Best 1/72 kits again.......

[Seamus]

Ok, the FW 190 I've just finished has unlocked a door and now I'm eager to add some Luftwaffe kits to the stash. I've been searching around on ebay, but don't want to make a purchase until I'm sure what the kits are like. So, I need advice on what kit I should get for the following:

FW 190 D-9- Spotted an Italeri, but was a bit cautious of it, being Italeri

Me-109E- I'll probably be investing in Airfix's new 109G as it looked quite nice, but what about an E?

Me 262- I've built the Revell kit, which I seem to remember being quite nice, are there any better alternatives?

Me 410- Spotted finemolds kits on ebay, but they seem really expensive for a 1/72 kit, so would like to know what the Revell and Italeri alternatives are like.

He-177- I'm guessing the Revell kit is the only game in town....

He-219- Was very close to buying a Dragon kit at Telford, but £16.50 seemed a bit steep. Is it worth it though?

He-111- A few options here I believe

Ju-88- As above

Ju-87- Built Revell in the past, but seem to remember it being a bit lacking in detail

Dornier Do 335- As with the Me 262, I remember the Revell kit being quite nice, but want to keep my options open

I think that'll do for now I'm also quite keen to build in as many different interesting schemes as possible, to add some nice variety to the collection, as well as challenging my airbrushing skills

Thanks in advance for any input

Cheers

Shaun

[The wooksta V2.0]

Fw 190D-9

Cheapness - Hobbyboss

Detail - Tamiya (wing is for a D-13 and has ejection port for engine mounted cannon)

Bf 109E

Tamiya (can't swear to this though)

Me 262

Hasegawa for overall shape and sit

Revell for price and detail (the sit is all to cock though and the canopy is all to buggery with flash)

Me 410

Italeri for price

Finemoulds for Detail. Try and get the Eduard Profipack release with extra resin.

He 177

Revell. The Airfix kit is best left for collectors but still an enjoyable build and is a kit I still have a fondness for.

He 219

Dragon for detail but the fit is attrocious. The old Revell kit had anice outline but lacked detail and was rivetty. Cooper Details did a resin set for it.

He 111 (dependent on variant)

Hasegawa for detail the P and H variants

Italeri for the Zwilling and H-22 V-1 carrier, although it is cheaper than the Hasegawa kit and still a neat kit for it's age.

Roden for the early versions but the fit is apparently terrible.

Ju 88

The Hasegawa kits are by far and away the best. Italeri or Zvezda are cheaper options, although the former has u/c nacelles that are way too shallow and the latter's tail is small. Both do build into nice kits from the box, the latter coming with crew figures.

Ju 188

Italeri or Bilek reboxing.

Ju 87

Fujimi or Italeri. The Academy Ju 87G is superb.

Do 335

Dragon but again, attrocious fit.

Hope that's of some use.

[AnonymousFO98]

Hi Shaun and Wooksta

He 111 (dependent on variant)

Hasegawa for detail the P and H variants

might be wrong but is the Revell He111 a reboxing of the Hasegawa kit? if so will be a tad cheaper.

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

For the Bf-109E, apparently the Tamiya one is a little inaccurate in the length of the rear fuselage. Nothing drastic, you understand, but the ICM kit is based on the Tamiya one, with this inaccuracy corrected. I have an ICM which I haven't built, but I don't have the Tamiya one to compare it to. The ICM looks very nice on the sprues, although the plastic is a little softer than Tamiya usually use, and the decals have very noticeable carrier film. Not sure how they'd look on the model, or if you'd be better off replacing them.

Review here: http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/axis/luft/mills109e.htm

[Jazzy Jase]

I would recommend the following:

FW 190 D-9 - Tamiya

Me-109E - Tamiya

Me 262 - Revell

Me 410 - Finemolds!

He-111 - Hasegawa or cheaper Revell re-boxing

Ju-88- Hasegawa

[John]

Hi Shaun and Wooksta

might be wrong but is the Revell He111 a reboxing of the Hasegawa kit? if so will be a tad cheaper.

Some of the older Revell boxings may be the FROG kit, so beware! The Italeri kit also appeared in Revell branded boxes but that was a long time ago.

