So I am all snowed in working on a tamiya 109E4, and i fear i have run into the unthinkable, a fit issue on a tamiya kit! I am fitting the horizontal stabilizers which on the the E models are braced. However it appears that the tamiya braces are short and cause the tail planes to have a quite noticable downward angle. I dont think I have any good 109 plan views, but I have looked at tons of 109 pics over the years and never noticed the tail looking this way. Nor have I ever heard anyone mention this issue on this kit during my short time on this site. I also cant seem to find anything on search about it either. Did I miss something? In the meantime I have some pondering to do about how I might go about fixing this if thats whats needed.

What scale? I've done the 1/72 version several times and I seem to remember you could get the struts upside-down or back to front. But I thought it made it sit higher not lower. It was a while back though, I don't hae one in the stash to check sorry.
They are too buildable to be stashable

oops sorry, its 1/48. Its not possible to get these backwards they only fit on the proper side and there is an attachment point on the bottom side for the brace.

Interesting thread. I just picked this kit up. Haven't even had a chance to open it to take a look yet. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see if there is something I need to be aware of when I start working on this one.

Bob

Yep, the horizontal stabilizers should be mounted perpendicular to the fuselage. now I don't have firsthand experience with the kit, so I'm looking at the instructions online. If the braces indeed inhibit the stabilizers from aligning properly, I'd do the following. Firts fill in the locator holes in the stabilizers and cut off the locator pins from the braces, then glue just the stabilizers in place. When dry, attach the braces.

Mike

Yep, the stab struts are too short! I discovered this when building the E-3 version of this kit last year - and couldn't believe it either because (a) it's a Tamiya kit, and (b) I've read heaps of build reviews and none mention this problem at all... It's a difficult issue to get around because the unique shape of the struts (particularly the bottom) means that they're very difficult to extend or reshape without ruining their look.

The solution I came up with was to first glue on the tailplanes with a TINY amount of dihedral (about 1-2 degrees) to get around that anhedral problem you mention (never a good look). After that I painted and decalled the whole plane, because the struts just get in the way of that process when they're installed. When I did install the struts, I first cemented them to their lower attachment point on the fuselage, which is the more complex-shaped and visible of the two attachment points and therefore the one you need to get right, don't want to muck up with filler etc. I used five minute epoxy for this because the joining surfaces were already painted, and I also wanted the adjustment time that the epoxy would give me. When this was dry, I used white glue (Micro crystal-clear) to bridge the gap (which was only about 1-2mm on my kit) between the struts and the stabs. The good things about white glue are that you can build it up in layers until you are happy with the final thickness/look (don't try to get it right in one go), and also that you can thin it with water to get a really smooth final finish. After that, it was just a case of touching the glue up with the underside colour, and the stab/strut joins were finished! Of course, it would have been better if Tamiya had made the struts the right length to start with.

Hope this helps. I'm sure there are multiple possible solutions to this problem, but this one worked for me

And here's a couple of gratuitous shots of my finished model - an E-3 that accidentally landed in France in 1939…





cheers Brad

Thanks for the great tips guys, both are much better than the risky attempt I was contemplating. I did manage to find one reference to this problem in the gallery on hyperscale. Some guy who had a grudge against 109s but was building one for a local club competition mentioned that the struts came up short and he fabbed some new ones, not much elaboration though. I cant believe that was the only mention ive heard, gazillions of these things have been built.

I was kicking around cutting off the more complex shape of the bottom and gluing them in and then shaping new struts from styrene and trimming them to fit and keep the stabilizer level. This would take me forever because i know I dont possess the ability at this point to make a nice airfoil shaped strut that would pass my own scrutiny...and then repeat for the other side. The kit would languish for years. hopefully I can implement one or the other here soon and get this project moving and some final product pics up.

Very nice job on the french captured E-3 Brad, a real eye catcher and not an often done scheme.

There is solution which keeps the tailplanes at the correct angle and the lower strut attachment point where it should be on the fuselage. Simply cut each brace in the middle, test fit to determine how much length needs to be added, then glue some styrene stock into the gap. The airfoil of the rest of the brace is easy to match by trimming/sanding the styrene insert.

HTH;

Automaton

I got the tail assembly all together and i think i identified the issue. I think, at least in my case, that it is a mold error and may just appear in kits at random. While examining the horizontal stabilizers and their respective struts i noticed that there is a step in the seam along the edge that fits along the tail fin. When fit tight and level to the fin it left a gap along the top side. With out much thought about how this might be related to the problem, I filed away the step, not very much, to close up the gap a bit. This brought the strut holes closer and now the struts fit resonably. One fits perfect and the other is a tiny bit loose but will just take a little filler. I also have some filler work to do to pretty up the fit between the stabalizers and the fin. All in all its back on track and coming together nicely. Amazing how such a small error totally messed up the fit.