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Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4

by Franck Oudin

Here is my 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Bf109 K-4 from Hasegawa, finished using Kommandeur decals.

This aircraft is a Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4 "5800" W.Nr. Unknown, perhaps 335800. It my have been a Staffel fuhrer's aircraft from I/JG11. The aircraft was found at Munchen-Reim in May 1945. I chose this scheme because it was a bit different to the regular K-4,with a mix of colors like RLM 76,81,82,83,84 and a light gray for the underwing, plus a large yellow band on the fuselage. 

I also decided to use the magnificent Adeco cockpit from my friend Vincent Kermorgan, and I did not regret it at all. The resin kit is the best on the market in terms of fit. Absolutely no work is required to fit the resin kit into the aircraft. You just have to replace the kit parts with the resin ones, paint it, and that's it. There is nothing missing in this very nice interior. 

I used an Eduard PE set for the K-4. This set adds many missing details to the Hasegawa kit. 

I added an engraved panel line and opened the well well to give some more accuracy to my K-4,although this kit look very accurate to me already! The fit of this kit is just perfect, so I just use followed the instruction sequence, starting with the interior, fuselage, and then the wings. This is a" Putty Free" kit! 

The only extra details were the brake lines on the landings gears, and I forgot to mention a pair of True details wheels (thank you Milo!!). 

The entire airframe was sprayed with SnJ and then buffed. I sprayed the RLM 84(Gunze H-74)over the entire fuselage, then masked and sprayed the gray. I discovered that the best match was IJA gray (Gunze H-60),for the underwing, and RLM76 for the engine cowling (Gunze 416). Next, I masked and sprayed the RLM 81 and the RLM 83 camouflage pattern, then remasked the fuselage and sprayed this time with RLM 82 and a RLM 83 mottling.

Okay, still following me?

Apparently this aircraft has been rebuilt, which is why there are some parts of the aircraft in mismatching colors. For details like wheels wells I decided to leave them NMF with RLM 66 landing gears. 

When the complete aircraft was painted I sprayed a coat of Tamiya X-22 clear gloss, then I applied a wash of black enamel on the panels lines, and it was time for decaling. 

I used the brilliant decals from Kommandeur. It was a real pleasure to use the decals. They went on with no problems using a little setting solution. 

Finally, I glued all the details like the antennae, wires, pitot tube etc. The resin wheels were secured with 5 minute epoxy to achieve a solid bond (by the way, that was the same for the resin interior). Then the entire model was sprayed with a mix of 7/3 Tamiya gloss and Tamiya Flat base and the final result is what you can see in these pictures. 

I am very happy with this model. It was a real pleasure to build, especially as the Bf109 is one of my favourite aircraft. (By the way, I am looking forward to read your book on the late war Bf109 Brett). 

So folks I think that's it for this one, but don't worry there will be more 109 from me, because I do have another 18 from the shelf to be made! 

I would like to specially thanks Brown Ryle from Kommandeur decals for his help, and Vincent Kermorgant for his very thorough knowledge on the 109, and the German Expert Bernd for his help on this project as well. 

Thank you all, and all the best, FRANCK.