The DIY Canopy for the 1962 Monogram Me109E - 1/48 scale

Here is the 109 fuselage with a paper canopy.  I measured the opening as precisely as possible to create a 2D development.  Folding it and placing on the cockpit gave me some hope, so I moved on to heavier stock and laid it out on a piece of sheet plastic that I saved from one of my wife's Anna Griffin card box covers.  The plastic is flexible and easy to cut but stiff enough to hold up.  From a scale standpoint it is probably closer to the real thing than the molded kit canopy.

Here is the material......

.......and here is a piece cut out with the stock template taped on.

Still 2D but with some score lines where framing would be.

Still 2D but with framing etched in.  Being a very angular canopy it lends itself to this simple DIY approach.  Now let's see how good my measuring is.

Bent into 3D along the etched fold lines it is not too bad, but needs trimming, bending and shaping. Bend Me Shape Me  (Anyway You Want me).  Sound familiar 60s music fans?  If you guessed The American Breed  you would be correct.

Better - Port side....

.....Starboard side.  Proof will be in the gluing, masking and frame painting.  It looks ok now but we will have to wait and see as it will be used on my future DIY build!

So you bought a resin kit...(For modelers new to resin kits)

Not all gamers are modelers, and not all modelers are gamers. There is plenty of crossover in the Bolt Action community, but those of us who model probably started out with plastic kits; and those gamers who are looking to save money and get stuff on the table ~ fast may see resin kits as a way to get there. Furthermore, some lower sales volume kits are only available in resin. 

Here's what it took to get me from unboxing to table for a resin M4A3E2 "Jumbo" from Blitzkrieg Miniatures  .

Resin kits come with far fewer parts than a styrene kit. You sacrifice depth of detail, but for tabletop gaming, it represents well and is fairly durable.

We have the hull and tracks, and turret in resin; gun barrel and pintle machine gun in 3d print,  and hull mg and hatch in white metal. Six pieces in total. 

Recommended tools and materials:

1. ACC cement (thin) - quick bonding to anything, especially skin and tools ;-)

2. ACC Cement (thick) - great for uneven surfaces,  gives you time to get the positioning just so before it slowly dries.

3. A sanding stick .

4. A set of needle files

5. Squadron putty or equivalent.

6. The ubiquitous exacto knife.

7. A razor saw.

8. A set of pin vise drills and holder.

9. Paint and decals suited to your chosen prototype. 

10.  Good reference photos.

Closer inspection will reveal those places you will want to true up with sanding, filing, or cutting. In this case:

That gap between the hull and the track did not cast cleanly. We'll use the razor saw to clean it to a better depth. 

Big mold parting line on the transmission housing. That will take some sanding and filling.

Same story on the other side, plus we have some missing "duckbills", track extenders to spread the weight of this up-armored version on soft ground.

Out back:

The folding platform on the rear deck has broken off in shipping.  You'll also note the edges of the hull, dust guards, etc have some lumpy spots we'll smooth out and square up.

The turret is fairly clean.

Just a few mold parting lines on the mantlet to clean up. We'll also drill out all the lifting lugs on hull and turret to a consistent, round size.

First, lets take our razor saw and clean up the area between the track and hull.

Due to the size of the gap, I used a larger saw to clean up.

Use some ACC cement to reattach the stowage tray.

Use the sanding stick to smooth out the mold parting lines on the transmission cover, and some squadron putty to fill the low spots. When dry, sand smooth and add a coat of paint. Lightly hand sand the area with fine sand paper to reveal any remaining high or low spots. Looks like we're good. 

Next, let's address the short shot in the starboard tracks.

First, square up the opening to the nearest whole links. Cut a piece of thin sheet styrene long enough to close the gap, and notch it slightly at intervals to match the width of the track links. Use your ACC cement to glue it in place, even with the bottom of the track.

Next, use short lengths of styrene rod to form the raised edges of the duck bills, gluing in place with styrene cement (which gives you more time to position them).

When dry, use a file to smooth and match the contours of the adjacent track links.

Let's use some styrene strip to add the supports for the stowage tray.

Now, for cleaning. All molded items, resin kits in particular, use an oily mold release agent to ensure it can be cleanly removed from the mold. This needs to be removed to ensure paint adhesion. 

Mix a solution of hot water and dishwashing detergent and use a soft brush to scrub the entire model. Rinse thoroughly with hot water and set aside to dry.

