Revell 1/32 Messerschmitt Bf 109

By Mark Proulx

Accurizing the Revell Bf 109

The Revell Bf 109 was one of the first kits released by this manufacturer when 1/32 scale first came on the market. Since then this kit has been released a multitude of times as a Bf 109F and G. With the help of John Beamans' excellent reference material, The Last of the Eagles, I decided that it was time to add an accurate late war 109 to my collection. I can safely say that this project would not be complete without his groundbreaking work. The art of resin casting and vacuforming, supplied by Engines and Things, was also essential.

The subject of this article will be to correct the Revell 109G-6 and convert it into Erich Hartmanns' Bf 109G-6/U2. Of couse this is his all white aircraft with stunning black tulip nose. Hartmann flew this 109 when he was attached to I/JG 53 at Veszprem, Hungary in Feb 1945. This scheme caught my eye at the IPMS Nationals in Seattle when this was first discussed. There are a few interesting items on the aircraft that sets it apart from others. Please note the antenna configuration with no attached mast. Also, there is no loop for the FuG 16ZY radio on the aircraft but the base is there. Note that the aircraft has the MW50 box behind the pilot seat. It will be far beyond the scope of this article to point out each little bump and hatch that requires correcting even though they are incorporated into the model. I will once again refer the reader to the previously mentioned reference to correct each minute detail.

Lets first start out by having another look at Revell's Bf 109 with a slight note of optimism. For an early '60s kit I was really surprised to see the nicely scribed surface detail. Not bad! No scribing required here. Separate control surfaces are supplied and nicely executed. However, as you are all probably aware the overall shape of the kit leaves a lot to be desired. The fuselage is to short, the nose is misshaped and the wing topside has a totaly fictitious wheel well fairing that allows the kits wheels to properly retract into the wing. Maybe a great toy but not what I was looking for! We will start at the front of the model and work our way back pointing out the most obvious corrections.

Nose

Starting right at the propellor, new resin blades are cast to correct the shape of the kit supplied items. The original kit blades are first sanded to the correct shape using plans from Beamans' book. Once one blade was completed it is just a simple matter of taking a mold of that blade and casting three resin replacements. The blades are then added to the kits hub and you now have a new propellor assembly. Scoops are added to the nose as dictated in reference material. The large bumps on the underside of the nose are sanded flush with the fuselage. These are there to allow the kit supplied engine to fit which was not installed in this model. The cowling was corrected as per John Beamans' notes. Moving further aft to the gun bulges the starboard side has an additional bulge added just forward of the gun bulge that defines this type. The gun bulges also were corrected for shape and an additional scoop was added to the starboard side. Photoetch screen from Arba products is cut to shape and used for the oil cooler intake.

Cockpit

From all available reference material a new cockpit was scratchbuilt using Waldron instruments and seatbelts. Everything else was scratchbuilt from wire, plastic card and rod. Starting at the instrument panel a new panel was cut from plastic card. Next using Waldron punches the instrument cut outs were added. Waldron instruments and bezels are now placed on the replacement panels leaving a very accurate 109 instrument panel. White surgical tape is then added to Waldron rudder pedals. I find that this kind of tape accurately represents the rough surface nature of leather. The gun cover that is so prominent on late 109's is carved and sanded from a block of styrene and added to the firewall. Moving to the right sidewall you will notice a large circuit breaker panel. This was added to the cockpit. Wires running to the panel were added using nylon thread. The prominent fuel line was also added to the sidewall using yellow wire. The left sidewall is detailed with the addition of the engine control box carved from styrene. Throttles are added using styrene strip and rod to make up the handles for the various controls. Aft of the controls is the tail wheel locking control made from wire. Various leather handles that are mounted on the sidewalls were made from surgical tape cut to size. Small air scoops and other tiny boxes are then added to the cockpit using styrene cut to size. Seat belt harnesses were added using Waldron buckles that are slid over paper that is cut to size to represent the harness. The only original part is the trim tab control, seat and control stick. Aft of the seat, don't forget to add the MW 50 cover which is on this aircraft and stands out in photos. The canopy was an old Horizon Products vacuform unit of a number of years ago. The canopy armour was also made from scratch with card and clear styrene.

Aft Fuselage and Tall Tail

This area requires a major rebuild of the Revell kit. The first order of business is to cut the profile of the tall wooden tail option on a piece of .010 card. This of course is another feature of the U2 variant. Thankfully, 1/32 scale plans come with John Beaman's book. The template will then be sandwiched between the fuselage halves when joined together. This will supply the proper outline to the tail. A new rudder was made with this same technique. The correct rudder shape came from sanding the large amounts of applied Milliput.

Before joining the fuselage halves, I cut just forward of the tail unit. Each fuselage half is now cut into two pieces. I shaped and sanded approximately a 1/2 " piece of solid styrene between the fore and aft sections. When joining the fuselage I sandwiched the tall tail template between the two halves. The leading edge of the vertical stabilizer was then flared into the template with milliput and sanded to shape. In addition, the underside of the fuselage is left with a large "step" in it where the two fuselage halves were cut. A liberal doseage of milliput fixed that in short order and the underside is sanded to shape. The plug is also now puttied, sanded and flared into the fuselage. Now add the rudder control arm and at last we have a correct Bf 109 fuselage.

Horizontal Tail

The only item to fix here is the sanding of the control surfaces to the correct shape. Set the correct angle for the elevators on the ground.

Wings and Landing Gear

This is the next major area of concern for this kit. The sweep of the wing is pointed out as being incorrect.

I determined that it is to subtle a change to worry about so this was left as is. Starting with the underside of the wing the first thing to accomplish is to box in the wheel wells. The next item of concern is to correct the stance of the landing gear. The struts were moved further apart and raked forward. For the wheel assemblies new hubs were built and cast. This is also correct for this variant. The tail wheel has tissue used for the strut boot covering but is otherwise original.

The next item to fix is the wing upper surface. First the original kit wing had these fictitious fairings for the wheels removed. A new piece of plastic is inserted and sanded to shape giving us basically the "F" version wing. Proper blisters are made from styrene and glued to the top of the wing. Using Hydrostone, a product similar to plaster, a cast is then taken of the top surface of the wing. With a vacuform machine and a sheet of .040 plastic, vacuform a new set of wings into the cast female mold of the wing upper surface. What you are doing here is drawing down into the mold the prominent wheel well bulge.This was done so as to have the wheel blister visible inside the wheel well. Now using references the completed upper surface of the wing is rescribed. The last order of business here is to drop the flaps and add the various bulges under the wing for the wing attachment bolts. Finally add straps at the wingroot from styrene strip to represent wingroot fairings.

Finishing

What you are left with now is a pretty accurate Bf 109G-6/U2. The aircraft was first painted in its summer scheme with a topside 74 and 75 and underside sprayed 76 using Humbrol paints. The white distemper was then sprayed overtop in a blotchy random pattern. Remember the white distemper is is very thin and allowed some of the original colors to show through. Note that forward of the tulip the nose is solid white. From references you will note that white is oversprayed on the propellor blades at the roots. No time was spent to mask off the propellor blades with the application of the white distemper. Yellow theater chevron markings are applied to the port wing underside and fuselage band. References point out that the canopy frame is painted 75. Decals came from various kits , spares box and homemade. The port fuselage chevron is odd in its application in that it is not squarely applied to the fuselage side. References clearly show the crude nature of the application of markings on this aircraft. To finish off the project add antenna wire made from invisible thread.

This completes my Bf 109 article. It leaves me wishing for a good late war 109 so that I don't ever have to do this again!

Happy Messerschmitting