Topic: Enlarged B.T. Me 109e

Excellent work Phil,
                               I'm getting excited now !!!
 You're making more progress with the cowl than I have with the canopy, hopefully I'll be at the finishing post soon. Photos will folllow.

    Keith

super thread lots of information thanks

Once again, it has been nearly a month since I last my last update.
On and off, I have been working on the canopy, and now can now say  , that this part of the build is now finished. As the front and rear parts of the canopy frame were now finished, work then progressed onto producing the mid-section part of the frame - which will be made functional. Templates were taken from the front and rear sections to ensure that the correct angles of the frame were the same as the other sections .Construction began, with the use of bass wood, balsa and 1/32 ply.



The canopy on the '109' opens to the starboard side, and slight modifications were made for the correct hinging, this was a length of piano wire which was located into small pieces of brass tube fitted into the front and rear sections of the canopy.
I previously mentioned that I would be using the rear part of the canopy I had purchased, I ended up making this also , and as it would have been fairly difficult to shape the part in one piece, I opted to do it in two. This would not be a problem as there is a central part of the frame work that runs front to rear along the top.







   More to follow,

Being as the cowl tool is quite long with a shall opening when bolted together, it was decided to lay the 2 halves up separately then join them internally with resin and a 2" glass tape............saved getting covered in resin up to the elbows!!!

The cowls were laid up with grey gelcoat, 1 layer of 163g glass followed by a layer of heavier 390g glass. The resin was pigmented grey to give a good solid opaque finish.

Once the lay up was 'green', the rough edges were carefully trimmed along the flange with a shape blade before the 2 halves of the tool were bolted together to be joined.

....and BINGO......1st cowl out of the mould on Friday ....another started today.







 
Very pleased with the results. The camera flash has obliterated most of the detail, but the original panel lines etc....on the plug are all nicely represented.

Phil

Excellent Phil, great to see the finished product.
     Keith

Back to the canopy.
In the last picture I posted , you will notice the mid section is slightly larger all around than the front part. The profile will match once the front has been glazed.As well as having an opening canopy, I also wanted opening side windows. This was achieved by lining the inside of the frame with plastic channel , this allows smooth movement of the side panels.
The mid section frame is then clad in lithoplate, after applying some surface detail.



The forward section was given the 'litho' treatment.This took a bit longer to do, as the lithoplate needed to be  annealed and carefully shaped around the frame either side of the windshield.
The rear section was then framed with lithoplate, and now the whole canopy resembles something like the full size version. I forgot to mention, the litho' was bonded to the canopy with carefully applied medium cyano.





There is still some detailing to add to the canopy, but that's for another day.
Hopefully I won't leave it too long before the next instalment.
 
   Keith

I have the kyosho 109 and 58" wing span and while it's an ARF I thought it looked pretty cool. Your canopy make my whole model look like a toy. Fantastic work! Maybe one day I can get mine to look more like yours. Keep up the good work.

hello Keith,
I am restarting my P-47 build after 8 months off.  I am looking at #25 where you show three pictures of elevator .  The bent wire is shown in the elevator, upside down.  My question is the wire in an open slot? I can see the open slot in the elevator and the bent wire in the slot.  What covers the wire slot?  Do you cover it with balsa after maybe some epoxy in the slot?
Regards,
Albert

Elevator wire epoxied into the elevators, and the recess filled with balsa and shaped.

A month has passed, again, since my last update , so apologies for those have been checking to see if there has been any progress.
 I had received the cowl - kindly produced by Phil Clark -  several weeks ago, and so I've cutting and adjusting, to ensure a good fit of the cowl. After minor adjustments and the fitting of the main mounting bracket, the cowl was fitted, and the spinner added.





Now starting to take on that menacing look of the 109.
That was the easy part.Next on the list with the cowl, would be to cut-out various areas to accommodate exhaust stacks, add vents on the top of the cowl, and holes in the gun troughs to allow for the mounting of the gun barrels.
These tasks were going to take quite some time, so they were saved for another day.
I moved to the opposite end , to add some detail to the tailplane.
Shrouds were fitted top and bottom to the inboard ends of the tailplane. These were formed from llithoplate, and secured with cyano.
Shrouds are fitted to the 109 because it has an adjustable tailplane.



Thats about all for now, more to follow soon.

the adjusting tail stabilizer...is that just on the model...or does the real one have it too?
Albert

Just the real one Albert. The Bf109 had a huge trim change with flaps and needed something drastic to give it enough pitch trim whilst leaving enough elevator authority afterwards. The trim change was such that the elevator trim wheel and flap controls were concentric, so that the pilot could operate both at the same time with his left hand 

Most of the cut-outs on the cowl have now been done. I started with the two vents at the front of the gun trough, followed by the holes at the opposite end to locate the gun barrels. The radiator intake and outlet were removed after the fitting stage.
The next areas to be removed, are where the dummy exhausts will be located. The cowl was refitted, as I wanted to check the clearance on the inside of the cowl, as it is very near to the carb. Looking at the next image, you may also notice that I have had the carb bend machined down where it is bolted to the engine.This gives me  more clearance.



Also in the image you can see that I would have no access to adjust the carb. This, after much headscratching, would be resolved.



As per the full size 109, there is a removeable panel above the exhaust, this would be the answer to my problem. Another area of the cowl was removed to enable access to the carb.



