Start to Finish BuildsDiscuss Airfix 1/72 - BF-110C/D - febr. '41 - Oblt. Egmond Prinz Zur Lippe Weissenfeld. in the Modeling forums; Despite the fact that I’ve shelved my 1/48 CyberHobby BF-110D for the moment and started a different build already for ...
Despite the fact that I’ve shelved my 1/48 CyberHobby BF-110D for the moment and started a different build already for the FW-ME groupbuild, the idea of somehow doing an early ‘Dutch based’ NJG.1 nightfighter wasn’t quite shelved with the 1/48 BF-110D.
A few months ago I started on an Airfix BF-110C 1/72 kit, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it in terms of unit/colorscheme etc, so I put it aside, however by now I've settled on a nightfighter, so time to pick this one up again. To my mind, these Airfix kits are lovely little kits with lots and lots of possibilities to take into pretty much any direction you’d like, from Zerstorer, to JaBo to nightfighter and whatever is in between. Also depending on which variation of the kit you buy you can build either a ‘C’ ‘D’ or ‘E’ version that is pretty decent in outline at least. A bit simplified perhaps in certain areas (typical Airfix interior for example) but I’ve seen people turning it into wonderful builds nonetheless. An excellent kit with a very high value-for-money factor to it. With enough BF-110 already on the go in the ME-FW group build I’ll skip the general history and technical section of the a/c as enough can be found on the 110 by reading through the various builds. I’ll start with letting you guys in on the a/c I want to build.
Some of you might have heard/read about my fascination for the Leeuwarden nightfighters. This project too will cover an a/c flown by a pilot with very strong ties to the Leeuwarden nightfighters. Subject of choice for this build will be a BF-110C/D (G9+CM) flown by Egmond Prinz Zur Lippe-Weissenfeld during the night of 15-16 January 1941. The nightfighter nutters out there prolly know about him, but for those who don’t, he was of Austrian nobility, and among the first pilots to achieve success in the dunkelnachtjagd. He also was among the first crews to be based at Leeuwarden when it became operational as a base for nightfighters in the late summer/early fall of 1940. He went on to score some 50 victories until he was killed when he crashed his BF-110G in March 1944 over the Belgium Ardennes when he served as Geschwaderkommodore of NJG.5. Circumstances under which the accident took place were never quite clear, but presumably he ended up in a bad weather front (low clouds and a dense snowstorm) which caused ice to form on his BF-110 leading to Weissenfeld crashing his 110 into the hilly Ardennes terrain.
Lippe-Weissenfeld was among the first pilots to be parts of the NJG.1 detachment to be based on Leeuwarden AFB during the late summer/early fall of 1940 and as early as October 1940 he took command of what was then know as Sonderkommando/Dunkelnachtjagdkommando Schiphol, later to be renamed into Bergen (aan Zee) Having read up on this subject it seems Schiphol and later on Bergen aan Zee (as the Bergen aan Zee base became operational) served as some sort of outpost/satellite base for the Leeuwarden nightfighters of 4./NJG.1. With thee or four crews and a their a/c from Leeuwarden being based there. Not only was Lippe-Weissenfeld the commander of the Bergen aan Zee detachment, he also was the very first to score a kill while operating from Bergen aan Zee. This possibly also was his very first (nocturnal?) kill altogether (a Wellington P9286, KO-K of 115 Sqn on 16-17 november) The aircraft I want to do however was flown by Lippe-Weissenfeld on 15-16 January 1941. During this night he scored his second victory while flying a BF-110C or D, G9+CM. He shot down Whitley N1521, GE-J of 58th Sqn. The entire crew was KIA. The Whitley crashed near Callantsoog, The Netherlands.
I haven't been able to establish Werk.nr of G9+CM nor do I know if it was a 'C' or 'D' version of the 110 (both versions were based at Bergen aan Zee at various point is time). I did find multiple accounts that put him at the helm of many different planes (G9+CM, G9+EM and G9+KM being among them, and some others being mentioned only by werk.nr) Also during the first half of 1941 Lippe Weissenfeld crashed a bf-110 after a mid-air collision during a training mission with Rudolf Schoenert, and had an a/c damaged in combat in combat leading to an emergency landing. In short werk.nr of G9+CM is to be left in middle amidst all the different planes he flew during this time (unless maybe some of you guys know more about it), . The more I read about it (nachtjagd in general), the more I get the general impression that getting scoring crews into action was more important them letting them fly in what was perhaps officially ’their own’ plane all the time. Paired with the small size of the Bergen aan Zee detachment, I think it very likely that, depending on which a/c was combat ready or in maintenance, a crew on standby was assigned to fly whatever a/c was available.
