Sunday, July 10, 2011

Slow progress on the Eduard Bf 109

Now that I'm well into building this kit I can see it is inferior to the Cyber-hobby kit I built recently. Again we have proof that 'in box' reviews are an absolute waste of time. The kit parts on the sprues look ok even though they do have some flash and when you cut the main parts off and  'dry fit' them together all seems to be ok.

However, this is no substitute for actually gluing the parts together. In building the kit it is apparent that basic construction like the fuselage half join requires putty and the crucial fuselage to wing joint leaves much to be desired. It reminded me of how kits used to be 20 years ago but this kit was released in 2009!

Upshot is if you want a quality 109e-4 kit that is a pleasure to build buy the Cyber-hobby and leave the Eduard one on the shelf.

I may have to put this kit aside for a rainy day. Anyway I'm expecting the superb Tamiya P-51 to land on my doorstep this week. Now this is what scale modelling is all about.

I've taken on a commission to do some decals for the Mustang kit that will hold up my build of the Eduard 109. More on this later.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Not another Bf-109

Yes, I'm building another 109, this time by Eduard in 1/32nd scale while I wait for the arrival of Tamiya's P-51 Mustang. With the Spitfire releases I used my contact in Japan to get me one of the first kits off the production line (no it wasn't nicked from the factory!). I had to pay a premium together with postage to get it to me but it was worth the cost. I'm not really a fan of the Mustang so I didn't worry about getting the kit asap.

I've already started on the Bf-109 kit from Eduard and it's immediately obvious it's not 'Tamiya Spitfire' quality. Keep in mind this standard is as high as you can get and will soon be superseded by the Mustang. So is the kit 'bad'? No, it's a good kit basically if we assume that Tamiya kits don't exist.