Any
display shelve of vintage aircraft or in the case of this blog “WWII warplanes”
will never be complete without the “BF-109”. This was the first time I built a
Nazi warplane intentionally from a regular plastic model kit, although I admired
the design of some German “bombers” especially when I saw one that my cousin
made, German “fighters” however are shadowy subjects during my boyhood model
building days. I don’t know if there will ever be a time that I will cook up a
Focke Wulf or a Heinkel bomber model of substantial size, so for the meantime I’ve
tinkered with this “Hobby Boss” 1:72
scale Messerschmitt BF-109 (G-variant)
not for the “BF” to mean “Best Friends” for the more personally favored
models I had already featured; but to give the Mustangs, the Spitfires, the
Hurricanes and even the Zeros a run for their place in this blogpage.
Since
the model is a regular kit piece, the build is pretty much straight forward with
very few parts, the brand’s 1:72 scale single seat fighters are usually like child-play
to put together, it’s the painting process that will take days, weeks, or even
months depending on your prioritization of such project. I found an old “Badger”
bottle-feed airbrush I used during my
Architecture school days, rethro-emo sentimentality kicks-in so I decided
to use the paint spraying device for the BF-109 considering the fact
that its messy and preparationally time consuming because I have to clean the
bottle for each paint color and tune-up an old heavy air compressor, to use
regular painting brushes would have been much “simpler” but I also wanted to
achieve a prebuilt-like model surface finishes …and I don’t know if I did?, as
an unbiased comment on the final outcome of the model.
It is
nostalgically hearth-warming to work with my basic version airbrush again,
although I got it to use for my college days projects, utilizing it for this scale
model-kit build is actually like spending some pleasant time reminiscing the
good old days with a good old friend.
Also
known as the “ME-109” the BF-109 is the most numerous type of warplane that
Nazi Germany had ever produced; it dominated the European theater of war when
it first swarmed over the air forces of Germany ’s
subject countries. The 109s is considered one of the most advanced fighters at
the time of it’s fielding; feared even by the major “Allied” countries like
Britain, France, Russia and the US…which still employ considerable numbers of
outdated “biplanes” for their first response air defense strategy this
situation specially holds true for many of the minor European countries and
colonial states at the time the “Axis” started the Second World War (WW2) for
world domination.
The
BF-109’s compact and streamlined design made it an excellent high altitude
fighter-interceptor however it has undergone many upgrade and modification through
out the war, there are Bf-109 variants for ground attack, surveillance and
fighter bombers. In spite that Nazi-Germany have dabbled on fielding more
technologically advance warplanes and better allied fighters has been
introduced as the war progresses, the BF-109 remained a competitive Luftwaffe fighter up to the end of WW2 in Europe .
" 1:72 scale Hobbyboss Bf - 109 with a 1:100 scale unbranded diecast BF - 109. Note the Different shaped wingtips indicative of the BF 109's varied configuration. "
" found an old bottlefeed airbrush from my Architecture School days"
" Sizes comparison, 172 scale Bf 109 , 1:72 scale Hawker Hurricane, and 1:100 scale BF 109
PS Disclaimer : The scenes and objects depicted in this blog are mainly for the blog authors personnal opinion and artistic expression only and not meant to claim absolute authoritative presentation of actual events and people that are often the inspiration for the subjects or topics featured in this site.
