1/72 Heller Messerschmitt Me 108B

Gallery Article by Dylan Horton on June 11 2009

 

Hey everybody, this is my most recent build. This is Heller's 1/72 model of the Messerschmitt Me 108B, the four seat predecessor to the Me 109. Heller's kit came in markings either for either a liaison aircraft in the Afrika Corp, or in the service of the Bulgarian Air Force. However, the particular aircraft I modeled is a bit more historically interesting. D-IMTT was Willy Messerschmitt personal craft, and being that I would always prefer a civilian aircraft to a military one, I chose to model his aircraft. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The whole airplane was painted metallic aluminum, with the interior of the cockpit painted light grey, and the seats an ordinary shade of brown. In my first attempt at creating custom decals, I found them fairly easy to reverse engineer, and after assembling the fuselage and attaching the landing gear to the lower wing segment, I added the custom decals. The red bands on the swastikas were a bit small, so I had to touch them up with some red paint. Finally, I assembled the entire model, and covered it in a clear gloss coat. I didn't weather this model at all, as I have a soft spot for silver colored birds. 

Overall, a very satisfying build. Fairly simple, but you can find some very attractive paint schemes for this plane on the internet.

Dylan Horton

Photos and text © by Dylan Horton