Adam Poultney Posted July 29, 2024 Posted July 29, 2024 Having just finished my Airfix Me262 I've decided to go back to building Bf109s. Just to recap, I've recently built an Eduard f-2, Eduard G-5 and Academy G-14, with a sizable stash of unbuilt 109s yet to get through. I picked this up at RIAT. Somehow, it was my only model purchase of the day. That might have something to do with the amount I've spent flying 1/1 scale things lately... Anyway, the kit. It's one of Airfix's new simplified starter sets, but unlike most others, it's not a counterpart to an existing full kit. Hopefully we'll be seeing that full kit in the next year or two. The painting guide is on the back of the box as with most of Airfix's starter sets. The depicted airframe is Wolf-Dietrich Huy's Bf109f-4 in 1941. It's a very simple scheme with no mottling, ideal for a starter set. The upper surfaces appear to be RLM 70, although Airfix provide Humbrol 91 which isn't their usual choice for RLM 70. The lower surfaces are RLM 65, though I will check if this should be 76. Having found some pretty bad errors while building Airfix's Me262 as "White 17", which was depicted in RLM 81/82, but should be in 74/75, I'll be doing some research to check if Airfix's depiction of this 109 is reasonably accurate. All the yellow parts are provided as decals, probably ideal for beginners as yellow can be difficult to paint by brush. I plan to use the fuselage band decal but paint the wingtips. The plastic is Airfix's newer, darker plastic. The cockpit detail doesn't look too bad and the surface detail looks good. Airfix have really upped their game from the days of panel lines you could fight ww1 in. 22
Adam Poultney Posted July 29, 2024 Author Posted July 29, 2024 I will be making a few small improvements to bring the quality of the model more in line with my other Bf109s. This is pretty much limited to improving on the simplifications made to make this more appropriate for a starter set. The first few I've noted as necessary improvements are: Adding aileron balances. Omitting them is probably the correct decision on a starter set as they're so small and easily broken. Eduard's kit comes with a spare set. Instrument panel. The kit just doesn't really have one. Eduard kits have a blank one to add etch to, which I'm using on all my Eduard builds, which leaves the raised detail ones spare. I'll see if I can fit one. Missing pitot. Easily broken piece and a reasonable omission from a starter set. Again, Eduard provide spares so that's where I'll get one from. 2
Adam Poultney Posted July 29, 2024 Author Posted July 29, 2024 Another one to add to the list, the kit doesn't have a stick for the pilot! Unfortunately I can't rely on the stash of eduard spares for this. I'll figure something out.
AdrianMF Posted July 30, 2024 Posted July 30, 2024 Looks like a good kit - and more detail than the 109G from a few years back!! Looking forward to your build. Regards, Adrian 1
Adam Poultney Posted July 30, 2024 Author Posted July 30, 2024 2 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Looks like a good kit - and more detail than the 109G from a few years back!! Looking forward to your build. Regards, Adrian I hope they finally retire that awful 109G now that this is available. Even their vintage version is more accurate. The only thing it's good for is a starter set where accuracy is a secondary concern, but this kit makes that redundant. Back to this kit, the instructions are nicely printed, very clear and in colour. Perfect for someone just starting out, but I'll set these aside and just build it. This is the cockpit detail I'm working with. The head armour and instrument panel are very basic and split with the fuselage halves. The head armour I'll leave, but the panel I'm replacing. With a little effort, a spare eduard panel fits nicely enough The wings are a separate subassemby so I assembled them 10
Adam Poultney Posted July 30, 2024 Author Posted July 30, 2024 Cockpit painted! It's a very basic paintjob. Grey, wash, dry brush. I also added a tape harness. I fail to understand why these are near universally omitted from kits, even as a decal. 10 1
Adam Poultney Posted July 31, 2024 Author Posted July 31, 2024 Assembling the fuselage halves needs no filler and very like work on the seams. It's important to remember that the Bf109 does have some very convenient seams running down the fuselage, so you don't actually want a seamless joint. The intake isn't the best. I could thin it out but I'll leave it as is. Unfortunately I don't have a spare appropriate for a Bf109f from Eduard kits. Notably absent is the raised seam between the upper and lower halves which should be visible. To imitate this, I used a bit more glue than I usually would and squeezed the parts together to force some material out of the seam. The underside of the model features a hole for the included stand. I don't plan to display it on the stand, but I'll leave the option open. It wouldn't be a big job to fill it though. If anyone is considering modelling this as a trop variant, Eduard's trop filter fits nicely. Not needed for this build. 9
