When I replaced the engine in the Mustard, I couldn't bear to have it just lying around, I'm sure I heard it plead with me to let it fly again, so I showed mercy a purchased an ME109 kit from the Cambrian fun-fighter series, to be honest, I wanted the Mustang, but there were problems with supply, so an ME it was to be.
The construction is straight forward, it is a kit of the traditional style involving plenty of shaving, sanding and shaping. I started out trying to rush it, which was obvisouly not going to happen, the only real problems I had during the construction was cutting a little too much of the side panel away in the cockpit area without really thinking about how the canopy was to fit, but this was easily rectified.
Somehow, somewhere along the way the rudder, which is not operational, ended up being not quite in line so I decided to refit it but hinged and use a fixed control rod to set the position. This would also give me the benefit of being able to trim in any rudder that may be required at a later date.
To cover the model I decided to use the dope-and-brown-paper method I had heard about, well to cut a long story short it didn't work. I failed to get the paper wet enough so it didn't really stick, but worse than that, some of the dope got thru the wing veneer at melted the foam core in a few places, so now I had an uneven & squiggy wing, plus I had a stinking head from the dope, even tho I did it outside.
)
After
consulting with a few fellow fliers, they suggested using
PVA and brown paper, this already sounded better, plus
they didn't think the damage to the wing would be
anything to worry about at the end of the day. So, full
of encouragement I repeated the process using PVA watered
down, and made sure that the paper was well soaked before
applying. This time it was much better, the PVA solution
gripped better, and the edges were easy to work into
shape, the paper almost going like paper-mache.
Once dry, a bit of trimming and a light sanding it it looked better already. The squiggy areas of the wing were now not half so squiggy, guess the dope and PVA added some strength. Now before the paint could be applied, it had several coats of sanding sealer, each coat sanded whilst dry - I'm sure that stuff is worse than dope!
For a color scheme, I didn't want to pick the original scheme with the yellow nose as is so often seen, so I looked on the web for some ideas and came across a scale model site with a selection of ME109E & ME109F schemes. It had also been suggested that I go for a good scale representation, with the upcoming scale competition, at least it would be a bit of fun, I'm sure my scale details leave a lot to be desired!
As for the chosen scheme, well I still haven't decided between a desert scheme or a snow scheme, but I suspect that the snow scheme will be decidedly tricky to see in our skies!