I recommend using a good primer to prep your model before painting, particularly when using acrylic paints. I have had good luck with Army Painter spray primer, which is available in a wide range of colors.

Once thoroughly dry, you can paint with the finish of your choice. I went with Mr. Color Olive Drab acrylic as on my other US vehicles. It goes on semi-gloss to which decals adhere well.

From this point forward, finish as you would any other model. To see how I finished this particular Jumbo, read on...

First, some Armor Wash to darken the panel shadows. 

I was able to obtain some decent decals from Company B Miniatures for my chosen prototype, Cobra King from CCR, 4th Armored Division, the lead tank of the breakthrough into Bastogne. I wanted it as it would appear before the breakthrough, so it would not have the "First In Bastogne" lettering applied.

The decals are a single sheet of film, so close cutting is necessary. They went on easily and with application of some solvaset, snuggled down and lost much of their sheen.

Next, a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish will seal them in and prep the surface for oil based weathering. 

Had to work to find a lighting angle where I could see any trace of decal film. Success!

ME 101 a Modeling Primer - The Monogram 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Me109E - April 21, 2021

This is the Monogram kit originally produced in 1962.  It is simple in that it only contains 26 parts.  It makes a fine companion to the Monogram Spitfire Mk IX that I rehabbed for my step grandson in the blog post immediately previous to this.  My brainstorm is to make this build a Primer for young and new modelers just starting out in this wonderful hobby.  I hope to present what my brother, LittleBro and I consider essential tools and techniques for building replica (plastic) model kits of real and historic military and civilian aircraft, ships and other vehicles.  

We make no guarantees that what is presented here will result in the creation of great models, as too much relies on an individuals patience and physical abilities, but we have found these basics to serve us well in our producing satisfying models that we are proud to display.  Here is the afore mentioned Spitfire.

Another of the Classic Monogram kits, the TBF Avenger.

Whether you have a dedicated work space or use the kitchen table you need some basic equipment in order to assemble a plastic model kit.  The following is a list of things I have found necessary, the first of which is a work surface that you can't cut through.  It will preferably be a mat or board with both english and metric graduations.  Mine happens to be glass (a present from my wife).  I recommend not less than 12"x 18".  Crafting/modeling  mats are  readily available for about $10 and up on Amazon.  In fact most of your tools can be obtained from Amazon or eBay.  Brick and Mortar stores such as Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Home Depot and Harbor Freight are also good sources for obtaining tools and supplies.

The following is my list of essentials:

An Xacto knife;

A nipper for removing parts from the parts "Sprue" (tree);

A needle nose tweezers for holding those small parts for gluing and/or painting  There is nothing worse than getting glue or paint on the fingers and spreading it around;

Small "needle" files and fine grit sand paper (600 to 1000 grit);

You can buy these items individually but the most cost effective is to buy a kit containing the basics:

A basic Gundam tool kit is $9 on Amazon.  In addition I highly recommend masking tape.  My favorite is Tamiya.  It comes in various widths, but I find the 6MM the most versatile.  An individual dispenser is around $5 -$7 

Finally a Pin Vise Drill.

A set like this on Amazon is $13 and has a good assortment of bits.  You will find this an indispensable tool once you have it.  Later as we get into the kit construction we will discuss glue and paint and application techniques.  You can still get the old school "tube" of model cement, but we have come a long way from that as you will see.

April 23, 2021 - Kit arrival day!  As with all plastic model kits, the first thing to do is place the sprue(s) in warm soapy water to get rid of any trace of mold release oils.

The big parts can be cut from the sprue with the flat side of the nippers against the part.  Small parts should remain on the sprue until needed.  You can also paint small parts while on the sprue, but more on that later.

It is tempting to want to get out the glue and start putting parts together, but some preparation is needed to assure a good fit.  Look at the molded edges.  Sometimes they are not clean and flare out (especially in old kits such as this).  There are also the release pins where the parts are removed from the molds.  The yellow arrow points to one.  These on the edge/seam have to be shaved or sanded down so that the parts mate well without an open seam.

A good fit!  This process should be followed on all parts.  As you will see in the next photo there is "flash"  that needs to be carefully cut away with your xacto knife.

Since this is a Primer for model building I want this to be an OOB (Out Of the Box) build, meaning no extra parts or scratch building.  However; this does not mean that you can't add some detail if you think it is needed.  A close up of the box art shows an intake above the exhaust manifold.  Check out the close up of the actual part........