Graham Boak Posted July 31, 2024 Posted July 31, 2024 Sadly, the seam lining the real fuselage halves together is not central. I like what you are doing with this kit. I never bought the current Bf.109G, but gather it was not a great advert for Airfix. However it did look rather more like the aircraft than the previous one, which needed the nose cutting off and lowering, with added filing and filler, to make it look at least a bit more promising. 1 1
Adam Poultney Posted August 1, 2024 Author Posted August 1, 2024 18 hours ago, Graham Boak said: Sadly, the seam lining the real fuselage halves together is not central. I like what you are doing with this kit. True, but correctly depicting it slightly off centre requires a disproportionate amount of effort compared to using the existing seam. I guess a well designed 109 kit should really split the rear fuselage parts off-centre. 2
Adam Poultney Posted August 1, 2024 Author Posted August 1, 2024 I built the prop and spinner assembly. Usually I'd prefer to paint the prop and spinner separately, but in this case they are to be the same colour, both RLM70. from the instructions, you can see that it is meant to remain spinnable and is designed fairly well so that you don't need to install any parts before closing the fuselage halves. The wings were mated to the fuselage assembly. As with the rest of the kit, an excellent fit. I also added the tailplane parts. These can easily be assembled in the wrong sides, but it would be very difficult to tell. No offset tabs to prevent that. 5
Adam Poultney Posted August 1, 2024 Author Posted August 1, 2024 Holes added for the aileron balances and pitot 4
Adam Poultney Posted August 1, 2024 Author Posted August 1, 2024 I've dryfitted the landing gear parts. They locate into roughly the right position but there's a fair bit of play so it would be easy for a beginner to glue them at the wrong angle. These are quite simplified, with the gear leg and door moulded as one part. Due to the constraints of injection moulding, the gear leg has to just merge into the cover. This is understandable for a starter set, and not a bad choice, but if this was a full kit it would be a considerable mark against the kit. 6
Adam Poultney Posted August 1, 2024 Author Posted August 1, 2024 This build is once again reminding me why I buy canopy masks. I'm currently masking it and just finding it tedious 1 1
Jeepboy Posted August 1, 2024 Posted August 1, 2024 I just want to say 'Thank You' for stating at various stages "This is a starter kit" and covering omissions or expedient moulding. So many modellers have criticised Airfix and the kit whilst totally missing the point that this is to encourage youngsters by allowing them to produce a decent model with limited tools, paints and acquired skils. 'THANK YOU' 5 1 4
Adam Poultney Posted August 2, 2024 Author Posted August 2, 2024 4 hours ago, Jeepboy said: I just want to say 'Thank You' for stating at various stages "This is a starter kit" and covering omissions or expedient moulding. So many modellers have criticised Airfix and the kit whilst totally missing the point that this is to encourage youngsters by allowing them to produce a decent model with limited tools, paints and acquired skils. 'THANK YOU' Absolutely, I bought this knowing fully what to expect and am building it with that in mind. For us more experienced modellers, if we want a super detailed kit, the Eduard kit is readily available, and at a lower price than I paid for this. I have 6 of them myself and plan to get many, many more. If you want something better with a low part count, the Zvezda/Revell kit is a reasonably accurate option. This does not need to be up to that standard. In fact it would fail at its primary design goal if it was. We should save the rivet counting for a potential full kit follow up that I hope Airfix might develop soon. I'm 21, a lot younger than most people on this forum. I started scale modelling in the era of modern kits, where the starter kits were exactly the same as the regular range, just with two brushes and some paints included. My first model kit was the very same Red Arrows Hawk kit that is still on sale as a full kit (though they have replaced the starter set version with a simplified tooling, and updated the decals to the current livery). Had my first build been one of the more fiddly kits airfix has put in a starter box, like the Fw190, I don't know if I would have been as keen. On my very early builds, I left a lot of fiddly detail parts off. They just got broken or lost. These parts are not being missed by new modellers now that they're not included. So far, I am nothing but thoroughly impressed with this starter kit. The omissions have generally been appropriate and the simplifications have been well thought out. The paint scheme has been carefully chosen to be beginner friendly. Even the choice to do the Bf109f instead of any other variant is a good choice; it's the simplest bf109 variant to depict as a model. The only omission I'm genuinely disappointed by is the lack of a control stick. A beginner can manage that just fine. I hope Airfix continues to develop this new range, and retires most of their standard kits from the starter set range. I'm actually excited to see what they bring to the range next, especially now that they've shown they're happy to do things that don't have a counterpart in the standard range, like this kit. 3 1
