1/48 Tamiya Bf 109E-3 |
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Gallery Article by Lynn Ritger
on Aug 1 2003 |
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This Bf 109E-3
(J-317, WNr 2165) was taken on strength of the Schweizer Flugwaffe on 23 June
1939. It served briefly with 21. FlKp before being transferred to 8. FlKp,
where it remained until being struck off charge on 17 June 1947. I chose
to build J-317 for one main reason; I have a very good friend in Switzerland by
the name of Tom Fischer, and this particular aircraft was listed as having an
emergency landing (motor failure, no other damage) at Genf while being flown by
A. Fischer on 13 March 1940. I don't know if they're related or not,
but it seemed an appropriate tribute to a great friend.
The model used was the "old-tool" Tamiya Bf 109E-3 with inaccurate
cowling and intake. I modified the cowling to Swiss standard with two
MG29s fitted side-by side (not staggered); this necessitated filing off the MG17
synchronization gear bulges on the main cowling as well as the raised troughs
around the gunports, filling a few panel lines with superglue, rescribing new
panel lines, and adding two small breech covers from spare resin off-cuts sanded
to shape. The gun barrels are simply stretched sprue, drilled and mounted
to the Tamiya piece (in lieu of the MG17 barrels... those were saved for another
project).
The paint scheme is a fairly free-form "export" scheme of RLM 70 and
71 over 65; I used Floquil's 70, and Floquil Pullman Green for the 71 with Model
Master 65 beneath. A quick note about the Model Master colors... I
absolutely detest spraying gloss or
semi-gloss colors due to the drying time, and I've found that thinning these
with straight lacquer thinner not only offers a far quicker drying time, it also
allows for much better control of the spray pattern. The Floquil paints
were thinned with DioSol, and as usual they went down perfectly.
The markings came from an out-of-production Cutting Edge sheet graciously sent
to me by Dr. Sinuhe Hahn, another Swiss friend; it should be noted that the
instructions are slightly wrong, in that they give a "fish in a ring"
emblem for J-317. That emblem belonged to 7. FlKp, whereas a number of aircraft in 8. FlKp featured very
skillfully executed floral arrangements on the cowlings (!!!) along with the
specific names of said flora. Unfortunately, while a number of these
beautiful artworks were captured on film, no one seems to have thought to tie
them to a particular airframe; thus, the only 8. FlKp aircraft to be tied to one
of these emblems is J-360 ("Narziss"/Narcissus). As I couldn't
be certain whether my chosen aircraft had one of these artworks or not, I simply
left the cowling bare, which was the usual standard for 8. FlKp.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Other details added
include a scratchbuilt KG11 spade-grip stick, Cutting Edge resin seat with
molded-on seatbelts (every Emil fan should have a number of these in their parts
box), True Details resin wheels to replace the skinny kit items, and two lengths
of solder for the brake lines.
As I was awaiting word from a company regarding potential employment, I was able
to complete this Emil (along with another) within a week... this is primarily
due to the incredibly easy construction offered by the Tamiya kit. While I
feel the Hasegawa
kit holds the edge in the accuracy department overall, the Tamiya version can be
built in less time than it takes to download an MP3 on a dialup connection.
:)