........The face of the intake is smooth without the :louvers" that show in the box art picture.  I will want to add this detail.  With a steady hand I can probably accomplish this with the tip of my xacto blade - We'll See😏

I have decided to use glue for the first time.  The decal sheet contains a simple instrument panel and the instructions call for not using the slide decal but rather cutting it out and gluing to the molded panel in the fuselage.  Not all kit instructions do this, assuming that the modeler of a more sophisticated kit will know this instinctively - HA!

After cutting the panel from the sheet I trim it as close to the edges as possible.  I use my small Swiss Army Knife.  This little guy is a great multi-purpose tool.

The first use of a glue.  Loctite is a brand of cyanoacrylate "super glue" which one needs for mating parts of unlike materials.  I am used to this brand and it is readily available even at your local grocery store.  There are many brands out there like Gorilla Glue brand, but Loctite has served me well over the years so I "Stick" with it (Yuk, Yuk, Yuk).

Well then, here you go.  A dab of the Loctite on the fuselage panel and I use my tweezers to put the instrument panel in place.  I am doing this now for ease of construction later.  Step 2 of the instruction sheet calls for cementing the fuselage halves together.  The instrument panel cut out and gluing doesn't come until step 11 at which point it will be tricky to get the panel properly in place.  A little forward planning will lead you to putting things in place to make assembly easier, so don't blindly follow the order of construction on the instruction sheet.

Well I have already broken my self imposed OOB rule by adding a small round pad to the Armor Plate (above the pilot).  I did the same thing in my Avenger build.  It made sense to have a pilot head support.  Also note that this sprue is molded in black so I may not paint portions of some of these pieces, such as the wheel tires, of course that depends on how neatly I paint the wheel hubs!  The pilots are molded with nice detail for such old kits.

Ok, let's talk about paint.  My little case zips up and can hold 30 of the small Testors bottles.  Since I don't have a dedicated work table for modeling, all my equipment is portable.  I just bought these brushes at Hobby Lobby.  I think the set was like $6.99, not bad.  It has all the sizes I need.  Note that brushes don't last.  No matter how much cleaning etc. they get gunky and lose their shape and have to be regularly replaced.  Same with the paints themselves.  Air will enter and thicken consistency and the paint will get gloppy and not flow properly.  You can add thinner but that is a very temporary fix and your colors will have to be replaced.  

I'm talking about enamel paint.  I still prefer enamel to acrylic in most cases, but I am getting used to using acrylics also.  For this Primer I am sticking to enamel, brush on and perhaps a spray can (we'll see).  Using an airbrush is beyond the scope of this discussion.

Here is my exception (there is always and exception) to the brush rule I stated above.  This is my go-to detail brush.  It is one I have trimmed down to about three or four strands.  It will hold very tiny drops of paint.  I use it for small, tight spaces and for figures.  I can put brass buttons on 1/72 figures with it.  I still have a fairly steady hand.  Of course a sharpened toothpick comes in handy occasionally, but that is a personal choice.  You will recall that early on I stated modeling requires patience and some physical abilities, but with practice and experience you will find your own techniques and I encourage you to share those as you discover them.

Fighter interiors were typically a dark gray.  I have added a few drips and drabs of black and red to simulate some cockpit detail you will find on newer, more detailed kits, but you don't get to see much through a closed canopy so I limit my time spent on fiddly stuff like this.  Next the fuselage halves are supposed be glued together, but I am going to delay this one more time in order to paint the pilot and install him first - again - to make construction easier later on.

The bottle of Testors flat gray is new, so it was fast mixing and flowed on well.  With any paint,  stirring before starting and during will keep the paint in good condition.  Also, when using a lot of one color, that takes time to complete, you will find that frequent brush cleaning in thinner will keep the brush supple and paint won't get gloppy.  Have plenty of paper towel at your disposal for the frequent stirring and brush cleaning.

Here is my definition of "gloppy" and this is an acrylic paint.  A good stirring and it's ready.

The acrylic color is "Ghost Gray" a light gray that is to be used on the landing gear struts.  Here is when it is a good idea to paint on the sprue.  I can fill in the wheel hubs and let capillary action work for me since the acrylic is a thin consistency.  Fortunately the wheels and struts are connected to the sprue where paint is not applied - you won't always get that lucky!

One more thing about brush cleaning.  I use a small Testors bottle because it travels in my paint kit, but it can get overburdened quickly.  Solids will settle, but I find that after a while the brushes are not getting clean enough, so I dump the little bottle in the toilet (and flush immediately) then attack  the inside of the bottle with Q-Tips (another good item to have on hand) to remove as much "sludge" from the bottle as possible.  I have a large bottle of thinner handy to refill my small one.