Adam Poultney Posted August 2, 2024 Author Posted August 2, 2024 masking complete and primer applied 4
Adam Poultney Posted August 3, 2024 Author Posted August 3, 2024 Quick pre shade. Next up, some colour. I'll use Vallejo RLM 04 for the underwing yellow areas, but I'll use the provided decal for the fuselage band. Hataka RLM 65 is what I'll use for the underside. For the top surfaces, I'm not sure which RLM 70 I'm going to use. I'm favouring the Hataka one. 3
Adam Poultney Posted August 4, 2024 Author Posted August 4, 2024 Nothing much to report on the painting, all gone smoothly so far 12
mark.au Posted August 4, 2024 Posted August 4, 2024 On 01/08/2024 at 23:06, Adam Poultney said: True, but correctly depicting it slightly off centre requires a disproportionate amount of effort compared to using the existing seam. I guess a well designed 109 kit should really split the rear fuselage parts off-centre. I took this photo many years ago of “White 14”. First, in 72nd scale I defy anyone to point out whether the dorsal seam is off centre or not. Second, it’s not really visible anyway. I spent a lot of time around the airframe when it was in Canada and that seam is even less visible in real life than it is in this pic. Your 109 is coming along very nicely so far, looking forward to the upper paint. 9
Adam Poultney Posted August 4, 2024 Author Posted August 4, 2024 7 hours ago, mark.au said: Your 109 is coming along very nicely so far, looking forward to the upper paint. The upper surfaces are already done in Hataka RLM 70. It's come out quite dark and the green tint doesn't really show up in the photo. I did some more work last night. I decided that I'd use the provided pot of Humbrol RLM 02 for the wheel wells and landing gear to see just what beginners are given to work with. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was really nice to use. Good coverage, with only a little thinning with water it is smooth. The gear was then slotted into the model and the wheels painted. To mitigate the simplified moulding of the gear legs, I added a heavy black wash to give the illusion of depth. Not perfect, but a serviceable compromise. With most of the details now painted, a gloss coat was applied. Decals next! 6
Adam Poultney Posted August 4, 2024 Author Posted August 4, 2024 Moving on to the decals, one thing I'm quite pleased with is that the decal sheet very clearly shows which orientation the fuselage band should be applied. This could be quite confusing for a beginner without the guidance. At first it looks good but unfortunately it doesn't quite reach around fully. I'll patch this up with some paint later 4
Adam Poultney Posted August 4, 2024 Author Posted August 4, 2024 All of the kit decals have been applied, I just need to find some aftermarket swastikas from the decal stash now. There are very few stencil decals included. Once again, a sensible choice for a starter kit. 11
Adam Poultney Posted August 4, 2024 Author Posted August 4, 2024 Progress is continuing at a lightning pace, the final swastika decals have been added. I then added the pitot and aileron balances from an Eduard kit. A matte varnish was then applied. The model is nearly complete! I also painted the included stand in black from a Citadel primer spray can. Fairly durable which is ideal. 6
Johnson Posted August 4, 2024 Posted August 4, 2024 An excellent and informative thread Adam, thank you. It does look like a very nice kit. You've done a cracking job on the legs (and the rest), they couldn't be better. The omissions of the pitot tube and control stick are a shame, not difficult for a youngster (or an oldster just starting!) and are important details. But overall, top marks Airfix. Charlie 1
Adam Poultney Posted August 4, 2024 Author Posted August 4, 2024 I decided to demask the canopy at this point. There were a couple of leaks through the masking which I was expecting. Easily fixed by fettling a piece of sprue to a sharp point (which is the same hardness as the kit parts so shouldn't scratch them) and gently scraping excess paint away. Not shown here but I've also sorted out the yellow fuselage band joint on the underside. That single colour scheme is looking a bit... flat. I'll try to break it up a bit by putting some effort into the weathering. 1 hour ago, Johnson said: An excellent and informative thread Adam, thank you. It does look like a very nice kit. You've done a cracking job on the legs (and the rest), they couldn't be better. The omissions of the pitot tube and control stick are a shame, not difficult for a youngster (or an oldster just starting!) and are important details. But overall, top marks Airfix. Charlie Thanks, I'm pleased you're enjoying the thread Here's an interesting detail I just noticed. If you scroll up to the top of the thread and find the picture of the back-of-the-box painting guide, you'll see that Airfix's profiles include the pitot tube. Perhaps an indication that Airfix also designed a full kit we may see in the near future? Or maybe just an oversight by whoever designed the profiles that wasn't caught. 6
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