This is the old
Fujimi kit and it has been around for some time. It was a nice kit when it was
first released, and it still can be built into a reasonable replica of the
"Gustav"... but it isn't exactly an easy task and this one was a
bit of a struggle to finish. The whole thing started years ago, when my friend
and fellow modeler Joao Bertoldi acquired the kit... already started and
gathering dust in a friend of ours "unfinished projects" stack. He
thought it would be a perfect subject to practice his airbrushing, but it
quickly evolved into a boring exercise, thanks to Fujimi's desire to have all
possible late versions of the 109 in one single kit. By the time he finished
fixing the gaps and correcting the misalignments he had used up all his good
will and abandoned the model for several years. I knew about it and I kept
telling him to finish the thing... and last year he asked me to help him... I
allow him to convince to be a part of the whole nightmare.
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images below to see larger images
We started again and worked
during weekends for quite a long time sanding and filling and rescribing
and adding some photoetched seatbelts and other bits and pieces. We
decided to build the version flown by Alfred Grislawski (JG. 50) because
of its curious story... it was a foolish idea: a squadron to try and hunt
mosquitoes with 109s... they never manage to shoot down any "wooden
wonder" but Grislawski (being an ace) was capable enough to shoot down two
B-17s instead.
The final stage was the
tedious paintjob... and since my friend wasn't really enthusiastic about
the project I ended up doing all the painting. No German camo is easy, but this
one wasn't the worst of the lot... all grey: RLM 74, 75 & 76. I
used Gunze Mr. Color for the camo and the weathering was all done with oil paint
washes. In the end, after many troubles and tribulations, the model managed to
win a silver medal in the local IPMS Convention and a gold one in a previous
Model Convention.
Vidal A. A. Costa
& Joao F. Bertoldi
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