a height 12,000 feet when he was attacked by No. 603 Sq. Spitfires.
Both of his petrol tanks were hit, he tried to return to France, but his engine seized. He performed a successful forced landing near Peasmarsh, Sussex. A steel helmet was found during examination of the Bf 109. This airplane was shown to British public later on. Staffel emblem of the 6.(S)/LG 2 with Puss in Boots (Gestiefelter Kater) with lantern was used from 1938 till 1942. The black triangle is marking of ground attack aircraft, the "M" is individual marking of aircraft within Staffel and yellow color is attributed to 6. Staffel.

The Kit

1/48 Eduard Bf 109E-4 from the Alderangriff Limited Edition Dual Combo . Kit No ED11144.

Aftermarket

None

Decals

Kit Decals

Paint

Dark Green - RLM 71 - Mr Color 17
Grey Green - RLM 02 - Mr Color 60
Light Blue - RLM 65 - Mr Color 115
White - SMS Insignia White
Yellow - SMS Trainer Yellow
Blue - Tamiya mix for RAF Roundel blue
Black - Gaianotes Black Grey
Clear Gloss - SMS Clear Gloss
Flat Coat - Mr Color GX 113

The Build

This was a quick palate cleanser after the F-16 which dragged on a bit. One of the other aims was to check out and test Eduard's new decals.

This is the second of Eduard's early 109's I've built. This time I wanted to do the cowling closed up.

The cockpit is really nice straight from the box.

When joining the fuselage and fitting the cockpit make sure the instrument panel is sitting correctly - ie not as per this image. it should sit right down on the fuselage.

I applied some liquid glue to re-activate the joints of the cockpit tub in as many places as I could and then I pushed the panel down so it sat as close to flush as I could it. The cowl now fitted.

I did need some clamping to hold everything place while the glue went off.

All ready for the wing join.

The wing to fuselage joint is excellent. Not issues here. I spot primed a few joints to see if the glue had upset the panel lines.

Painting

First was Mr Color C060 RLM02 on the wings and fuselage spine. Then some splatters were applied. Next was the Mr Color C71 Dark green for the splinters. Some splatter mask work with my modified SMS dark Earth and Tamiya XF 61 dark green.

For the yellow nose I used a pink primer coat. This is the second time I’ve done this and it really makes painting the yellow simple, plus the yellow really looks good. I used a mixture a red and white Mr Color paints for the pink. For the yellow I used SMS Trainer Yellow. This looked close enough to the Mr Hobby RLM Yellow I had, but was a lacquer so I knew it would dry virtually straight away.

Decals

The Eduard decals worked well enough. I did try removing the carrier film, results were mixed. I wrote a full article on this. You can read it here.

This image shows decals with the carrier film removed.

This image shows decals that haven't had the carrier film peeled.

The stencils worked as well as the main decals. The only disappointment were the decals with red. The red was way out of register.

So I ended up painting the walkways.

Weathering

Weathering was kept pretty light as I wasn't interested in doing too much on this build. I just applied a basic wash of tinned oil paints. Oils were also used to apply some bits of grime / dirt in some areas where I assumed the ground crew would be working

I did have a good look at early war 109 photos and most didn’t exhibit much in the way of exhaust staining - this bit of confirmation bias , just a wash a meant that the Exhaust staining was also kept light. Oils were also used for this.

The Base

Insulation foam from the hardware store was used for the base. It was covered with air dried clay then texture paste then base coated with Tamiya Flat earth. The whole thing is lined with balsa wood.

Static grass was applied into thinned PVA glue using a static grass applicator.

At this stage the transition from the bare areas to the grass was a bit stark. More static grass was applied by dropping it onto some blobs of PVA. A mixture of pigments was liberally applied in these areas as well.

More worn areas were added by rubbing out the grass with my finger and pigment applied.