I still like the Airfix Series 3 Stuka. Some of the more modern kits go for smooth skins and recessed panel lines and I'm afraid that just dosn't say "Stuka" to me.

John

[AnonymousA667]

Some of the older Revell boxings may be the FROG kit, so beware! The Italeri kit also appeared in Revell branded boxes but that was a long time ago.

This is the box to look for if you want cheap Hasegawa:

I still like the Airfix Series 3 Stuka. Some of the more modern kits go for smooth skins and recessed panel lines and I'm afraid that just dosn't say "Stuka" to me.

Absolutely and really a very satisfactory kit in consideration of its age. Even the 'simplified' Series 2 issue is worth considering.

peebeep

[Test Graham]

Just a few qualifications.

Me 262: Hasegawa has undersized nacelles appropriate for early prototypes (perhaps) only. X-kitting used to be done with Matchbox nacelles - perhaps Revell is a better choice nowadays.

Ju 87: Fujimi is the best. The Academy D is noticably shorter than others: although there doesn't seem to be any good reason why a D should be significantly longer than a B, that's what the references say. Other criticisms have been passed. Not a lot wrong with Italaeri or Airfix, I haven't seen the Academy B.

Me 410: Fine Molds should be the best, though I've recently seen criticism of this for its shape I can't comment personally. It might be worth chasing up on other modelling sites and finding what was said. The other 410s are fairly uninspired, with the Matchbox perhaps the best of an aged bunch.

He 111: Italaeri is a good 2nd best if you don't mind raised detail.

Ju 188: Italaeri, but this has a number of problems with the engines, wing angle on the fuselage, fuselage section shape, and wingtips (too flat). There are a lot of conversion kits available from AIMS to improve or convert most but not all of this, or just about any other Ju 88 kit (the Hasegawa doesn't need the corrections)

Do 335: Dragon. Revell was ex-Frog, thick and clumsy.

[dad's lad]

Revell have boxed two versions of the Do 335 - one (the two seater) was I believe the old Frog moulds (also released under the Matchbox label).

The later single seater may or may not be the Dragon kit but is very detailed.

Clive

Edited December 22, 2008 by dad's lad

[AnonymousA667]

Do 335: Dragon. Revell was ex-Frog, thick and clumsy.

Beg to differ, but the Revell single seat edition is definitely Dragon tooling.

There is a review/build article of the Finemolds 410 in a recent issue of SAMI, where resin nacelles were used to correct the incorrect kit items - amongst other things. In view of the cost of these kits I think I'd rather muck about with an Italeri or old Matchbox 410.

peebeep

[Test Graham]

Thanks for the info, mine were indeed two-seaters. So the recommendation is

Dragon: the singleseater can come in a Revell box.

[Cornish]

ME109E - The Academy kit is very nice in 1/72 from first hand experience.

[AnonymousFO98]

apologies to Shaun and Wooksta for forgetting about the earlier Revell He111 kits. thanks to John for pointing out and to Peebeep for posting the boxart of the was the one to which i was referring

looks good in the box- hopefully better still when finally out.

[Seamus]

Thanks for the replies guys, plenty to mull over there

[Stebos]

Handy tip on that Revell 111, I'd been looking for a cheaper Hasegawa with little success, the Revell will do fine!

[lasermonkey]

Fw 190 D-9.

The Hobby Boss kit isn't too shabby at all, You only get one canopy option though, IIRC.

The Academy kit is clearly based heavily on the newer Hasegawa kit, but with some (supposedly deliberate) errors:

Pitot tube on wrong wing

No elevator trim tabs

No small intake on gun deck

Supercharger intake shape over simplified

The access panel on the underside is the wrong shape. On the Academy kit its's circular, when it should be more of a rounded square.

Fuselage stiffening plates missing.

The cockpit detail is much better than the Hasegawa kit though.

Oh, and the canopy sprue attachement points are placed in such a way that there's a lot of cleaning up and re-polishing to do once you've managed to remove them without damaging them!

The Hasegawa kit (the newer one, that is) is probably my favourite, even though the cockpit is severely lacking in detail. I think it captures the overall sit better than anything else.