Glue #2 - thin cement - shown here with a P40 built last August.  This is the glue to use when cementing pieces where the seams are tight, like fuselage halves.  This is why you no longer have to use that old messy tube glue then put rubber bands all over the place to hold the halves together while the cement dries (which is actually shown in the old instructions).  Now capillary action works again.  While holding the pieces together you brush the thin cement along a seam and it is drawn into the seam and dries in less than 30 seconds - wonderful stuff.  it allows you to glue sections at a time instead of the whole thing at once.

I moved on to step 10 and put together the four piece prop.  I had to cut some length from the shaft (not mentioned in the instructions) but no problem.  I use the aforementioned thin cement except for small drop of Loctite placed in the hollow in the back of the prop for receiving the prop shaft.  Instructions say to put a drop of glue on the end of the shaft and carefully slide it through the shaft bearing but that seems  unnecessarily dangerous, in my opinion.  First coat of yellow has been applied to the Spinner.

Speaking of unnecessarily dangerous, in 1962 the Monogram folks would have you holding a knife over a flame in order to heat it sufficiently to melt plastic.  I understand that it does not take a great deal of heat to melt plastic, but the instruction for the 10-13 year olds most likely building this kit is to use knives and fire!  There is nothing about consulting your parents on this, as if we would have.  The reason for heating the knife is to melt the end of the wheel hub to "flare" it sufficiently to keep the wheel from falling off (I guess a small hub cap was considered too difficult to build - or more likely an extra molding cost - anyway I plowed ahead and followed the instructions despite the barbaric feeling it aroused.  Maybe I need a good bleeding the next time I get a cold!

It worked and I dabbed gray on the end to finish it off, and the spinner received it's second coat of yellow.  Now for a cautionary tale:

I consider myself an experienced modeler, one who knows how and why certain things are done and not done.  As embarrassing as this is I must send out the obvious reminder that when working with small things (or model parts in this case) around or over the kitchen sink, put a strainer in the drain in order that you don't LOSE YOUR CANOPY DOWN THE DRAIN AND INTO THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL!!  There, now I feel better.  So I went back to eBay and found another kit, which has doubled the cost of this build.  Actually I find that there are additional benefits with having a second kit, besides replacing the canopy.  I have extra wing cannons in case one breaks - yes I can still be that clumsy - and I will have a duplicate set of decals.  Remember that though they look good (no yellowing) we won't know what they will be like until they hit the water. 

Back to assembly.  With the painting of the wheels and strut and heating of the wheel hub (step 3 of the instructions) I jumped right to step 4 and laid the gear into the receiving lugs on the bottom wing and laid the port top half in place and proceeded to brush on the thin cement,  first along the leading edge, wait 30 seconds, then along the trailing edge, wait 30 seconds and finally the end of the wing, wait 30 seconds and done!  No rubber banding and waiting hours for the assembly to dry.  Now on to the pilot!

The pilot is painted in accordance with the kit instructions - brown cap, tan suit, black shoes and earphones, olive parachute and straps.  The goggle lens are supposed to be silver - Boring - I used Copper.  I am such a Rebel (not !)  Once dry, the pilot is attached to the armor plate.  I inserted the tab on the pilots back and glued it home using the Loctite gel.  Now I can go back to step 2 and glue together the fuselage halves.  Using the thin cement I held the halves together and brushed the cement along the seam from cockpit to tail, waited 30 seconds; repeated along the bottom from wing to tail; then underside from nose to wing and finally from the nose to the cockpit.  Again, no rubber bands needed and the fuselage is complete and dry in under 5 minutes.

Steps 7 and 8 are completed next.  The tail plane slides in easily into the vertical stabilizer and I touch it with thin cement.  I place the reinforcement struts into their receiving holes and touch with thin cement again.  The rudder has tabs that slip into the stabilizer and I hit it with the thin cement.  These parts are well thought out, fit well and are easy to install.

Now I must take another break from this OOB build.  As I said above I have no canopy right now and even though another kit is on the way I will still need a canopy if I want to build a second Me109.  I thought about the possibility of crafting one - a  DIY experiment.  I won't put the effort here but if interested in how it turns out look here!

