Hermann Graf's 1944 Bf 109G-6 w/ Erla canopy | Eduard

The red spiral spinner of Friedrich Eberle's plane really caught my eye, but I would prefer to do a standard 109 with no gunpods. The two options I've narrowed it down to are Hermann Graf's and Franz Dörr's -- coincidentally also two of the Luftwaffe's highest-scoring aces. 

Here is Dörr's.  

This'll be something of a nightmare, as far as paint-build-PE order goes, but perfectly doable.

Good news is I decided on Graf's plane. A 109 entirely covered in RLM76 seemed pretty unique to me, something fitting for a Profipack build.  

Cockpit painted, varnished, and weathered. Maybe should've gone for a darker oil pinwash, but it is what it is. 

 

Cockpit seat itself. Fuel gauge tube was a massive pain. 

 

Absolute nightmare putting the cockpit together and gluing the fuselage together -- always seems to be a point of issue for me. Lots of puttying and careful sanding will be required. Issue was worsened by my usage of some liquid CA glue, which leaked and pooled at various points around the rear of the cockpit and by the wing roots. Needed lots of filing and sanding -- and my hand needed lots of acetone to get that glue off, too. 

Ready for priming and painting. 

Primed and ready for marbling. 

Went with a simpler marbling technique compared to my first time (Hasegawa A6M2a from last year). 

Painted and ready for varnishing. The radio loop was being finnicky and annoying, so I removed it and will re-attach it at the end of the build. 

A better in-focus photo. 

 

Not very pleased with the final result. The gap in the fuselage which caused me so much pain early in the build caused a problem with the fitting of the forward half of the canopy, and the liquid mask I used on the inside of the canopy kind of failed spectacularly. The smaller part of the aerial wire also chose not to cooperate with me, and looks especially bad.