The man himself
The kit
Owl-Decals set: This obviously covers a totally different plane at a totally different time ('42), but this makes it no less usable to do a BF-110 C/D G9+CM as it could have flown in early '41
A while ago I was able to cheaply buy a handful of these master turned-brass BF-109E gun barrel sets (including MG-FF and MF-17 barrels) I hope to use some of the MG-17 turned brass barrels to replace the Airfix kit parts to spice up the overall result a tad.
Last but not least...here's the kit as it sit on the workbench now. I started it some months ago (prior even to joining WW2AC) so some work has been done on it already. Work to be done now it cleaning up some of the joins and work toward installing the nose and nacelles. Also some extra panel-lines need to be scribed in. Airfix missed a few on the ailerons in particular. And some panel-lines appear to be a little soft compared to others, so these might need a little restoring.
Given it's overall RLM22 black colorscheme the real challenge with this build will most likely be turning the overall black scheme into something that looks 'natural' and 'interesting' if you know what I mean. The build in itself should be pretty staight forward (although I need to figure out a way to install the turned brass barrels in the nose) You'll notice I've settled on a 'C' variant. I don't know if this is correct or not, but I did it on purpose to make sure it stands out as being a different a/c compared to the 'D' version with Spanner anlage originally covered by the Owl-Decals sheet.
Yup, should be good. The profile on the Owl sheet is definitely a D model 110.
Definately a 'D' model on the profile, but it's a 'D' from '42. I think it highly unlikely the a/c Lippe-Weissenfeld flew in early '41 was the exact same plane as depicted on the profile. Unit renaming/reorganizing alone (4./NJG.1 of early '41 was renamed and became part of NJG.2 in late '41 and a new 4./NJG.1 was formed) makes it very unlikely this is the same machine, not to mention possible combat losses, or accidents. THis to my mind make it very probable that various other Bf-110 (incl. 'D' models, but maybe also 'C' or even 'E') carried the G9+CM fuselage code at one point or another, but I've simply found no pic's of G9+CM around early '41 (which likely is the a/c Lippe-Weissenfeld flew among others in early '41), so it's impossible to say if it's 'C', 'D' or maybe even 'E'. Long story short, does G9+CM exists around early '41? yeah, but no photographic evidence of around early '41 to make out what sub-type it was, therefore I settled on the 'C' for this build.
A minor update today. A few things have been done.
I focussed on the lower fuselage/wing area. Due to the fact that I will turn this into a nightfighter I decided to skip on the bomb rack parts (although looking through my 110 books makes it's pretty apparent that some BF-110 turned night fighter did still have these racks under the fuselage and under the wings, maybe due to a history as Zerstorers earlier on). This makes for some extra work. First, a few mountingholes for the fuselage bombrack part need to be filled and sanded smooth. Next step will be to scribe in some acces-panels and shellcasing ejector ports related to the MG-FF cannons.
I also cleaned up the joins and ran a bead of Mr. Surfacer 500 across them to fill up some remaining irregularities. I also want to look into the nose section for a bit, as I noticed Airfix missed the four acces panels to the MG-17 ammo storages in the nose. I feel this typical feature of the 110 is not to be left out, so some more minor scribing work in the near future.
Thanks guys! A little more work has been done on the 110
After most of of the major joins were (for the moment) sufficiently cleaned up there were some joins left that required some extra work. If anything, to my mind the tail section is the weak point of this kit in terms of fit. The joins of both the elevator piece and the tail section are only so-so. In my case some major gaps were left to be filled, and a bit of step existed between the tail section and the rest of the fuselage. Some trimming and a bit of filling and sanding took care of this.
Another area that required a little filling/sanding was the join between the lower wing part and the front lower fuselage. A fairly serious step in this area was mostly taken care of by trimming the insert area of the wings a tad. I couldn't remove it entirely by just trimming the area without having the upper wing parts rising too much, creating more work on the upper surface wingroots. What remained of this step was taken care fo by filling/sanding.
A last thing I did was to start some scribing work. For a start I scribed in place the access panel for the MG-FF cannon on the belly of the a/c. The panel lines airfix missed on the wings (ailerons in paticular) have been scribed in place as well. Looking through the excellent REVI-productions book on the BF-110 C, D and E (especially in terms of line/scale drawings) will probably put me on the right track of what more work needs to be done in terms of scribing.
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Originally Posted by Crimea_River 
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