Hi All,

I have been modeling tanks since getting back into the hobby, but I just picked up the Zvezda 1/48 BF-109 F-2. I've done some dry fitting of parts and it appears to be amazingly well engineered, but I have a question. I've read that if you want to display the airplane with the engine cowls closed, that you need to leave the engine out, as the cowls don't fit right otherwise. I've also read that to do that, you need to figure out a way to mount the individual exhausts in some way, maybe on a piece of sheet plastic. Being that I'm just getting back into planes, and, honestly, my scratch building or modification skills are at about zero, can anyone help me with this? Has anyone done this with this kit? What would be the best way to go about mounting these exhausts? PLEASE HELP!!!

One way to do it is to replace them with aftermarket exhausts. These are made for the Hasegawa kit, but they'll likely fit the Zvezda without much trouble. You may wish to glue a scrap of plastic card across the back of the exhaust opening so they don't fall through into the inside when you try to fit them in place.

If you want to use the kit exhaust pipes, how about measuring the mounting holes on the kit engine block, and then transferring the measurements to a piece of plastic card. Glue the exhausts in place, trim the card down and glue it in place. You can glue it in from the inside before closing the model's fuselage halves, or from the outside, once again having first glued in a backing plate to prevent them from falling inside.