I had the idea to do a comparative build of 48th scale Bf 109s but having already built the Eduard and Hasegawa Gustavs and paid a small fortune for the 'new' Tamiya kit I quickly went off the idea as being a little pointless. How come ? ...well it occurred to me that I had paid four times as much for the Tamiya kit (around £32.... ) as I had for any of the ICM Bf 109s in the stash ( around £8.99 ..) Yes, 4x. I can't imagine that the Tamiya kit is four times as good or is four times as easy to build for example ..or is it? Now the ICM Bf 109s seem to be nicely detailed kits - you get a reasonable engine and cockpit - but I've read a few horror stories about fit and so on so here is my attempt to assemble one as neatly as possible.
The ICM Bf 109 kits feature a nice representation of the DB engine, so why not build this with the cowl open? However adding the engine to the cockpit firewall before inserting into the fuselage seems to be asking or trouble. Best perhaps to assemble the cockpit and close up the fuselage in the normal way. Once that's done add the engine to the firewall ..
When fitting the engine to the firewall you will need to test fit the various cowl parts at the same time - you may find that the locating holes for the engine mounts will need drilling out. Once glued in, the the whole engine assembly is pretty solid. You should find that the two banks of cylinders just rest on the forward part of the fuselage. These are angled so that when the exhaust stacks are fitted they sit level to the rest of the assembly. Some more detail parts still to add to the engine here - eg the coolant tank and valve and a bit of wiring to 'busy' the space up a little...Plenty (!!) of test-fitting of the multi-part cowl is required throughout..
Elsewhere the locating tabs on the flaps will need to be cut down to enable these parts to be positioned other than at neutral. Unfortunately the rounded wing-tip parts do not fit well and much sanding and filing is necessary. Recessed panel lines are well done. The plastic has a nice 'feel' to it.
Painting underway using Humbrol and Xtracolor enamels over a coat of (Halfords) grey acrylic primer. I always have 'trouble' painting exhausts - this time I went with a metallic silver base coat - after all these things are made of metal - and then went over this with an acrylic brown, drybrushed so that the 'metal' just shows through.
The kit decals by the way look incredibly matte on the sheet - I've decided not to use them.
More soon.....
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