Italeri. Awful! The wing carries through the fuselage, when the fuselage should sit on top of the wing. This error really messes with the overall shape badly.

Tamiya. I find it disappointing. The spinner shape is totally off (despite them including a replacement!) and I'm not convinced about the sit. I'm sure someone mentioned that the wheels might be a bit small,which might account for it. Otherwise, I think it looks a little "clunky".

Airfix: Shapewise, not bad at all. Replacing the canopy with a Squadron vac example makes a big difference. The cooling gills are very clumsy. If you can do something about that, it'll make a big difference.

As far as the Bf 109E goes, the most accurately shaped one I've seen is the ICM kit. This is very heavily based on the Tamiya kit, but corrects the Tamiya kit's short fuselage. The E-3 canopy on my example was unusable (E-4 type is fine) , but anything meant for the Tamiya kit will fit perfectly. Not as sharply moulded as the Tam kit, but looks great when finished.

Tamiya: as I said, the fuselage is a couple of mm too short and seems to be spread across its length. IIRC, this means that any correctly proportioned markings won't sit qite right. It's beautifully tooled though and just falls together.

The Academy kit is a big disappointment. The underwing radiators are crudely shaped and there's something not right about the shape of the engine cowling, particularly around the MG openings. The Hyperscale '109 nuts really don't like this kit.

All this is from memory, but I think I remembered it right!

[Big Kohona]

The biggest beef with the Fine Molds (Eduard) Me.410 that the engine nacelles are too large - which considering who makes the kit, there is no excuse for this. That being said, there is a company in Germany that produces a correction set, Rai Ro. I have had no luck in finding a means to obtain a set as they only accept wire transfer or cash in the mail, neither process that I am comfortable with.

As for the Bf.109E, ICM's kit is indeed a true gem. Yes the plastic is a little softer than the Tamiya kit's but the level of detail is definitely on par with Tamiya. As already mentioned, it is also more accurate in outline (fuselage specifically) than Tamiya's kit.

I found several articles on the net that discuss and compare both kits and if you really want to go all out, the best is to combine both kits into one. The ICM fuselage mated with the Tamiya wings plus a few other bits mixed and matched will give the best results. If you do a little poking around on the net, you will find the articles that will help you along. I scored several of the ICM and Tamiya kits quite cheaply on eBay so it is worth my doing this. With all the leftover bits, you can still build another 109 or just use the parts as spares (perhaps replace the Revell / Monogram or Italeri Bf.110 C/D/E props with what you have from the 109s).

I have had the Academy kit (this was well before the ICM or Tamiya kits were available) and even had both the Hasegawa original and new tool 109s. All are ok, but really for my money, if you are not game on combining the Tamiya and ICM kits, I'd run with the ICM kit as my first choice.

Hope this helps.

[Seamus]

Thanks again for the advice gents

I've been scanning around, looking for the cheapest options, and have stumbled upon the ICM Do 215 in addition to my original list. How does that stack up, as it's really taken my fancy (as well as their Polikarpov I-15).

Also, it has occurred to me that I missed the BF 110 off my original list, so any kit recommendations here would be appreciated as well. I've built the Airfix kit, but thought it was a bit pants

Cheers

Shaun

[Test Graham]

I have the ICM Do 215, but haven't started work on it yet. On the sprues, it looks less attractive than the RS Dorniers, the parts and surface detail are thicker and soggier - less crisp mouldings. 1970s Frog to Airfix (or perhaps Monogram), but with more parts. I can't comment on fit or overall accuracy, of either.

For the Bf 110, the Italeri C not ideal but reasonably good whereas the G has several faults, mainly based on trying to get excessive commonality into the tooling. The Highplanes has generally been quoted as the best G. Fujimi used to be the best early version. Matchbox and Monogram (both now Revell) are really just crisper-tooled equivalents of the Airfix in terms of detail, and not up to modern standards.

[dad's lad]

I was also looking at the 215 but online reviews seem to put it very firmly in the "pig" category - or at least outside of my level of expertise.

