1/48 Messerschmitt BF109 E-4/N

Werk Nr. 5819

by Edward Lowdell

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There is no doubt that Adolf Galland is today the best-known member of the World War II Luftwaffe.  His fame rests not only on his skill as a fighter pilot – he was one of only a handful of pilots to claim more than 100 victories against the Western Allies.- but on his skills as a combat commander and his success and failures as General of the entire German Fighter forces.

During his illustrious career in the Luftwaffe he flew many aircraft.  This particular aircraft modelled here is probably his most famous mount.  Messerschmitt  BF109 E-4/N Werk .Nr. 5819.  

I have built this aircraft to accurately represent how the aircraft would have looked around mid December 1940 at Abbeville France.

I built this kit as a commission for a very discerning client who is very will informed about Galland’s famous Jagdgeschwader  - JG26.  He was very specific about what he wanted; aircraft in flying configuration, with a left-hand bank and who was I to disagree. There is a lot of reference material about this particular aircraft so it wasn’t going to be difficult to carry out the work.  

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The kit is a Hasagawa 1/48th scale BF109 E-4/7. Built essentially out of the box other than the addition of a resin pilot from Eduard. Unfortunately the only pictures I got of the mini ‘Dolfo’ was when he was still wet with matt varnish so he looks a little shiny! A lot of filing one his upper arms was needed to get the figure to fit into the tiny cockpit. 

The problem I had with this kit, is that is designed to be standing with everything ‘hanging out’; the leading edge slats were a bad fit when closed and the undercarriage fairings were moulded in the ‘suspension compressed’ position resulting in them not fitting into the undercarriage wells. (in other words too short)

 

At this point I thought it rather novel to compare scales. Take one BF109 E and a Daimler Benz DB605D power unit from my half built Trumpeter G-10.  

After the basic build a coat of primer was applied to the whole aircraft.  I use Humbrol enamels out of pure preference.  Then a coat of RLM 76 Hellblau was applied.  I always fell that they always look far too bright with this colour applied!  

This aircraft, although repainted on a number of occasions, was standard RLM74, 75, 76 with blotches of RLM02 on the fuselage.  After the colours, I applied a coat of gloss varnish to aid the decal adhesion.  Microsol products were used here to good effect to help the Aeromaster decals to settle nicely.  This was followed by a coat of matt varnish to seal them in.  At this scale I’m not a big fan of painting the panel lines to accentuate them, instead I like to use pastels and art pens to lightly highlight them with what I think are pretty good results.  Bf-109s were also very ‘dirty’ aircraft so unless they were freshly cleaned or repainted they end up with a lot of exhaust staining all over the fuselage.  I sprayed the exhaust staining on using my trusty Aztec airbrush.   

I used the excellent Tamiya masking tape and Revell’s Colour Stop for masking areas, but in this scale (24th is my preferred scale) masking the canopy called for X-ray eyes, well my magni-lamp anyway!!  

The finishing touches were added; stretched sprue for the aerial, re-worked cannon barrels, a small rectangle piece of clear acetate was carefully ‘clearfixed’ on top of the Gun-sight to replicate glass and the canopy sections were attached with good old clearfix also.   

I am pleased with the results I hope you like them.

Edward 

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Photos and text © by Edward Lowdell