The Atom Furnace: My DIY of a Monogram Me109E

Well the 147th Kentucky Derby is in the rear view mirror (along with a few Mint Julips) and I'm back to the work table to continue my Monogram Classics journey. If you have been following this Blog you have seen the Modelers Primer using an Me 109E, 1999 retool of the Classic (and simple) Monogram kit. Embarrassing but interesting circumstances led to the purchase of a second Monogram kit from an eBay seller. But this was not the 1999 retool. It was an original 1962/1967 production kit

Here are the instructions and decal sheet. How yellowed and musty - a real find. The seller found it at an Estate Sale.. Of course 54+ year old decals are not usable and pretty much disintegrate when you put them in water and then try and slide them off. But still, a modelers collectors item as are the instructions. If you wish to peruse the Primer and understand why I am posting a second Monogram Me109E build click Here.

A brief recap on the 1962/67 original kit is that it contained almost two whole kits, both started in a different fashion. If you follow the post referenced above you know that I needed the canopy and a cannon to complete the Classic kit for my grandson.

Here is the DIY Canopy I thought I might need, but now I can use it for this DIY build. Oh, and how did this come about? A brief review of the canopy construction can be seen just below this post.

Here is the other part I need to complete this build - a gear strut. Of all the parts that came in the old kit box, only one port side strut. I found a piece of sprue that could be cut down, filed and sanded to create the starboard strut, but a wheel axle/hub was a twofold challenge. I had to snip off a sprue nub of the correct length for the axle and "fix" it to the strut at a 90 degree angle but also at a slight angle from the center line of the strut such that it folds correctly into the wing. After filing a flat spot on the end of the strut at the approximate correct angle, I took my small pin vise bit and drilled into both parts for insertion of a piece of wire reinforcement. I glued the axle to the strut with Loctite Gel.

The result is fairly good as the strut will lock in the wheels down position, but with wheels up it is sloppy and droops - oh well, it will be displayed wheels down so I'm ok with it.

I chose the fuselage halves that had a flat black painted interior. So I cut out the instrument panel from one of the old decal sheets (yep there were two of those also) and glued it to flat panel in the fuselage per the kit instructions. No need for sliding! a good call by the designer, but I went a step further and did this before step 2 (gluing the fuselage halves). It is easy to glue the panel in now instead of step 11 as called for. Much trickier getting the panel in the correct spot after the fuselage halves are cemented. The armor seat plate has also been installed.

Painted up the struts and the pilot and wheel hubs and added some "stuff" in the cockpit.

Adding a bit of paint for detail dresses up this very simple kit.

Pilot is in and fuselage buttoned up. I also added a "Stick". An extra cannon stood on end looked right to me! On to the Wings!

The wings have been closed up using the thin cement after laying in the gear. Note that the tail and rudder have been installed as well. An issue left for the tail is the absence of the support struts in the kit. Not a one was found, so we will have to stretch some sprue and make some (DIY 😉).

Back to my DIY canopy set with window glue along the sides and rear of the cockpit. That is the easy part. Molding the front into place will be interesting. Careful painting will be needed to make this canopy look decent.

The front of the canopy needed some very minor trimming with the xacto and my little Swiss Army knife scissors. I place a small drop of Loctite Gel and held down the front "wings" of the canopy, then I was able to fill in with window glue. A discovered benefit of using this thin styrene sheet is that is is more to scale then the kit molded canopy in terms of thickness resulting in a clearer view of the cockpit interior. Now I am glad of the additional detail I attempted in the cockpit.

The scribing of the canopy with the xacto when it was a flat piece of plastic really paid off, providing fold lines and allowing for surprisingly easy hand painting of the canopy frame. My tiny tip brush followed the scribed lines rather perfectly😜 Now back to the tail and doing some sprue stretching!

And from the Stretched Sprue Graveyard arose THE TAIL SUPPORTS!

BUoooah-ha-ha-ha!

I am, admittedly not very good at sprue stretching, so for me to produce two of relatively the same size is a coup for me.

Ghost gray acrylic is applied. It is thin and smooth. It takes two coats but is a good primer. The yellow rudder and engine cowling in yellow is an E-4 in similar markings to Hans Hahn. My decals will be similar but different (from my stash) but I will emulate the paint job.

I repainted the prop in accordance with the Hans Hahn E-4 I found online.

Gone are the black blades and yellow spinner. Instead I had to mix the gray/green for the blades, half of the spinner and the camo color.

I will try to reproduce this pattern, but without an air brush!

First I had to mix the pale blue 1939 undercoat. I had a half full bottle of flat white to which I added a few drops of the Testors Flat Sky Blue. I daubed it on but I did have to apply a second coat to even it out. The flaps are well molded so no wash was needed. I just worked the brush away from the "Flaps line" in both directions. The tail wheel tire is now painted also.

The camo experiment begins. Also note that I have added black to the cowl for intakes and machine guns. The guns I had to do carefully by hand. I was able to mask for the vents. As I blend the blue and camo into the gray I end up dry brushing/stippling. It almost destroys the brush (that's why you need a lot of them).

I works out fairly well so I continue and finish the entire plane.

Now comes the decals. This was an exercise in patience I was not sure I had. Screaming was not involved but it was close. The decals used were all from my stash. The older the decal the more fragile (that's not Italian) they were. The underside wing decals are more of a late WWI Balken which I tried to trim, with limited success - I had to do both black and white paint touch up.

A lot to explain here. I had no more Balken crosses that had outside black stripes. I tried masking and painting them in but almost destroyed the decal in the process. More touch up required. The white birds under the canopy are from the same sheet of WWI insignia. I had the mountain goats in the Monogram set, but they disintegrated pulling them from the water. The number 12 was a single decal that broke apart. I don't even recall now into how many pieces but I was able to get most of the pieces on the fuselage - right side up - but had to move them around quickly before they set - AHHHHH!

Thankfully the small crosses went on in one piece but started to fracture as I moved them into place - more touch up. The most excruciating was the simple (ha, ha) yellow line. Believe it or not it broke into 6 pieces all of which I somehow was able to corral and get into place - this is where the screaming almost happened!

Why, you ask, did I put myself through this torture? Frugality, stubbornness? Maybe, but I thought, heck, this is a DIY project so lets keep true to the cause!! I had to fill in some of both the 1 and the 2 with yellow on black, but I have painted on insignia before so I was not intimidated by that.

The port side "12" was worst, I had to paint about half of that one. But now I am at the end. I am waiting for a couple of swastikas for the tail from brother Bob and then I will dullcoat the whole thing - Whew!

Folks are always talking about panel lines - new vs old - the old kits were molded with raised lines and rivets etc. Take advantage of those! This kit was molded in a very dark green which is an advantage when trying to weather a model with raised panel lines. A simple easy sanding with 1000 grit will being out those lines and rivets and such. So don't despair if you have an old kit - adapt!

Added a little more weathering on the cowling with the Tamiya kit - guns exhaust etc. I also added the radio wire with monofilament I put a drop of Loctite on the tip of the tail set the end of the filament and let it dry. I wrap the filament around the tip of the antenna and clip on my tweezers to keep it taut, add Loctite and wait. Carefully snip off the tail of the monofilament and done. I decided not to get swastika decals from my brother or anywhere else. What was I thinking, lazy thoughts? This is a DIY, I will put my own Swastikas on the tail - I can do this!! I went further down the rabbit hole by outlining the top wing decals by hand.

And here you are! I still need to dullcoat (the yellow is too satiny), but other then that my Me109 E, DIY project is done. A bf 109 E-4 in the likeness of Hans Hahn in the battle of France.