Messerschmitt 109E

I loved building this airplane. This is a very high quality kit and a great value. The detail is exceptional. Pieces are well molded and require very little effort to fit together and have near prefect surfaces. The full color paining guide is also a great feature although it uses only a Humbrol paint guide. But it is easy to find the corresponding color in other brands. Overall this plane seemed to fall together perfectly. Paining it was fun as well. I would not recommend this to anyone who plans of using a paintbrush. To capture the color schemes of most ME-109's you really need to airbrush them and this one is no exception.

The Good - Fit is excellent. Fuselage hold together without any glue and fuselage to wing joints are very snug & secure. - The thick plastic of the fuselage & wings makes this kit more forgiving when sanding down parts. - Deep panel lines make applying washes easier. - Includes engine which can be displayed - Can be assembled with landing gear down or with landing gear up - All control surfaces are positionable. - A big plus - Excellent decals, worked very nicely with setting solution. The Bad - Thick plastic makes cutting small pieces from sprues difficult. - Painting guide only given for Humbrol colors and only paint numbers are provided in instructions, making painting more tedious. - Painting recommendation for Humbrol paints seems a bit off. The Slate Grey used for RLM 02 and Light Green used for RLM 71 seem off. I used a mix of Tamiya XF-22/49/1 in a 3:2:1 ratio for my planes RLM 02 and Tamiya XF-61 Dark Green for RLM 71 which seem more accurate. - Includes molded on seatbelts but no buckle detail. - Missing the swastika markings for the tail. Overall it has its drawbacks but builds into a very nice kit which requires very little filling & sanding because the fit is so good. The painting guide is suggested for the closest matches in the Humbrol line, since the RLM line hasn't been released yet. The swastika missing on the tail is a little annoying but this is probably done as a legality issue. However I believe they still could have included it just as an option. The decals were some of the best I've ever used and looked painted on after applying setting solution and a flat coat. I'd definitely recommend this to any builders. Advanced builders will want to get a detail set and possibly a replacement seat but it was very enjoyable to build and it can be finished in about 10-15 hours.

This is my second aircraft build since getting back into trying out modeling since over 30 years ago! My first build was an Airfix Spitfire MKIIa, which was a vast improvement upon the kits from the 70's and this model, similarly, was much improved. The panel lines are more recessed to allow for highlighting them, three versions of the aircraft are offered, I chose to model Major Adolf Galland's JG.26 version, undercarriage can be modelled up or down, the canopy and cockpit door can be modeled in the open position, which I did and the fit of parts was very snug which didn't require any filling to hide joints. The glue naturally filled the joints during the bonding process which then left a fine smoothing. The decals, as with the Spitfire kit, are excellent and when applied onto a glossed surface then sealed with a couple of coats of Matt varnish provide a painted on appearance without a hint of silvering. The negatives about this kit are; edge gates are really thick and when trimming small parts from their gates, one has to be careful not to fracture the parts in the process. Also, the internal bosses of the port side fuselage that the location pegs are situated on (for joining to the starboard fuselage)are thick, and thus, they leave heavy sink on the outer visual surface beneath each boss. I had to fill all of these sinks, which were deep, then sand and blend. I'm sure that this was probably a kit that somehow got missed by the eyes of the Quality Control Inspection Engineer during the manufacturing process and that the majority of kits have been processed correctly without the sink? At least I hope that is the case? I know it's a careful balance between packing out the parts on the molding press with enough injection pressure to do so, but at the same time, not causing flash because the clamping pressure is not high enough. Maybe a larger tonnage press with higher clamping force to enable increased injection pressures? Although, the machine time would be costlier effecting the end price of the product! Overall, not a bad kit for the price..it goes together well!