Online Review

[Test Graham]

Oh dear. I must admit to being sceptical about some of these reviews of short-run Eastern European kits, for when I get to play with them the fit is no worse than the Airfix kits of old, and I seem to recall making a lot of those with no particular problem. Modern mainstream kits really are so much better. However, this reviewer does seem to have set it in a proper context. I guess I'll just gave to make the RS kit first. Or the Airfix. Or the Matchbox. Come to think of it, I've never made any Do 17....got them there ready for the day, though.

[dad's lad]

Oh dear. I must admit to being sceptical about some of these reviews of short-run Eastern European kits, for when I get to play with them the fit is no worse than the Airfix kits of old, and I seem to recall making a lot of those with no particular problem. Modern mainstream kits really are so much better. However, this reviewer does seem to have set it in a proper context. I guess I'll just gave to make the RS kit first. Or the Airfix. Or the Matchbox. Come to think of it, I've never made any Do 17....got them there ready for the day, though.

If I could just clarify my comments. It isn't that I'm not capable of that kind of work and would gladly set about a Monogram/Frog/Airfix Do 17 with plenty of Milliput and the swear box handy.

The problem that I would have personally with the ICM kit is that it is so finely detailed that I would just ruin all of that finesse and not have the skill to restore it. It would be very evident where I'd had to "work at it".

Having said that, I probably will take a chance one day when my skill levels improve.

Clive

[popeye]

I was also looking at the 215 but online reviews seem to put it very firmly in the "pig" category - or at least outside of my level of expertise.

Online Review

Hello from Switzerland,

The ICN Do 215 really is taxing to build and needs mods and Falcon clear parts (if you can make them to fit) or own replacement clear parts.

Most important the wing depth is directly comparable to the old Monogram Do 17 and this needs to be reduced but it can be done.

I agree wit the review on scalewarbirds but it's no absolute pig, just taxing the patience !

If you don't shy away from German text, see > http://www.ipms.at/index.php?option=com_co...4&Itemid=44 for the pics.

Re Me 410:

FineMolds 410 fitted with either Rai-Ro engines or engines from the Matchbox kit with slimming and correcting of the landing gear bays yields the best result.

Just try to fit the engine gondolas (almost) perpendicular to the wing data line - FineMolds got the orientation wrong.

Again, see > http://www.ipms.at/index.php?option=com_co...2&Itemid=44

Good modeling to any takers !

popeye

[Big Kohona]

Hello from Switzerland,

Re Me 410:

FineMolds 410 fitted with either Rai-Ro engines or engines from the Matchbox kit with slimming and correcting of the landing gear bays yields the best result.

Just try to fit the engine gondolas (almost) perpendicular to the wing data line - FineMolds got the orientation wrong.

Again, see > http://www.ipms.at/index.php?option=com_co...2&Itemid=44

Good modeling to any takers !

popeye

popeye, thanks for the links. Do you have any sources for the Rai Ro Me.410 engines? I've been trying to get a set for some time now.

I have to translate the text in the link you supplied. I was looking at trying to use a set of Matchbox 410 engines on the Fine Molds kit, but there is such a size difference, that I am stymied with how to proceed on that - any suggestions?

Thanks!

[popeye]

popeye, thanks for the links. Do you have any sources for the Rai Ro Me.410 engines? I've been trying to get a set for some time now.

If you want I could procure a set for you (have a contact across the border) and send to Canada but suspect this would amount to some 25 Euros in the end - bl...y expensive!

If you have a Matchbox 410 handy this would be cheaper.

I have to translate the text in the link you supplied. I was looking at trying to use a set of Matchbox 410 engines on the Fine Molds kit, but there is such a size difference, that I am stymied with how to proceed on that - any suggestions?

Thanks!

If you want I could procure a set for you (have a contact across the border) and send to Canada but suspect this would amount to some 25 Euros in the end - bl...y expensive!

If you have a Matchbox 410 handy this would be cheaper.

My english article just published in the IPMS.UK magazine. If you have no acces to the issue send your pm to [email protected] with ref ME410 and I could scan and send as pdf.

Rolf

Edited December 4, 2008 by popeye