Contact the club

[ Nine ME110 ] [ ME110C ] [ ME 110E ] [ ME 110C BoB ] [ ME110C Nightfighter ] [ ME Bf110G ] [ ME 110G ] [ ME 110G-4 ] [ ME110G-4 Nightfighter ]

ME110G-4 Nightfighter

The bold items in this document are the changes between this and the last G-4 write up, number 8.

This is again the 48th Bf110G from Revell-Monogram, but released under the ProModeller brand. This time the kit represents what could be considered the ultimate development of the 110, the G-4 Nightfighter.

So what do you get? There's the same clear sprue as the G-2 kit and then on five sprues of a darker plastic we have basically the same parts. Indeed three of the sprues appear (at first glance) to be identical to the G-2, there's an additional small sprue with two nicely detailed crew figures and there's a G-4 specific sprue containing the bigger rudders, the flame dampers, radar array, cockpit equipment and armament. This replaces the sprue with generally the same items for the G-2 kits. Clever stuff. As I said, the main sprues appear identical but if you look closely you'll notice that there are a couple of small fairings under the G-4 forward fuselage that aren't on the G-2 kit. I assume this means the moulds have been modified, I wonder if we'll see the G-4 reissued? I'm buying them when I can :-)

Included is a fairly small decal sheet for two aircraft, printed by ScaleMaster with sufficient stenciling and basic markings, neither set of markings being particularly exciting. However the two schemes are slightly unusual, neither being the fairly common overall RLM76 but instead one being a standard splinter pattern in the usual 74/75/76 (but with yellow wingtips) and the other being an unusual pattern of 74/75/76 with the underside of the right wing painted black (a fairly common practice, I understand).

The instruction sheet is one of the things that sets the ProModeller range apart, it being 24 pages of a more detailed nature with helpful notes and pictures of the actual aircraft. In this case I believe it's the one at Hendon. If not there are two a/c with incredibly similar squiggles.

This build was a little different to the others, and has taken much longer due to the use of various after market sets. I had the Aires detail set (4091) which includes engine, cockpit and armament parts and as I intended to make the G-4 from the Tally Ho sheet which used the Fug202 radar (incorrectly identified as Fug220 on the decal instruction sheet I think) I bought the Cutting Edge set CEC48208. This consists of a resin nose mount, four resin poles and 16 little brass dipole parts. The brass dipoles are pretty fine but still a little overscale but there was no way I was going to rebuild them, it was fiddly enough as it was. I also went with another Squadron canopy as having used a rather lovely resin cockpit it would have been a shame to hide it :-)

The Aires cockpit is a direct replacement for the kit parts so there were no real issues with that, just a lot more parts to fit together. As I've said, the kit cockpit isn't bad, but the Aires set is significantly nicer. The build of this went smoothly and the assembly was fitted in the fuselage in much the same way as the previous build. The use of the gun bay in the nose necessitates cutting the kit nose along the panel line, no real problem and I had a couple of spare ones if I messed up anyway as this nose is included in the G-2 kits too. Then the gun bay was inserted into the lower half and attached to the fuselage. I decided early on that I wouldn't be exposing both engines (there's only so much extra work I want to do) so I only cut up the right wing to accept the detail parts.

This consists mainly of the engine firewall and some etched parts for the structure in the wheel well. These all fitted well with minimal messing about and at this point the wings and tail were attached (having first dropped the elevators, the kit parts lend themselves to this treatment being reasonably easy to separate and reposition), the odd wing arrangement working fine and the tail needing only a little tweaking to overcome the usual tendency to sit at a rakish angle.

While the main build was progressing I also constructed some of the detail sub assemblies such as the rear guns, the engine and the radar array, all of which were almost models in their own right.

The gun and the engine were built as per the Aires instructions but the Cutting Edge radar as supplied didn't match the drawing with the decal sheet. The mounting poles were too short and they extended further than I required (I am aware that there was a LOT of variation in the radar arrays from looking at pictures, I just went with the info I had from the decal sheet). So the Cutting Edge poles were carefully removed, longer ones made from plastic rod and the unnecessary central bit removed.

These were then attached to the nose mount and all the little brass dipoles were attached with superglue, very carefully! The instructions helpfully inform you that if you're really crazy to be aware that the dipoles were braced with fine wire (just about visible in some pictures I have) and kind of challenging you to have a go. Well, that's how I took it anyway. So with some very fine wire and some more superglue I had a go.

While this was all going on the build of the main airframe continued to the point where paint was a good idea, all the major external features being fitted with various Aires bits used where appropriate (radiator fronts etc). Normally I would have masked and fitted the canopy for painting but here, with quite a few bits to stick out of the canopy (rear guns, Schrage Musik) and an intent to open up the canopy to show off the interior, I departed from my usual practice and just masked off the open cockpit. The scheme from the sheet was a fairly typical splinter of RLM 74/75 over 76 with some mottling in the three colours over tail, fuselage sides, nacelles and nose.

I preshaded the panel lines with black and used Xtracolor for the main colours, as I like the gloss finish for the decals. Once the main paint job was done I turned to the decals, which were interesting in having a slogan down the right fuselage side (that I have no hope of translating for you). These were applied, there was some silvering and some reluctance to conform to the extent that I actually resorted to home made self-adhesive masks for the upper wing and fuselage Balkankreuz and painted these. Which then pulled some paint off the upper wing and necessitated some additional painting, but such is life. Then with a coat of matt to seal it all in we're on the home straight. Aren't we?

The undercarriage was attached, and while I'm aware that the cognoscenti consider the rake of the main gear legs to be slightly out, and that it's an easy fix, unless you've got pictures of the aircraft from a certain angle or the real thing to compare it with I don't think you'll notice. So I didn't bother. Some of the aerials, boarding step, drop tanks and, after some exhaust staining, flame dampers were all added (along with any other bits I haven't mentioned :-). The "towel rail" aerials on the rear underside were added from small lengths of plastic rod and fine wire, the kit mountings having been lost during the construction process. At this point I figured there should be some reason for the engine being taken off so I went a little over the top with the staining on the wing where the engine wasn't, if it's burning THAT much oil there must be something wrong with it.

Moving to the cockpit the parts left out till now were forced into place. I say forced as it's all a bit tight in there, what with the Schrager Musik with ammo drums and the rear gun with feeds and shell chute. But it all sort of fitted and so to the canopy. As I said earlier, I would usually attach this before paint but I had cut the canopy into several parts and these had been masked and painted separately. Now holes were drilled for the oblique canons and the various parts attached, small blocks having been installed on the sill to assist in the process. Sounds easy, less easy to actually do, but the Squadron canopy does make a difference.

And with the canopy in place the upper aerial mount was attached, fine wire used to represent the aerials themselves and with the addition of the last few aerials and the radar array the a/c was finished. It's shown here with the various engine covers and mounts and exhausts scattered around, as though in the middle of an engine change. Whether the mounts would have been removed for an engine change I don't know, this was largely expediency as I was struggling to fit the engine to the mounts. Or the mounts to the firewall come to that, so this was an easy cop out, frankly. If anyone comes up with a 48th scale Luftwaffe engine dismounting crane, let me know.

And that's the lot.

Just to complete things, here are a few pictures of various assembly stages with the Eduard details.

Last updated 04 November 2007

[ Up ] [ Nine ME110 ] [ ME110C ] [ ME 110E ] [ ME 110C BoB ] [ ME110C Nightfighter ] [ ME Bf110G ] [ ME 110G ] [ ME 110G-4 ] [ ME110G-4 Nightfighter ]

Back to the top Back to last page