Zvezda 1/72 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109F-2

[Mitch K]

I bought two of these, somewhat on-spec, and I'm nicely impressed. Parts are flash-free, lack any evidence of short-shots or sink marks, ejector towers are sensibly placed, sprue attachments aren't too big and the panel line detail is a nicely subdued set of engraved lines. The kit seems pretty accurate, and very much seems to look the part, as far as I can tell from the sprues. Speaking of which, here's a sprue shot, with the decals:

 

These are the exhaust manifolds: nice as they come out and slightly improved by drilling out

 

Likewise the cowling gun inserts. I'm not quite sure how well these will work in terms of fit, but we shall see. Again, a bit of drill work improves.

 

Finally, the supercharger inlet. This is moulded solid, but the plastic is soft and easy to work with, so it's easy to hollow these out.

 

 

[Borisz]

Waiting for your progress report!

[Mitch K]

Well Borisz, you asked for it!

 

The cockpit detail provided is really, really nice. Obviously, if if you buy the latest Tamagawa offering with an A3 sheet of photoetch, you will get more, but for under eight quid, I think what you in the box is excellent. I've assembled everything with dabs of CA glue to supplement the snap-fit, but it all falls into place with really positive locations. I gave the whole cockpit a coat of RLM66 first. Two instrument panels are provided: one with engraved dials, the other flat for use with the decals on the sheet. I chose the latter and the engraved one will be stored for use on a model with less adequate provision!

 

 

Everything got a drybrush of neutral gray, followed by an ink wash of W&N peat brown and black. The side panel details are easy to pick out in touches of brighter colours.

 

This isn't a camera trick - I was so pleased with the first one I got the other one out and started building that too. The only thing I've added to the cockpit is the seat straps. I'll scratch up some gunsights later, as Zvezda don't provide those.  A real purist could finesse the pedals and trim wheels, run fine wire harnesses and go completely to town here, but  think that barely beyond out of the box this looks great in 1/72 scale.

 

 

 

 

[Azgaron]

Good start, and nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[azureglo]

Excellent start Mitch, don't worry about the gun troughs they work fine with a smear of Mr Surfacer 500, just don't lose that lovely cowl hinge like I did. BTW, the exhausts fit fine from the outside if you trim off the the weird interlocking question mark bits. I painted them separately and added them at the end. BTW what schemes are you going to use, maybe Assi Hahn's red/yellow nosed bird? (hint, hint...)

 

 work of B Huber used under the creative commons license

 

Cheers

 

Anil

[Mitch K]

2 minutes ago, azureglo said:

Excellent start Mitch, don't worry about the gun troughs they work fine with a smear of Mr Surfacer 500, just don't lose that lovely cowl hinge like I did. BTW, the exhausts fit fine from the outside if you trim off the the weird interlocking question mark bits. I painted them separately and added them at the end. BTW what schemes are you going to use, maybe Assi Hahn's red/yellow nosed bird? (hint, hint...)

 

 work of B Huber used under the creative commons license

 

Cheers

 

Anil

There are two really nice schemes in the box: a winterised example (no main gear doors) from JG54, Grunherz, where the various markings really pop against a white background. The other is a 15. Staffel (Spanish) aircraft from JG51. These look lovely, so I'm going with them, but on the strength of what I've seen so far, I'm going to get a couple more, and build at least one in Hungarian markings, with the national colours on the tailplanes and rudder.

 

[Mitch K]

The fuselages closed up well. I'd reamed out the peg holes beforehand which I think helped. There was just a touch of filler required, and I sanded this carefully as the plastic is soft. The fit of the wings is good, as is the fit of wing radiators and oil cooler. I think I'll skip doing the filler at this stage: I'll see what they look like with a coat of primer, then maybe apply some wipe-on acrylic putty. I added navigation lights from scrap clear sprue

 

 

Ditto from above. The wing roots are good, certainly vastly better than Airfix's 109E.

 

As Azureglo pointed out above, the gun troughs fit a treat (along with the horizontal stabilisers and the exhausts). The cowling joint is a little bit too big, I think, but since there is a panel there on the real thing, I don't want to eliminate it. I might give it a coat of PVA which will shrink and reduce it. You can see the scratched gunsights. Getting those in took a whole evening, mainly on the grounds that to fit two I ended up making about eight, six of which were eaten by the carpet monster!

 

Following a bit of a scrub up I'll fit the canopies and blow on some primer.

[Courageous]

Those cockpits scrub-up rather nicely as OOB, those belts look nice too. 

 

Stuart

[Mitch K]

17 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Those cockpits scrub-up rather nicely as OOB, those belts look nice too. 

