Tonys ICM 1/72 bf109 e-4 nighfighter

[yak face]

Heres my late entry to this GB , the ICM 1/72 bf109 e-4 nightfighter boxing. The bf109 was used in the night fighter role in various marks but this early experiment with an all dark colour was short lived , only a few being painted like this . The colour is something of a mystery , some sources say black , some say rlm 66 , from a black and white photo theres no way of telling so I’m going with black ( otherwise it wouldnt qualify for the GB!) as I feel this would be more likely than the dark grey.
The kit is simple enough , being almost a direct copy of the sublime Tamiya bf109 e tooling in layout and breakdown . Slight differences are the ICM kit has no locating pins and quite a bit of flash and seam lines to clean up , so it wont be a fuss free build like the Tamiya .
One thing thats a bit annoying is the early nightfighter 109s had a Peil Gerat IV direction finder under the rear fuselage in a perspex fairing , the kit doesnt supply this even though its depicted on the box artwork. This will have to be scratched .

[yak face]

Got a few hours in this morning and made good progress. The cockpit is nicely detailed just needing a careful paint job and some aftermarket Eduard belts . Once this was done the fuselage halves were test fitted - not fantastic !
the cockpit floor and rear bulkhead needed sanding down a bit to close the seam up plus the lack of locating pins and slight warping meant that it will have to be glued up a bit at a time. As I mentioned earlier , despite being a copy of the Tamiya kit the execution and quality is not the same ! However this is an early ICM offering , their more recent kits are up there with the best .

[flyjoe180]

Great work Tony. Despite the build challenges it’s coming along nicely

[yak face]

The main airframe has now been completed , a little fettling needed in places but not too bad. Now the missing parts can be sorted . The nightfighter had a slightly altered rudder and obviously the Piel Gerat iv installation. The rudder was sorted with some plastic card and rod but the direction finder was a little more tricky.
The clear bubble was made by crash moulding a former ( a small piece of wood sanded to shape) into a piece of clear acetate that had been softened over a candle. This was then cut to shape . The direction finder and antennae were made with a piece of aluminium tube and a bit of spare photo etch , suitably cut up.

[scottie3158]

Excellent work Tony.

[yak face]

The canopy treatment on this kit is identical to the Tamiya , ie. seperate windscreen and one piece rear and middle section. This means an open canopy isnt an option unless you seperate them . I wasnt going to bother but once I offered up the rear section it wasnt a great fit so faced with the option of fettling it anyway , decided to cut it . The rear section was glued on and the middle opening part will be added last off.
Now the airframe has had a coat of primer and a coat of nato black . After this I lightened the mix and sprayed tge centre of the panels and then highlighted the panel lines with a darker black . All this is very subtle and cant really be seen at the moment , hopefully the finished pics under a better light will show it .

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Another interesting variant of a classic fighter. This PIB GB is bringing out some really interesting models. Good luck with the scratch building of the viewfinder.

[Geoffers]

Looking good Tony, some great scratch building 👍

Geoff.

[yak face]

Couple of coats of Klear applied today , so tomorrow I can get the decals on .

[flyjoe180]

Excellent attention to detail Tony. That canopy fit is weird, but at least you'll be able to see into the cockpit now

[yak face]

Decals on tonight , had to source a swastika from the spares box as the kit didnt supply one . I thought the red wing walk lines were a dead cert to disappear once applied but they surprised me and are quite visible . Next job is to paint the wheel wells rlm 02 , paint the exhausts and then it can have a coat or two of matt varnish before the undercarriage and other final bits can be fitted .

[yak face]

Two coats of matt varnish , a bit of light exhaust staining later and the last bits have now been added . The clear cover for the Peil Gerat iv direction finder was glued on - tricky job but I had some handy false nail applicators , a tiny sucker on the end of a stick . This was used to grasp the slippery transparent cover . Finally I glued the now separated canopy , added a canopy stay from a toothbrush bristle and fitted the aerial and wires.
heres a couple of pics to round off the thread I’ll do some more proper completed ones tomorrow. Thanks to Ian for suggesting this and to all who've been watching , cheers tony

[flyjoe180]

The canopy and DF look great Tony, very nicely done. I will watch for the completed thread.

[Nicko]

Nice one Tony. Don't think I've seen a 'block' 109 before...

Nick