Hi Neil

Nice job! It looks great with the new decals.

All the best

Rowan

Great review build Neil, and I love the finished article. That set of markings is striking, and the paint job is very well done. Now that I've finished my first 109, I might have to have a go at the quarterscale Otaki "G" that I have in the stash. The only thing scaring me off is that there is only one set of markings (and I really like them) but it will involve mottling. Never done mottling, scary stuff

..thank you guys. The kit decals were just a little bland and limited to BoB subjects. I hesitated over greens vs. greys for the camo, and then there's the 'old' III./SKG 210 vs. ZG1 or E-4/B vs. E-7 argument. All in all this build/finish is a bit of a 'dogs dinner'. Bit like the kit itself I suppose - and it looked so good in the box !

@ Damian - achieving a mottle finish is really straight forward - the difficult bit is doing it at the same time as trying to follow your reference image !

Thanks for the very useful review Neil. I've turned up late to this party, having only just bought one of these and started it almost immediately. I like the kit, though my tendancy is not to compare it to the Tamiya kit, as i've always prefered the Hasegawa versions.

I was not at all happy with the clear parts on the Airfix kit- the only serious problem in my opinion. I don't like the oversized frames. I also don't like reworking canopies either- mainly because i always make a disaster out of them. But here is my solution:



This is a test fit of the Hasegawa clear parts. They fit almost perfectly, only being slightly too wide at the front bottom part of the windshield piece- which i'm confident to sand down and polish- or i could just use the kit part for the windshield.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that anyone should go out and buy a Hasegawa kit just for the clear parts, but many of us have built the Hasegawa kits and have spare sets of clear parts anyway- as they usually come with both E-3 and E-4/7 parts in the same kit (but not always, it depends on the kit). I'm planning on finishing this one as a tropical aircraft.

Hopefully Airfix will tool a new clear sprue for the next production run- afterall both Tamiya and Hasegawa made two attempts for their Emils, if Airfix do the same they will end up with clearly the prefered kit in my opinion.

Andrew

..thanks for tip Andrew! ..unfortunately digging out a Hase 109 will mean venturing deep into the stash...

There are a set of 109E canopies in Zvezda's 109F-2, and they fit Airfix very well.

Sergey.

..thank you for that tip too Segey ...I haven't opened my Zvezda 109 boxing yet, but at least I haven't got so far to dig to get to it..

I finished this one a couple of days ago.

It's a very easy model to put together...big locating pins and almost snap fit like Neil mentions. I even managed to get the leading edge gun inserts fitted without filler...i just used LOTS of solvent and simply pushed then in hard until the soft platic oozed out. When they set, just sand- no filler.

I swapped the canopy with a spare Hasegawa item, i think if Airfix only ever address one thing with this kit then it should be the clear parts.
I also shortened the gear legs by removing the section between the the two middle "collars", the gear then seems to sit at about the correct spacing.

I also swapped the wheels with a pair set of HobbyCraft wheels that i had (believe it or not the HobbyCraft/Accademy Bf109 wheels are the best in 48 scale!).

I left the prop alone and i don't think that in the end it is all that noticeable.

The only extra thing that i noticed, and that i'll address in the next build is the upper fuselage profile aft of the cockpit. I think the upper corners on the spine are too sharp with a flat spot on top- very similar to ICM's 1/48 Bf109F series. It should be more egg shaped i believe. If anyone agrees then the good thing is that it's a very easy fix, just over engrave the effected panel lines and sand down the corners of the spine. The plastic is very thick, so i see no problems in getting the more rounded shape.

I think overall though it's a good effort by Airfix and i will probably buy more at the cheap price they sell for. I still like the Hasegawa kits better though, especially the cheap Revell boxing.

Gunze paints. Revell decals from their Hasegawa boxing, i believe it was an early Marseille aircraft.



Andrew

.. very nice work indeed Andrew (as usual!).. looks very sharp !

I'm surprised we haven't seen more of these to be honest..