Hoorah!  My second (and third) Monogram Me109 arrived yesterday.  I immediately added the canopy and the cannon to the starboard wing.  The canopy is applied using the third type of glue in my stash.  It is Testors Window Glue.  It looks opaque in the bottle, but dries clear.  It is called window glue because it will "skin" over an opening up to a quarter of an inch.  It works really well for sealing up those canopy seams and for filling seams along the wing/fuselage. 

 I now can put the starboard gear in place and close up the wing with thin cement.  I attached the wing assembly to the fuselage and it looks like an aeroplane!

"Masked and ready Sir".....

Note that I also ran a line of flat black enamel along all of the aileron/slat panel lines.  The Me109E-1 Is ready for the booth for the undercoat of the Testors light grey (spray can).

Turned out ok, I think.  Any gray in the panel lines was easily routed out with the tip of the xacto knife.

This is the reason I said I received the second (and third) kit.  There are two 109s in  this old box.  I did not ask the seller where these came from (a start of a build was attempted) but he nicely packaged up the parts that he had.  There is two of everything - almost - only the one canopy and only one set of wheels and wheel covers and only ONE gear strut (that will be a problem to solve when I build the second "DIY" Me109E-2 later).  

By the yellowed instructions and decals (two sets) this is actually and original 1962 kit!!  I'm pretty sure that these decals will not be usable (slide offs).  I may try one to see what happens.  the instrument panel will be used since it is simply cut out with the paper backing and glued into the fuselage (as already explained above).   However; since the marking are all straight lines it should be fairly easy to mask and paint the markings on the future DIY build.

Back to the Me109E-1 build.  I decided to test the decals, besides I want to get the underside dullcoated to protect both the light spray of gray and the decals.  The 20 year old decals took awhile to release from the paper backing but I was able to slide them off in one piece.  Fortunately they are not too large so I did not have the problem of breaking into pieces like I did with the Avenger.  A decal solvent such as Solveset is important for any decal application.  It allows you to move them into position and then it also softens them to adhere to surface details like panel lines and rivets and such.  Once the decals were placed I did not have much time to move them as they wanted to break apart when I did, so be warned about old decals.  Another good result of placing these at this point is that the Port side (to your right) position of the Balken Cross covers the hole for inserting the Pitot tube.  That would have been a problem as the tube was to be installed by now, according to the instructions - a detail not addressed back in the day.  Another reason to plan out your construction sequence and not blindly follow the order of assembly the instructions provide (particularly in these older kits).

See what I mean about the Pitot tube?  Both the decal and tube are in the correct location, decal should be placed first.

Now for some Camo experimentation.  This is to be a later Me109 E (a better time line for going up against the Spitfire Mk IX).  Instruction calls for a "Black Green" and a dark green.  RLM70, or Schwarztgrun is the Black Green.  I had a bottle of Model Master, but it was old.  It was thick and gloppy so I tried adding thinner.  It made the paint flow ok, but is would not adhere to the surface - it was a mess.  I think the added thinner dominated and was removing the paint as I brushed it on.  It was really bad so in the trash it went.  It is the grandson's birthday.  I am in a time crunch so I mixed my own combo of green and black.  It is more of an Olive-Black but close  enough to be acceptable.  I will finish the hand brushing after the spray dullcoat on the underside.

Both of the camo colors have been applied.  When brush painting it is important not to over brush as it will create a more uneven surface and streaks and another coat to cover them up.  I make sure I have enough paint on the brush for the small area I will be working in.  I apply paint in manageable sections, usually between panel lines.  I don't brush as much as "daub" - somewhere between stippling and brushing.  You have to get a feel for it.  It works best for me.  I know that I am going to spray a dullcoat finish, which not only seals the decals but takes the shine off and evens out the surface in general.  I enjoy painting with a brush!

Note that the canopy framing is now painted.  I mostly masked the canopy with my Tamiya tape, but it is a tedious process that achieves slightly better (in my opinion) results than if I paint them in by hand.  It depends on steadiness of hand and the type of brush.  

The decal applications are complete.  There was some breakup of a few, but all in all it went smooth for old decals.  Both the camo scheme and the decal placement is right from the kit instruction sheet in keeping with the Out Of the Box theme for this build.  I have covered the canopy so as not to get dullcoat on the clear plastic.  A final spray and this baby will be ready for my grandson and his battle with the Spitfire!

I took more time on this post as a modeling Primer for those that are new to this wonderful hobby.  I hope this has been informative as well as entertaining.  Now I will be attacking the remaining parts for the old "original" Me 109E and see what comes out of that DIY project!