CyberHobby-Dragon 1/32nd Bf 109E-7

[Vickers]

After building the WNW S.E.5a and Roden Fokker F.1 for the Dave Wilson Memorial Group Build I thought it would be fun to get this one off my to-do list and into the display cabinet while I await the arrival of my Nieuport 11s from Copper State Models. It's a fairly straightforward OOB build with just a little bit of aftermarket in the form of Eduard wheels and an RB Productions harness. Since I prefer to close up my fighters, I seldom ever bother to build inline engines. I made an exception for this one. After experimenting with the Czechmaster cowlings and Eduard upper cowling, I've decided to just stick with the CH-Dragon parts.

Jagdwaffe afficionado Claes Sundin has identified a Bf109E-7 flown by Marseille in the spring of 1941 while I./JG27 was based at Ain-El-Gazala, though I will deviate from certain details of his profile a bit based on the contemporaneous images of 'Gelbe 4' from the same staffel, 3./JG27. I intend to tighten up the camouflage a bit with smaller blotches, the Gelbe 6 code will have a black outline, and the spinner will be overall yellow rather than fractured. Since Marseille usually used yellow abschuss markings on his rudders, I will be applying eleven of them to the rudder to reflect his claims as of late May 1941,

















... here's what I'm aiming at:





Best regards and happy modeling everyone!

[Vickers]

Deviating from the profile in order to render a denser pattern with high contrast between the green spots and surrounding colors. I broke out the cuticle scissors and modified some Eduard trop filter screens, then tucked them into the featureless recesses on the CH-D part. Just the white tailband to go and then on with the gloss coat and decals.

[RAGIII]

Your 109 is coming along nicely. I really like the seatbelts and filters on the intake!
RAGIII

[Vickers]

Your 109 is coming along nicely. I really like the seatbelts and filters on the intake!
RAGIII

Thanks, RAGIII, I had fun figuring out how much detail I should put into it. I finished this one last Tuesday, but had yet to upload the photos. I'll toss in the TL;DR regarding the build below the images:

















I finished this CH-Dragon 1/32nd Bf109E-7 in markings based on the oft-published color series featuring "Gelbe 4" of the same staffel. Profile artist Claes Sundin recently rendered a starboard side profile of a certain W.Nr. 5160 which he attributed to Hans-Joachim Marseille. I deviated slightly from the artwork, surmising that the new desert scheme and fuselage codes would've been an all hands effort among the ground crew and therefore consistent. So, I based the camoflage loosely on "Gelbe 4", used a black-trimmed number, and painted the spinner overall yellow since I'm under the impression that the 109E's in JG-27 didn't feature multi-colored spinners until later that summer.

The werke nummer, 5160, falls into the middle of Mtt WNF's Bf 109E-3 production run ranging from 5001 to 5259. I used individual numbers from an old Mike Grant decal sheet and added the "F" on the end because I believe that this machine was one of the many E-7/trops that were converted from serviceable earlier variants. I also added eleven yellow victory claim bars since that was Marseille's tally at the end of May '41 when this machine would've been one of Gelbe 4's stablemates.

Eduard brassin wheels, Quickboost exhausts, RB Productions harness with an added bit on the aft deck in the manner of the late 109E setup. The sand filter mesh is Eduard photoetch with the edges trimmed off, antenna spring tensioner cut from a lightbulb filament, antenna insulators are thin plasticard heated over a tealight and punched using a dental pick. My only gripes with the kit are that the upper cowling between the MG17 troughs is too flat and the engineering of all of the flaps seems to be overkill. I bypassed the kit method and simply drilled and pinned all of the flight control surfaces for a solid join. While a lot of speculation went into this scheme, I'm content with how it turned out.

[NigelR]

Very nice job!

[RAGIII]

The subtle weathering and Markings have really brought this 109 to life. Well Done!
RAGIII

[Vickers]

Very nice job!

Thanks, NigelR

The subtle weathering and Markings have really brought this 109 to life. Well Done!
RAGIII

Thanks again, RAGIII

[Borsos]

That?s a very nice model of a lovely but hardly known and exotic aircraft. Thanks for showing!

[Vickers]

That?s a very nice model of a lovely but hardly known and exotic aircraft. Thanks for showing!

Thanks, Borsos. I've never seen a photo of the exact machine and my rendering is speculative, but I trust in Claes Sundin's detective work enough to go for it.

[AngryJazz]

Very nice build! Turned out nicely! I like the trop colors 

[Vickers]

Very nice build! Turned out nicely! I like the trop colors 

Thanks, Ben! It certainly stands out among all of the greys and greens among the other 109s on the shelf.