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Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6

by Vincent Kermorgant

 

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6

 


 Hasegawa's 1/32 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 is available online from Squadron.com

 

Construction

 

This is Hasegawa’s 1/32 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 kit.

 

Fuselage

As usual, I started with the cockpit. Since I designed it, I naturally used the MDC cockpit. PE seat belts are provided but I used the alternative buckles with foil sheet.

 

 

The cockpit overall color is RLM66 (Gunze H333) while the belts are off-white. The instrument dials were punched out from the Hasegawa decal sheet and installed one by one.

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I then turned my attention to the exterior. The Fug25 mount was drilled out and redone with a rounded rod. In order to give life to the model, I opened both fuel and oxygen refill hatches. All internal details are then scratchbuilt with plastic card and other misc materials.

At this stage, I added each tail half to the respective fuselage half. This prevents the use of putty at a later stage. This done, I could glue the fuselage halves together and detail the cockpit rear decking with the jettison mechanism.

Supercharger intake, upper cowl (making sure to use the correct one) and gun bulges were added at this stage.

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Wings

First of all, the wheel wells were “squared” as per instruction. Then, the 8 oval holes were drilled out and the wheel retraction mechanism added.

I glued together the 3 parts lower wings together to get better adjustments. I could then create the belly ejection chutes and add the inspection liners in the wheel wells (They were made of copper sheet and punched out rivets).

 

 

The wing radiators are buried too deep in their fairing. I move them forward and redid the various cooling flaps in pastic card.

On the upper wings, the wheel well details were redone and the wing structure recreated since it is seen from the holes. Inner wing color is bare aluminium with black manufacturing stencils.

Finally, the upper wings were glued to the fuselage (to avoid puttying later on) and then the whole underwing assembly added.

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Landing Gear

The kit parts are really nice.

However I removed the molded brake line and redid it with thin wire. The locking system was made of thin plastic card. Gear doors are nice but too thick. The upper part was redone and the lower part thinned down to scale. All parts are glued together before painting.

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The smooth wheel is the MDC one. The wheel angle is wrong. A simple fix was to shorten the axle in order to give “freedom” and set the angle to its correct value.

 



Tail wheel was corrected as well and set to a different angle.

 

Finishing Touches

The MG131 muzzles were drilled out. The guns were then first painted in steel color and then very diluted dark blue was sprayed which gives a very convincing gun blue effect.

Canopy details were added with plastic card and copper wire.

Antenna wire was created in a similar fashion white white glue insulators.

All trim tabs have been redone in thin plastic card.

Exhaust stack is from MDC with thin copper shielding.

 

 

Painting and Markings

 

I decided to depict an aircraft in service with the most successful user of the Gustav: Finland
The new MDC decal sheet was used. This is plane was flown by Sergent Ahokas from 3/HleLv 24. It features a superb lynx head on the rudder. By the way, MDC is the only sheet providing the correct Finnish stencils.

 

 

Camouflage was done with Gunze paints and then Metalizer Sealer was sprayed as gloss coat. Decal were added and then each panel line was enhanced with very diluted Tamiya Smoke.

Finally, panel lines received an oil paint wash and the model was coated with Revell Matt varnish, which reproduces the original RLM paints eggshell finish to perfection.

 

 

Additional Images

 

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Model, Images and Article Copyright © 2002 by Vincent Kermorgant
Page Created 07 November 2002
Last updated 27 May 2007

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