Bf 109F-2 Hans-Ekkehard Bob

Steffen Arndt autor
Sooo, here is one of my hangar queens that I want to finish now. Originally I had planned to do this as Mölders' Bf109F-1. Back then the only option I found was Southern Expo Decal Sheet 48-002 "Hornchurch vs. Luftwaffe". I did not know about the early seat and just started building. Planning to leave one side of the engine open to show the included engine.. which I thought was not so bad.

Steffen Arndt autor
I am not sure when I really started this build, so I took the date from the picture files, which might well be after copying these to another computer...

Steffen Arndt autor
When I finally could get the decals I applied them just to notice that these were considerably to large. This sealed the project and approved a longer stay in the shelf of shame.

Steffen Arndt autor
When Eduard released their Bf 109F Royal class this box included Mölders F-1 and they also released a seat for the Bf 109F-1 so theoretically this project was free for another camo. Still I was not in the mood for refurbishing this Bf 109F-2. I did not like the fuselage shape aft of the cockpit and I have enough other fresh kits in the stash.

Steffen Arndt autor
At the moment I am a bit in a stall on my other projects so I took my bottle of Revell Paint Remover and started to work on this kit again. I chose a simple camo from that Royal Class and found Heinz-Ekkehard Bobs white camouflaged "yellow 9" to be the perfect candidate.

Steffen Arndt autor
As you can see in pic 8 I lost the separate cowling over the past years so I replaced it with a spare part from a Hasegawa kit. Fit is very good, but I still need to fill some gaps

Steffen Arndt autor
Yesterday I painted the eastern front recognition band, wingtips and cowling in yellow RLM04 (Gunze). Today I masked those areas and painted the underside RLM76 and the fuselage RLM71. The white washable color is rather densely mottled than a full coat on the picture in "Ace Profiles 1". Still I refrained from putting on a 2nd green as I plan to keep a lot of white.

Steffen Arndt autor
BTW The a/c probably had the circular cutout for the wheels but I am not sure (the kit has the angled cutout)

Steffen Arndt autor
I have experimented a bit with different methods to show the slightly worn winter camo. (the picture from Ace Profiles 1 shows a very worn paint job, but I prefer it a little less wrecked). The Eduard decals from the Royal class worked very well and I used Balkenkreuze from an old Aeromaster sheet. Some more weathering next...

Neil Page
Hi Steffen, nice work ...I've a few of these ICM 109s in the stash but never built one! ..mach's gut!

Steffen Arndt autor
Cheers Neil! Well I have a few too, but I will probably not build more of them. The Zvezda is in many aspects superior (have a few of those too, which I plan to build) and personally I prefer the easy to build Eduard Bf 109F/G.

This is just a project that I want to rescue and use for some little experiments. Turns out not so bad, though

Holger Kranich
I like the ICM 109´s. Easy to build and good details.

Steffen Arndt autor
Hello Holger, I do not like the shape oof the rear fuselage .. to "boxy" for my personal taste. I tried to brake this on my model with heavy sanding but sadly it turned out slightly unsymmetrical

Steffen Arndt autor
As always I get kind of slow towards the end. Sometimes it is great to have a large spares box (actually several). The antenna mast got lost over the years, so I replaced it with one from the Eduard kit. Likewise I used the wheels as I like them better than the ICM. Rebuilding the aft antenna mount was a bit tricky. I used a bit of copper wire sanded flat and shaped a little. Hope this keeps stuck on the model

Steffen Arndt autor
Another interesting feature of this marking is the propeller spinner with fields in yellow, white and RLM 71. A bit of a PITA to mask but looks cool once finished. just a few bits to add as balance weights and pitot

Steffen Arndt autor
Now this crate is finally done. Turned out quite good for such an old project...

Wim van der Luijt
It looks a lot better then "quite good" to my eyes, very colourful combo of the white with all the yellow and the different emblems.....

Steffen Arndt autor
Thank you Wim and James, much appreciated!

Holger Kranich
Very nice indeed! The spinner Looks goood!😉

Steffen Arndt autor
Danke Holger! Another one rescued from the shelf of shame ... maybe time to grab another one of those... I have plenty