1/48 Tamiya Bf-109E-4

Gallery Article by Scotty Diamond on Oct 29 2012

 

 

This was part two of a two-model set made to order that I did in early 2010. A friend wanted a matched pair of planes from the Battle of Britain to add to his collection and asked me to make a Spitfire and Bf-109E and I chose the Tamiya kits for the project. Both kits are easy to build and they have plenty of aftermarket parts and decals on the market for dressing them up. I decided for both kits to be on display bases with a simple vignette of iconic figures to capture the spirit of the pre-Eagle Day pictures seen in magazines and books. The Spitfire I covered in another article and was finished before the 109. 

 

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I incorporated the Aires cockpit and Quickboost’s 109E gun barrel sets to dress up the Messerschmitt.  The cockpit fits well, but the rails behind the seat gave me problems when I closed the fuselage; I probably needed to thin the walls more.  I also used Aeromasters decals from one of the Battle of Britain sets that looked reasonably generic for the period, and in fact represented a plane that was shot down in the opening days of the battle and the pilot then interned for the rest of the war.  At least it looked “typical” for a BOB 109. 

The figures were painted with Model Master Acryls and everything was given assorted washes of oils, acrylics, and pastel dusting – but all weathering was kept light to represent a fairly clean machine from the “day before” Adler Tag. I found the cover image of the May 27, 1940 issue of LIFE magazine to reduce and drape over the chair of the lounging German pilot. I used fishing line for the aerials, which broke (along with the mast) several times while trying to make it tight enough – I have since switched to EZ-line and stretched sprue with much better results and less frustration.

The ease of construction of the kit allowed me to concentrate more effort into the detailing and paint schemes rather than wrestle with the parts. That all paid off when I entered the models in the 2010 Oregon Historical Modelers IPMS Show in McMinnville, Oregon. The theme that year, as luck would have it since this was the first contest I had entered since my last one as a kid back in 1976 at the local hobby shop, was The Battle of Britain. The Spitfire won the Johnny E Johnson Memorial Award for Best RAF Subject, and the 109 won Best Battle Of Britain Axis Subject. Not too bad for a first time entry in a grown-up contest.

Scotty Diamond

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Photos and text © by Scotty Diamond