A strip of fliteskin  was applied, and secured with screws - in scale positions .
It was then time to tackle the exhausts.Because of the close proximity of the carb to the cowl, another obstacle to overcome would be the fitting of the exhausts.I had to adapt these so as not to stick out too far. This was acheived by removing 1/4'' between the mounting flange and where the exhaust bends. The two parts were then cyano'd together and the base sanded flush with flange.



A mock up of the exhaust system was made, and the carb access panel fitted.



More work is still to be done on the exhausts and surrounding areas, also the fiddly tas of making the cut-outs for the cowl latches.
  Back later.

    Keith

That looks really good Keith! I envy your pace 

Thanks Jamie,
                       several hours spent cutting the slots where cowl latches will be attached. These were done using the trusted Dremel and cutting wheel and finished with a fine permagrit tool.
 The latches - being flat - had to be shaped to follow the contours of the cowl, this was done by immersing them in boiling water to soften the resin, then gently pressed against the cowl to take the correct form.
Auto prime waslied  before securing into position with cyano.



Still plenty more work to do on the cowl, just as well I've got some time off work, it seems to be taking forever.
I am now in the process of making the supercharger intake, and the forward exhaust fairings.

  Back later
                Keith

You have an amazing level of commitment to the task.

You know Keith I might be able to put that amount of attention and detail into my models IF I could tear myself away from this computer. Unfortunately I can't because I'm riveted to see what you do next.

Do you have an estimate on the AUW?

Having been nearly two weeks since my last update, thought it about time for 'sitrep'
  The forward exhaust cowls have been made and primed, ready for install. They made from balsa, skinned with glass cloth and resin and then hollowed out prior to painting.
The antennae mast also completed, made from bass wood, shaped and clad in lithoplate.



The supercharger intake also made, and fitted to the fus.The process for making this was the same as for the exhaust cowls.



 Progress will be a bit slow for a while, as I make the most of the weather, and put some colour back onto the repaired 109.

 Before I forget, I'm hoping for an estemated AUW around  21lb. I think this is about average for model of this size.

  Until the next time,
                           Keith

Is it wrong to find those bits 'sexy' 

I'd love to know how you work with the litho to produce such items 


Muds

Is it wrong to find those bits 'sexy' 

 It depends on which way you look at them 

 With regards to working the litho' I cheated - a bit. For the exhaust cowls, once shaped and 'skinned' I simply cut the litho to shape and cyano'd it to the balsa, a bit of filler then primed.
 The mast  took a bit longer, as the litho required more 'working'. Done in one piece, cyano'd, trimmed followed by a bit of detailing.
   ' simples '
Thanks for looking in.
                    Keith
   

They look ace anyway, I have loads of litho but have not played with it yet. I suppose getting to know how it behaves is half the battle.

Muds 

 

Post removed as it is irrelevant to this thread

How long since my last post 
                                                                    I have been working on the 109 since my last post, on and off ,-  probably more off than on. Anyway, I am now in a postion to bring you up to date.
 The cowl  and its componants were  given several coats of paint after being primed- grey primer- and all appeared well until I started  the wet and dry treatment. Certain areas of the cowl were fine others were not, the paint-primer as well, started lifting as soon as I immersed the cowl in warm water and  started  using the wet/dry paper. I was slightly miffed at this, as I couldn'd understand why.
 After a chat with Phil Clark, it appeared that I had not keyed the cowl well enough to accept the paint. I had been using 1000gt paper and was informed I should have gone to about 400. I was out of stock of this so settled for 600.After several hours of removing the paint
, I was at the stage where I could start over again.
 This time I used the correct colour primer- white- for yellow.
Ater it had been applied, the cowl looked 'flat' ,so some rivet detail was added.





Having got to this stage, I had to wait several days for the rain to stop and the wind to ease so I could apply the yellow.
 As it was unsuitable to spray, I set to work on the spinner, cut-outs were made to accept the prop blades , and holes were drilled and tapped to secure the cone to the backplate.
After 3 or 4 days waiting, there was a break in the weather, and so spraying resumed.
This time all items to be yellow were sprayed, along with the spinner which was to be black and white.







Work on the cowl is now complete ,apart from the 'weathering' which will be done once the model is finished.
Slowly but surely, it's all starting to look good.
I can't tell you when the next update will be, as I've been asked to help-out another flyer.
 TTFN
          Keith

Excellent Keith....

Lovely job Keith.......well worth all the effort 

Phil

that looks the dogs danglies 

Hello Keith,
Can somebody buy that cowl?  I mean are they for sale?
take care ,
Albert

Hi Albert,
               if you are interested in building the 80'' 109e, then yes, the cowl is available from Fighteraces.

I have the cowls as well as the resin cast exhaust stacks, the MG131 machine gun barrels and the cowl latches Albert.

http://fighteraces.zzl.org/accessories/exhausts.htm

http://fighteraces.zzl.org/accessories/other_details.htm

Phil

Hello Phil,
I guess in a year or so....Maybe. Thanks
Albert

Thanks for your kind comments 'troops'.
  The cowl production was a joint effort between Phil and myself.
I think the lack of a cowl for a large size 109e may have put some modellers off from building one. Now that there is one available, and all the other  bits required, it would great to see a few more being built.

   Keith