hi guys, i'm a newbie here so be nice!! i've been modeling for a few years, had a year breack and just picked up my first kit again, its the academy BF109G-14 in 1/72, what a lovely little kit! i work in 1/72, any1 else had any experiances with this kit? and can any1 else recomend any good 1/72 kits of WW2 aircraft? my main passion is with the 109, but the spitfire is defo up there on my favourite list!!

James.

I've built that one (well actually two, since the only difference between the G-6 kit is the canopy and the tail). A nice kit indeed. Goes together well. No fit problems, just watch with for the main landing gear, as the rectangular locators don't set them nowhere as precisely as for example on Hasegawa's 1:48 scale Bf-109s. So when gluing them on be sure they settle at the correct stance. Trimming the locators a bit might also be needed. The separate tail assembly fits well to the rest of the fuselage along an actual panel, just be sure it sits straight, as I remember the locators weren't 100% tight with a little wiggling room.

Like almost every kit, there's room for more detailing. With this one mainly in the landing gear wells (which don't don't have full side walls and are devoid of details) and in the cockpit. But as you mentioned this as your first it in a while, you might want to take it easy and do a relaxing OOB build?

Perhaps the only thing I didn't like are the decals. Usual earlier type Academy's own stuff, they look deceptively nice on the sheet, thin and glossy with good printing quality. I've had nothing but trouble with them. The adhesive is weak, the decal film is stiff, they hardly respond to micro sol and micro set. On top of that, they are very prone to silvering, unless applied on a very high gloss surface. (I really appreciate them switching to Cartograph decals recently)
I'd recommend getting something better.
Or at least try some left-over decal on something else than the kit to see how the work out for you.

Let me think for while on recommendations for other 1:72 ww2 kits, there's quite a lot of those around.

Hi there, I build 1/72 scale almost exclusively. Thought I would give you a few suggestions.
Tamiya puts out a line of 72 scale aircraft that are really nice, I have both the FW-190A and 190D built from that line.

The decals are often the problem I have found. Academy has some great kits but the decals can be aweful at times. I have found sometimes you get away with them sometimes you don't. Rumor has it that Academy had tried to improve its decals on its later kits I'm not sure if they have gotten that far as of yet.

The Academy P-40E is nice and I found the decals manageable with some use of decal softening agent.

Revell of Germany has some nice kits and the decals seem to work pretty well from that line as well. I have the Gotha 229 flying wing fighter and the P-47M built from them and they came out nice.

If you have any more questions please write I'll be happy to try and help you.

Thanks, Russell

P.S. Tamiya has a Spitfire Mark V out that I'm dying to build you might be interested in as well.
Hope this helps you some.

hi guys thank you so much for your replys!! yes as its my first build for a few years it'll be an OOB lol!! i'm going to be doing the paint in a few days, finding time as you guys know is not always easy! the tamiya spit mk V is 1 i'm trying to get hold of at the mo, i would like the resin cockpit for it to, i used to always love adding resin details, be it a cockpit to just wheel wells, they really can bring a model to life! 1/72 being my choice of scale to work with, can any1 recomend a really good He111 model and any resin details for it please?
thanks guys
James

Hi there, again, try the Italeri kit of the He 111. I think it is the best buy for the money and is better than the one which is packaged by Revell of Germany. I don't use resin parts on my kits so I am not sure what to recommend.

You oughta get that Spitfire Mark V from Tamiya. It is a nice kit. Hope this helps you out. Russell

I looked at a couple of articles and according to them the Italeri kit quite old. Hasegawa recently (a few years ago) released a kit of their own, which is supposedly very good. Revell has reboxed the H-6 kit with a lot cheaper price tag, so keep your eyes open. Looks like this.
Unless the probably higher price of the newer is an absolute obstacle, I would probably get that.

Yep, I second Tamiya's kit of the mk.V spit. I've built the Revell kit and it isn't bad, but it lacks the gull wing shape under the fuselage portion of the wing and the canopy is moulded in one piece and has a sprue connector going over to the glass panel on the right side (the left side connector attaches only to the frame, I wonder who ruined the other side...).

James, you're probably more experienced that me, but I had a nightmare fitting an Aires resin cockpit into a Tamiya Spit (a Mk.I). Ended up sanding the fuselage inside to translucent thickness, yet still the resin (also sanded) spread the fuselage so much the wings didn't fit anymore... anyway, it was a nightmare. I will now only look for resin cockpit details that don't require as much surgery!

i must admit i've never had that problem with resin cockpits, maybe a faulty 1? i dont always like using resin details, as the budget doesn't really alow it at times! and in 1/72 i mainly use tamiya tape for my seat belts.

Yep, such is resin aftermarket stuff. Most of the time they offer significant improvement over kit parts, but can sometimes be a struggle to fit in.

The fit of resin cockpits might indeed vary from one sample to another. Moulds get worn when used, so a product from a fresh mould is likely to differ slightly from a one from last batches to castings from a mould before it's discarded. And of course, there is bound to be variation from one sample to another.

One thing I think might also affect resin cockpits' fit is how they're made. By that I mean if they're either made to be accurate to drawings and the real thing, or compromise to easily fit a certain kit. If a kit is made to conform to drawings on the outside, then the interior is most likely a bit smaller, because of the thickness of the plastic. Of course this might not be the case with all planes, as fuselage wall thicknesses differ. That combined with a resin cockpit made to confrom to measurements of the real thing is bound to require some TLC to fit in.
It also depends on how the kit itself is made. Sometimes you have to grind and sand off all the cockpit sidewall details if it's moulded in (like it seems to be on the Tamiya 1:72 spitfire Ben built). And because the resin set includes whole new sidewalls, you need to sand down either the fuselage halves, or the resin parts as well, as in this case happened.
I got a Hasegawa 1:48 scale Bf-109 G6 in my with an Aires cockpit for it, and that looks like it'll be an easy drop-fit, because the cockpit in the kit has separate sidewall panels that are glued into recesses in the fuselage halves, the resin set having parts replacing the styrene ones.
But it's always better to dryfit twice than assume anything about aftermarket parts' fit, same as with limited run kits. It doesn't hurt with any kit though, despite their quality.

i totaly agree with what you say there!
I built the 109G-6 with the aires cockpit and you wont be dissapointed, i had no fit problems with that 1!
James.