As I mentioned, the kit had been started. The wings were glued together, the exhausts glued into the fuselage as was the nose radiator. There was no seat to be found, but one was gleaned from the spares bin. The cockpit floor had the rudder pedals broken off, but these were replaced with small strips of plastic on which some generic German pedals from a Reheat brass set were glued. From the Eduard fret, a floor plate was installed after the kit plate was scraped off. On the side walls, the kit trim wheel attachment point was removed and the brass trim wheels and chain were glued on. There was also a small instrument panel and other brass 'thingie' (I think for the O2 regulator), attached.

The main instrument panel had its detail sanded off and the Eduard one put in its place. The brass instrument panel was two parts with a small raised section. These were 'glued' together using Future. Once painted, a clear film with instruments was attached to the back (again using Future) and the back of this film painted white. Then it was attached to the kit panel, again using Future. If the part will have no stress on it, Future or clear paint will work quite well. It gives you time to fiddle with it before it dries and won't make the types of horrible mess that superglue will. If you need firm attachment, super glue or epoxy are still the best way.

Prior to all these brass bits being attached, all cockpit parts were painted RLM 66 as was the interior walls. Then when all was in place, some detail painting was done and the whole thing lightly dry-brushed with aluminum. Then the cockpit was glued to one side of the fuselage and left to dry. When I was sure that the fuselage would close properly, the oil cooler grille was painted black and the fuselage halves glued together. During this time, I was also reading up on various G-10s in the references, trying to find one that would match what was given in the kit and what I had decals for. No joy. However, I did find one with an extended tail wheel strut that would fill the bill nicely. Scrounging through the parts bin, I found a long strut, but no wheel (it had been used on the Otaki P-47D). I cut off the kit tail wheel and removed the molded on fork. Then I glued it in place in the long strut. A hole was drilled in the rear fuselage to accept the new strut. Now I finally had a plane to match both photos and a decal sheet!

When the fuselage was glued together, I also glued on the wings. The fit of this kit is really very good, making it one that even a relative beginner will do well with. Meanwhile, I had a few minutes on my hands, so removed the elevators from the horizontal stabilizers. It is an easy task to do and takes about 10 swipes on each side with a hobby knife to make the parts easily snap free. A bit of sanding on the edges and they were set aside until a little later. I've never seen a 109 on the ground with the elevators in the neutral position, so figured why not?

With the stabilizers and elevators glued on, I turned my attention to the canopy situation. If you recall, this kit came with no canopy. I pulled what looked like a good replacement from the spares box. It appears to have come from a Fujimi kit. It is also a tad narrower than the opening. Since I'll be displaying the canopy open, this won't be apparent. The windscreen, however, was not a very good fit and had lots of gaps. These were filled with super glue. Then the canopy was tacked down in the closed position with a touch of super glue and all was masked with Tamiya Tape. I must confess to you that the panel lines on the Fujimi canopy are not very crisply done and the clear parts are a bit thick as well. However, they are no worse than the original Revell parts and you can do the canopy open, which you can't with the Revell bits. Yes, I could have used a vac canopy, but if I have a choice, I'd rather not. With that done a hole was drilled where the rear wheel strut was to fit and the kit was off to the paint shop.

  I know that there are a lot of people out there who poo-poo the preponderance of Luftwaffe in general and the 109 or 190 in particular. However it is the wide variety of camouflage schemes that these planes carried that is much of the appeal. To me, the painting stage is exceeded in interest only by the research portion of kit building. With these late war planes, you have such a variety of schemes and colors. You also rarely have photographic reference which gives you some leeway with the color police.

On all my models, I first paint the underside color. In this case RLM 76 from the Aeromaster enamel line. Then the underside of the tail planes was masked off. The cockpit area was painted RLM 66 at this time as it would be seen from the inside. After allowing the paint time to cure, the uppersurface color of RLM 83 bright green was painted, also using Aeromaster enamels. The rudder was to be painted RLM 75 with RLM 82 mottling. This was done using Aeromaster enamel for the RLM 75 and Extracolor enamel for the RLM 82 mottling. Later it was masked off to prevent overspray.

Back at the rest of the airframe, RLM 81, again using an Aeromaster enamel was freehand painted on the upper surfaces. I can tell you that since switching from a Badger 150 to an Iwata Eclipse a little over a year ago, my Luftwaffe paint schemes have greatly improved. It also helps that I thin the paint a bit more than usual and spray at a rather low pressure.

I now had all the major colors on it with quite a bit of overspray onto the previous RLM 76. After letting all that cure, the wing roots were carefully masked off, again with Tamiya tape (try it, you'll like it). Then the sides and overspray were carefully done with more RLM 76. I now had the basic camouflage scheme on the plane in five colors!

With that done, the main gear was attached after being painted RLM 02 grey and having the oleo section wrapped with Bare Metal Foil. The tail strut and wheel were then glued in place and left to dry. Next painting step was to do the very light mottling applied to the this aircraft in RLM 83. After that paint had dried I mixed up a batch of Aeromaster Italian grey and sprayed over where the German markings would have been on the wings, fuselage and tail. A bit of additional touchup was needed as I missed the RLM 76 on the bottom of the rudder. Then clear acrylic gloss (Future) was sprayed full strength in light coats to give a sheen needed for the decals.

I chose Aeromaster 48-007, Italian Bf-109s, for the decals to be used on this kit. I had already used one of the subjects from this 1992 sheet on an AMT Bf-109G-4, but had not used any of the RSI markings that were given. With at least 5 ANR subjects on the sheet, I could do a G-6, G-10 or a K-4. The sheet supplies all of the markings needed, but none of the stencil ones. The first thing I did was to apply all the Aeromaster decals. I had no real problem until it came to the nose spiral. It seems that 10 years is too much for this sheet as the spiral broke into about six large segments. Throwing caution to the wind, I pieced together a rather convincing spiral from the bits. A touch of Solvaset on all these markings made sure they wouldn't be going anywhere! When dry, the model was wiped down with clear water to remove any excess solvent and the control surfaces were highlighted with a Rapidograph pen. Then the entire model was given a coat of matte clear to seal in the decals.