 

Stuart

The belts are masking tape, cut and laminated to give the sense of complexity, then painted/washed. I'm too mean to buy PE belts...

[jean]

Hi Mitch, 

being mean may be a blessing in our hobby... I am nonetheless relieved to read that there will be a Friedrich in something else than Luftwaffe. These days, you are flirting dangerously close to the "dark side"... 

I am glad you are building this kit, as you may give me some good info. I keep reading reviews and builds that do contradict each other: from a tad above a toy, to the best thing since gin and tonic... The tail wheel has been called schematic and oversized many a time, etc.........

So far, I like what I read on your thread.  Let me know what you thing of the undercarriage and the tail wheel. Oh yes, the decals are supposed to be sub-standard...

Am I forgetting anything?

Bottom line, my LMS has got this kit, along with the FW 190, and because I can on occasion be as mean as you, I want to buy one because these kits are almost dirt cheap!!!

Well, have fun and I shall keep following your builds.

JR

Edited June 29, 2018 by jean

[Mitch K]

4 hours ago, jean said:

Hi Mitch, 

being mean may be a blessing in our hobby... I am nonetheless relieved to read that there will be a Friedrich in something else than Luftwaffe. These days, you are flirting dangerously close to the "dark side"... 

I am glad you are building this kit, as you may give me some good info. I keep reading reviews and builds that do contradict each other: from a tad above a toy, to the best thing since gin and tonic... The tail wheel has been called schematic and oversized many a time, etc.........

So far, I like what I read on your thread.  Let me know what you thing of the undercarriage and the tail wheel. Oh yes, the decals are supposed to be sub-standard...

Am I forgetting anything?

Bottom line, my LMS has got this kit, along with the FW 190, and because I can on occasion be as mean as you, I want to buy one because these kits are almost dirt cheap!!!

Well, have fun and I shall keep following your builds.

JR

Jean,

 

I don't know about the decals, I've only tried the instrument panels but they seem OK. 

As far as U/C legs and tailwheels go, I'll tell you what I'll do: I've got these, a couple of Airfix 109E's and an AZ Joypack of 109G's. I'll see if I can photograph the tailwheels/legs from all of them. Then we'll see. I think the Zvezda tailwheels might be a bit lumpy in terms of the leg/pillar, but this can very easily be remedied, or spares from the AZ will serve!

[Mitch K]

OK,

 

As promised for Jean, here are some comparison shots of the U/C legs and tailwheels from the AZ, Airfix and Zvezda 109's.

 

From top to bottom we have Airfix, AZ and Zvezda (off the sprue). This is the door side: the holes on the Zvezda example take the pins which hold the door in place. Once the door is in place, they don't really show.

 

Ditto from the wheel side. The large "chunks" on the top of the Zvezda legs vanish into holes in the wings, and don't show unless you're rooting in to wheel well.

 

Tailwheels, top to bottom Zvezda, AZ then Airfix. I've somewhat altered the Zvezda one - I didn't install it before closing up the fuselage as I know if I did I'd just have broken it off and had to refit it later anyway, so I've partly reshaped the leg. I'll do a little more later.

 

I think that you can argue that there are toylike elements on the Zvezda parts, mainly a result of the snap-fit design, but ALL of these can be improved quickly and easily, and I'm far from convinced that either the Airfix or AZ offering are light years ahead of the Zvezda. , I'm wary of comparison of this sort: people will pick up an Airfix or Zvezda kit and scathingly point out that it isn't to the same standard as the latest Eduard Profipack version. Well, the Eduard will be about three times the price, so from my point of view it had better be not merely a bit better but a VAST improvement to justify the cost differential.

 

Moving on, I've add the drain pipes/reinforcement struts in the front of the coolers/radiators.

 

[FalkeEins]

I didn't find the Zvezda Friedrich 'cheap' by any means. Nor was the A-4. And both are a little short on detail options - no poseable flaps, aileron mass balances or separate rudder for example. Fit was indifferent and you haven't got to the canopy yet - here the large locating lugs do spoil the overall effect IMHO.

[AaCee26]

Hi all!

 

This is one of my favorite kits which I see often overlooked as a snap one. Simplification is certainly clear because of the way it is intended to be built but the overall accuracy is better than in FineMolds Bf-109F/Gs and clearly better than AZ/KP-long nose F/early Gs. As seen on Mitch photos cockpit detailing is certainly enough for closed cockpit after adding the seat belts and a gun sight. Also surface detailing is petite and wheels are possiböe best injection  ones for a spoked Bf 09.

