Airfix 1/48 scale Bf 109 E-3 by Roger Brown

Airfix's 1/48 scale
Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3

by Roger Brown

Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3
4/JG51 ‘Molders’

Airfix's 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3 is available online from Squadron.com

Introduction

After building Airfix’s 1/48 Spitfire Mk.1, I thought I should build a Battle of Britain 109 to accompany it.

Our club has a running theme of Airfix Builds, so Airfix’s recent 1/48 109E kit was chosen.

Airfix provide decals for three schemes, I chose the aircraft from JG51, flown by Lt.Johann Bohm, who crash landed in Kent on July 8th 1940 and was taken POW.

Construction

I built the model from the box with just the addition of Eduard seat belts. I used Mr. Cement and Mr Surfacer 1000 as a filler during the assembly.

The cockpit assembly was straightforward. I just added some Eduard seatbelts on top of the straps moulded into the seat. The cockpit assembly together with the fuselage side walls were sprayed RLM02 and when dry, detail painted where required. The cockpit was then given a wash of thinned Tamiya smoke.

The fuselage halves were glued together with the cockpit assembly in position. I drilled out the spinner backplate and propeller and replaced the kit prop shaft with a piece of 1/16 inch dia brass tube and then drilled out the fuselage to take a piece of 3/32 inch dia brass tube to locate the new prop shaft.

The prop shaft was positioned within the backplate to represent the cannon barrel.

The leading edge slats fitted well, but the gun panel inserts required some sanding and filling to give a smooth fit.

The kit instructions indicate that the drop tank can be fitted to the ‘B’ scheme which I chose, so I fitted the rack. I made up the tank, but did not fit it to the finished model as of yet I can find no evidence of a tank fitted to E3’s.
The radiators were assembled and fitted. I then sprayed the wheel wells RLM02.

The wing assembly was a good fit to the fuselage and did not require any filler at the upper joint, just some in the usual gaps at the lower rear.

The tailplanes were then fitted, square to the fin.

When the struts were offered up, they were a bit too long, so they were sanded down at the tailplane end until they fitted.

An engine block is moulded to the fuselage halves and with the engine bearers provided can be detailed and displayed with the upper cowl removed. I preferred to have the upper engine cowl fitted in place. The upper engine cowl required some trimming to achieve a snug fit to the fuselage.

The lower engine cowl fitted ok, but required some filler at the front and rear edges.

There is no oil cooler intake splitter plate provided in the kit, so I made one up from a piece of 10 thou plasticard and cemented it in position.

The flaps fitted ok, they can be assembled closed if required, but I like them dropped.

I painted the flaps separately and fitted them on the final assembly.

Painting and Markings

I used Xtracolor gloss paints for the main colours, X201 RLM02, X205 RLM71 and X202 RLM65.

I mixed the RLM70 for the prop and spinner colour.

I chose to spray the RLM02 and RLM71 camouflage first and then mask up for the RLM65 underside colour. This would be easier than masking up all the underside and fuselage sides and then spraying the topside colours.
I first sprayed RLM02 over the top surfaces, including the fuselage sides. 109’s of this period had a soft edge camouflage, so I achieved this using the Blu-Tack string method.

I masked up the RLM02 over the wings and fuselage using Blu-Tack and Tamiya masking tape.

The RLM71 was then sprayed.

RLM71 was then mixed with some gloss white and sprayed randomly over the RLM71 to give a faded appearance.

The masking was then removed and some RLM02 mixed with gloss white sprayed randomly over the RLM02.

I then masked up the camouflage again using Blu-Tack and Tamiya tape. The RLM65 was then sprayed on the underside and fuselage sides. I then sprayed a mottle on the fuselage sides using a mix of RLM71 and RLM02.
The kit decals were found to be very good, I used Micro Set and Micro Sol to ensure they conformed to the recessed panel lines.

The panel lines were then inked in using a warm grey acrylic ink.

The main undercarriage legs and tail wheel had previously been assembled and painted. The tyres were sprayed with Revell 9, anthracite and the wheel hubs with Humbrol 85, satin black.

They main legs were found to be a good fit in the wing locations.

The exhausts required some sanding on their width as they are too tight a fit within the exhaust shrouds.

The exhausts were sprayed a rusty brown colour and drybrushed up using Humbrol 56 aluminium. They were fitted in position using superglue. The two wing mounted machine guns were drilled out, painted matt black and fitted in position.

The two aileron balance weights were then glued in place. Finally the flaps were fitted.

The entire model was then given a coat of Humbrol Matt Cote.

The three sections of cockpit canopy were masked up using Tamiya tape. RLM02 was sprayed first followed by RLM71. The canopies were fitted using white PVA glue, followed by the antenna mast.

The pitot tube had suffered a moulding problem, so I cut off the tube from the support and replaced it with a short piece of stretched sprue.

An antenna wire was made from fishing line and held in place using superglue. That completed the model.