Hasegawa Bf-109G-10

During the year that I wasn’t blogging I built six models. This one was based on a photograph of an actual Bf-109G-10 that was crash-landed in Switzerland near the end of the war. It looks like the pilot decided that discretion was the better part of valor and hoofed it.

I have already complained about the too-small vertical stabilizer on the Hasegawa Bf-109E in 1/72 scale.

Now it’s time to complain about the too-small vertical stabilizer on the Bf-109G kit. It’s too small. The same as the Bf-109E kit. So the next time somebody recommends this “G” kit, remember that. And it’s not just the tail that’s wrong. The nose is undersized as well.

Now, do I expect you to “fix” these problems or forevermore be considered an unmanly modeler? Hell no. I’m not fixing them. Except for the tail. I had a Heller Bf-109K sitting around so I cut the tail off of it and glued it to the Hasegawa fuselage.

I had a Revell Bf-109G-10, and a Heller Bf-109K, and a (newer tool) Hasegawa Bf-109G-6, and various things are wrong with all these kits. I don’t think I’m Randy Rivetcounter but if I’m going to put some work into a model I’d like it to reach a certain level of nonsuck. That level may be higher for some people, and lower for others. I’ve seen the work of some builders and it looks like they just don’t give a damn (to me). On the other hand, I see some guy putting the switches on the radio of yet another 1/72 masterpiece and I think “too much damn trouble.”

I admire it. I don’t want to do it myself.

So I had a pile of “parts” and I put three kits together to make this one. Is that efficient? No way. If you want a good model of a Bf-109G-10 in 1/72 scale, do yourself a favor and get the Fine Molds kit. But if you have three turkeys sitting in a row, well then you can do this.

It’s fun. That’s the point. Recreation.

I put the wiggly lines on the front of the wings for fun.

I used the otherwise despicable flat resin tires because I got them for free. I bought a bunch of abandoned Messerschmitt kits and the previous owner had put the resin flatties in there. So I used the resin guys on this model and discovered that the flat resin tires are “handed” and I had two right hand tires.

Ya’ know? What I’m sayin’?

Anyway a little putty and righty became tighty.

The canopy is a vac-form from Falcon. I like some after-market stuff. Vac canopies I love. Resin flat tires I’ll use if they’re free. Photo-etch is never used by me except in cases of extreme unction.

This model was painted entirely with brushes and no masking was done. The “mottling” is a decal printed on an HP inkjet printer. The decals were “pieced” together to match the photograph. Paints are MM Acryl and the colors were mixed by me to match my calibrated eyeball.

The spiral on the spinner is a decal.

When it was finished, I didn’t like this model. Too grim and gray. But now that some time has passed, it’s growing on me. Like that movie where Stephen King played the guy with the mold problem.