 

There are some issues too late for Mitch to take care but which might be helpful for others considering building this model:

- Filing fin thinner from inside to get fuselage halves to fit better,

- Removing the shrink mark on both sides of wings, or at least upper surfaces. A couple of times Mr Surfacer 500 was enough IIRC,

- For better fuselage - wing root fittings as well as helping with too wide canopy adding plugs on both sides of the firewall inside the fuselage and lower fuselage seam would help. Removing the fuselage - wing tabs need to be removed.

- Opening the compressor air intake,

- Adding the aileron ballast,

- Dropping flaps if thought to be appropriate. It is not difficult, been there, done that!

 

So far I have built a Bf 109F-2 and considering also later sub-types until G-2 from this kit.

 

In my opinion Zvezda's snap series this is better than Yak-3 but not on par with FW 190 or Stuka.

 

Cheers,

 

AaCee

[Mitch K]

Personally I couldn't care less about poseable flaps or a separate rudder. Certainly the number of photos I've see with 109's with displaced rudders doesn't make think I'm missing something indispensable. 

 

The canopies don't seem too wide, but they do seem too long, and there certainly is a fit issue, although nothing that isn't at least as bad as 50%+ of the kits I build! A little bit of fettling will sort it, I'm sure. I can see what you mean about the canopy attachment points, but they are easily dealt with and not even vaguely in the same class of awful as the attachment point on the Academy FW190D. Aileron mass balances are easily sourced from Hannants, and I can attest that scratchbuilding them isn't unduly difficult - I managed to lose two from my Revell 109G-6AS's, and hadn't found the resin ones.

 

I go back to what I said: if I had paid over twice the amount for this, like an Eduard Weekend edition or nearly three times, like a second-hand Finemolds kit, I might be narked. For under eight quid, I think it's very good indeed.

[azureglo]

1 hour ago, AaCee26 said:

 

- For better fuselage - wing root fittings as well as helping with too wide canopy adding plugs on both sides of the firewall inside the fuselage and lower fuselage seam would help. Removing the fuselage - wing tabs need to be removed.

-

Canopy width not a problem as you can see here & here from the one I finished a few weeks ago: Just remove the dubious "snap in and crack the canopy lugs™" This is a nice easy build and even has the correct smooth finished top wing.#

 

A

 

[AaCee26]

On 7/1/2018 at 12:46 AM, azureglo said:

Canopy width not a problem as you can see here & here from the one I finished a few weeks ago: Just remove the dubious "snap in and crack the canopy lugs™" This is a nice easy build and even has the correct smooth finished top wing.#

 

A

 

Hi A,

 

For me it is Especially the rear portion's rear end leaves clear step.

 

BUt I think we agree that this little kit has more potential than generally thought!

 

Cheers,

 

An another A

[Mitch K]

4 hours ago, AaCee26 said:

Hi A,

 

For me it is Especially the rear portion's rear end leaves clear step.

 

BUt I think we agree that this little kit has more potential than generally thought!

 

Cheers,

 

An another A

That's exactly what I meant about being "too long": a bit of sanding of the rear edge of the canopy, some scraping of the fuselage and a fettle of the bottom edges and it's fine. 

[Sturmovik]

It´s coming along great! Can´t wait to see it painted and decalled.

[Mitch K]

Ready to prime!

 

After priming I shot the wheel wells with RLM 02 then masked with blutak.

 

Then RLM 04 in various configurations, ready to mask up for some RLM 76.

 

[Azgaron]

Looking good, Mitch!

 

Håkan

 

[Learstang]

Good work on your builds! I have one built up (not finished yet, of course) and I thought it was a very nice little kit. I intend on doing the Grunherz winter camouflage version, but I might change my mind.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Mitch K]

After shooting the RLM 76 onto the undersides, it's a mask-up job then on with the upper colours. Here's the JG 51 aircraft.

 

For JG 54, I freehanded some RLM 74 on, to provide something under the white. I've seen several photos of this aircraft (there are some beauties on FalkeEin's site), and although the white is relatively neat and tidy, it was a temporary paint, and doesn't wear as well as the normal finish. Hence, I thought something to show wear through might be appropriate.

 

So, some dots of Maskol added with a "fur comber" brush, ready for the white.

 

[Mitch K]

Here's the  completed undersides:

 

The upper surfaces, following removal of the masks. There's very little to clean up or dodge in on these, in contrast to some of my mask jobs!

 

The JG 51 aircraft show very heavy mottling on the fuselage sides, so I very gingerly freehand sprayed this. Both sides shown, just to prove I didn't chicken out!

 

 

The JG 51 aircraft will get Klear all over, but the white on the Grunherz version is gloss, so only the RLM 76 needs doing ahead of the decals.

[Azgaron]

Nice paint job!

 

Håkan