Couldn't hold off any longer for this, i was too worried i would miss out on getting one of the few they had in stock.

The Eduard 109s are supposed to be the cream of the crop in 1/48 and the Royal Class kit has all the jazzy bits, plus there is two...and the box is pretty. So let's start at the beginning, the box!






Hey? How cool is that, yeah yeah, red shiny cardboard big woop. But wait, there's more..the side of the box!





but still more...




two beautifully moulded 109s! and the detail is lovely..







I'll be able to sand off those rivets no problem at all, just watch me. But, there is STILL MORE. A superb instruction booklet with pages upon pages (SHINY PAGES!) of colour profiles..














and yet, still more..the pe kits, two lots of these






is that it? NO! THERE'S STILL MORE! Masking kit for the cockpits..






Surely that's it you say? NO! Enough decals to reinvade the low countries!





That's gotta be it right..RIGHT??

Nope.

There are these.







Phew. So what does one do when presented with all of this? Well, guess what? THERE IS STILL MORE!





...and aren't the purists going to hate me when i pour cold iced coffee in it. Maybe i might save it and crack a beer in it once i have finished, it does seem somewhat uncultured (even for me) to pour anything else than a decent ale in it.


Ok, that's it, except for some things i purchased to do the kits. I hunted down a bottle of this...




which does exactly what the Future branded product does, apparently. Basically a clear coat and something i have been trying to get my hands on for a while. I found a modeller on youtube who says it it works just like future and his work looks good so i'm putting my faith in him. Clear coating is still one of my struggles.



Vallejo paints. I decided i would give Vallejo a shot seeing as they do the complete RLM range and the model shop had a special on. I had issues with the primer but have since discovered it is more than likely because i mixed it with the Tamiya thinners. After much conversation with the guy at the shop i also grabbed a bottle of original windex, contains ammonia, and some distlled water which is what he swears by. I have read the windex can muck with your brush chrome work but i'm very finicky with keeping it spotless and water flushing it after every cup and then breaking it down after nearly every session..so we'll see how it goes. This is the initial haul plus i have added a few more colours in the last day and a flat finish as well as a weathering wash.







I'll split this post and get started with the build

Wow, that is very nice. I want one! The hardest part may be deciding on a paint scheme.

Okay, so i bang on quite a bit about my pictures, trying to get the right light, taking twenty just get one good one and still only being half happy, so i made this..









Yes, it's my amazing studio. It's flimsy, slightly annoying to set up..but it cost nothing and it does the job Since this pic i sacked that led lamp on the top and grabbed another $12 desk lamp and a decent globe to go with it. So hopefully i have enough lighting to present some better pictures, like the following. I'm doing the kits side by side, first up cockpits with pe added. My main tool now with pe is just a pin that i dip into the ca and apply onto the plastic then affix the pe part with tweezers.








Exhaust mounts. I started attacking this with my model knife but they are really brittle and developed a crack nearly instantly so i had to resort to a terrible cheap @ss saw that i had laying around for some old forgotten job. Seemed like overkill but worked fine.










A couple of days of painting and weathering and laying the three separate sheets of pe that make up each cockpit fascia. That T shaped pe that is ridiculously small that sits vertical out of the rh side of the panel, gave me no end of pain. I've decided to do the A and I paint jobs which is Werner Molders F1 and the F4 trop of Andreas Kuhn . I picked Werners as a classic 109 that had to be done and was very undecided on the second one so i let my daughter pick it. The F4 cockpit is bit dustier and dirtier than the F1 though the brown weathering doesn't come through in the shot very well.









The vallejo sprayed beautifully with the windex but that was with the RLM 66 which is dark, i'm a bit worried the blue tint may affect other colours, i need to do some testing. The yellow i probably didn't lay on enough coats, it's a bit see through but once it is tight up against the side of the pit it should be ok. The corner where the chip is you wont see as the instrument panel pushes up against it there. Tonight everything that goes in was glued in, tail wheel and fuselage guns and the fuselages were mated. Tight fit, both need some putty just in front of the cockpit and just to the rear. The fuselages don't have any locating lugs like most kits which made squaring them up while gluing a slight chore in both of those sections. I knew i had to kill some rivets, i'll try and keep it to a minimum.

Paint schemes..

There is TWO of them!

Amazing kit Ajay.

Prett cool huh they have a dual Tempest one as well.

That is some next level stuff right there.

Nice kit and project.

You are Modeler Extraordinaire !

Ha ha, i am avtually just bored s hitless and i find this is keeping me sane.

Ajay, do use magnifiers for building these magnificent models?

Since you have two Bf-109 F's you could make it into a Zwilling.

Bf 109Z "Zwilling"



Wheels

I'm imagining using one of those big frenel lenses....

Fantastic work Ajay. Eduard's kits are great. My wife bought me the Royal Class Spitfire edition a few years ago. Be very careful with that glass, I broke three just gently drying them before Eduard stopped sending me replacements!

The two i bought get minimum use. One is the magnifier with the alligator clips that is mildly useful but distorts wildly unless you are looking exactly in the middle and unmoving. I could probably sort that by getting a bigger better quality one. My father in law bought me one of those head set types with an led, complete rubbish, i didn't have the heart to tell him. Mostly i use two pairs of glasses, cheapo 20 dollar pairs. One is 1.00 and the other is 2.50, i don't want to take the risk of getting glue or paint on my expensive transistion pair.

I reckon the He111 zwilling would be a decent looking kit, i don't think i could hack these bad boys up though

Arrrrgh! Don't lay the curse on me Goon! Do you future your glass? I'm unsure at this stage about risking it.

Did all of the RLM02 spraying last night in prep for putting the wings together the flaps and other sticky on bits on. The wheel wells were a bit annoying, broken into three parts for each well for seemingly just because. Maybe it's a moulding thing.

Pre spray..







...post spray.






The F4 tropical version oil cooler is larger so requires the deeper cowl. There wa a choice of PE or moulded pieces for the intake and outlet grills in here, i went with the moulded as you simply cannot tell them apart once they are painted and tucked inside. Same with the wing radiator grills.






Sticky on bits. I was thinking of doing the F4 with the leading edge slats out and the F1 with the slats up for a cleaner wing look, it may not be correct for when the plane is parked up but it would be nice to see it in both styles side by side when displayed.

I meant the beer glass! I do Future my transparencies, although since the old formula stuff was idscontinued, and my only bottle thickened, forcing me to switch to the new stuff I've been getting mixed results. It was a great effect with the old stuff, but I'm moving towards dropping it as a technique. (Most of these floor polishes are their own solvent, so if it goes wrong it's easy enough to strip. Just soak it in more to soften and cleam up with a paper towel, and perfect with cotton buds.)

EDIT: This is making me want to box my current builds and get the other Spitfire out to complete the diorama I have planned for it. MUST. RESIST. TEMPTATION....

Lol ok! I'll use the glass once when i finish the build and then she becomes a cabinet queen.

Priming, preshading and getting some paint on. I definitely could not be an airbrush artist, my lines are like someone painting during an earthquake, but they'll do the job.






Two coats on one side v three coats on the other





Four on both, the light brightness is killing it but the effect is there. When i plop it into my studio™ and take some shots i'm hoping it shows up as i see it.








Lesson for me, don't ever do black preshading under yellow. 8 coats later. The pre shading is showing up through this possibly a bit too strong and i may have do another coat yet. Also pi ssed at myself for not painting the rudder yellow before gluing it on as well, extra taping required when it would have been a breeze.

Great job!