Bf 109G Comparison Build – Hasegawa, Fine Molds, Tamiya, Eduard Kits – Part II

Hasegawa kits often feature a lack of detail in the wheelwells and very minimalist cockpits, their 1994 Bf 109 kits are no exception. Fortunately, there are some very good aftermarket options to enhance the kits, this is the resin set from Aeries which does the job nicely. The complete lack of any sidewall detail makes installing the resin set easier.

This is the Fine Molds cockpit with several added bits of Evergreen strip. The fuel line is made from solder, and the PE seatbelts are Eduard.

The Tamiya cockpit looks great right out of the box, I added a seat cushion made from masking tape and Eduard belts.

Many of the colored PE bits go into the Eduard’s cockpit. I added a seat cushion from masking tape. Eduard includes a fuel transfer tube on their clear sprue, but the diameter of this part is too great so I replaced it with solder.

Here are the fuselages all closed up, from the top Hasegawa, Fine Molds, Tamiya, and Eduard. The shapes of these are pretty close, but you can see the older kits are a little less “beefy” in the nose. I added hinges to the cowling panels of the Hasegawa and Fine Molds kits by pressing round stock in pliers with finely serrated faces to make the hinge detail.

All the kits except Eduard’s will require cutting loose the slats and flaps if you would like to pose these dropped, Eduard molds them as separate pieces. Here is the Tamiya wing with the slats and flaps sawed off.

The Tamiya kit requires the landing gear legs to be installed during construction, the extensions used for alignment are trapped behind a separate panel in the center of the wing. Many modelers would prefer to attach the legs after painting. I wanted to model my Tamiya G-6 with the R6 gun packs, the parts for those are not included in the Tamiya kit so I robbed a pair from unused Eduard sprues.

The Hasegawa kit has absolutely no wheelwell detail. Another area where this kit shows its age is the oil cooler and wing radiator flaps. Both are swept up to meet the surfaces above them instead of having openings at the rear. In both cases the surfaces were cut out with a razor saw and new flaps constructed with sheet styrene. The drop tank and rack will also be replaced with spare from the Eduard kit.

The Tamiya kit has excellent surface detail and builds up nicely. The only real issue is the slats and flaps are molded into the wings and must be cut loose to be posed naturally.

The only kit with separate slats and flaps is the Eduard molding. The kit also features a positionable canopy to better show off all that interior detail as well as a mask set. There are several extra parts on the sprues, which is quite handy when building Messerschmitts as many times the airframes were repaired or rebuilt and displayed variations in details.

Part I here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2024/04/19/bf-109g-comparison-build-hasegawa-fine-molds-tamiya-eduard-kits-part-i/

Picture of the Week 17

A beautiful photograph of the new battleship USS Connecticut (BB-18) on her builder’s trials off the Maine coast, 1906. Connecticut carried twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers for a maximum speed of 18 knots, impressive for the time. Photographed by Enrique Muller.

Project S68 – The Manned Turret B-29 Superfortress

Project S68 was an effort to evaluate the operation of manned turrets on the Boeing B-29 Superfortress in the event of difficulties with the General Electric remote turret system.

A single airframe, B-29-25-BW serial number 42-2441, was modified in October 1944. Nose armament was a unique pair of Emerson Model 136 barbettes, each mounting a single .50 caliber gun.

Upper remote turrets were replaced with Martin manned turrets, while the lowers were fitted with a Sperry Model A-2 ball turret forward and a semi-retractable A-13 aft.

The sighting blisters on the fuselage sides were replaced with single .50 caliber guns on flexible mounts, similar to other USAAF heavy bombers. Tail armament remained unchanged.

The General Electric remote system proved to be excellent in operational service and there was no need for the manned turret installation to proceed beyond the evaluation phase. Still, this is an interesting variation and the model would make for a unique conversion project.

Italeri Henschel Hs 129 of 4.(Pz)/Sch.G. 1 in 1/72 Scale

This Henschel Hs 129 of 4.(Pz)/Sch.G. 1 with an impressive scoreboard was photographed in Russia during the Summer of 1943. Italeri kit, Excito decals.

Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21 Walk Around Part VI

Photographed by Don Gilman at Cavenaugh Flight Museum, Dallas

Part I here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2020/02/09/mig-21pf-walk-around/

Model Con 419 IPMS Model Show

Model Con 419 was held yesterday at the Quality Inn in Perrysburg, Ohio. The show was a collaboration between the IPMS Fremont KitBashers and the Toledo Plastic Modelers. This was the first show in the Toledo area since 2018, for those wondering 419 is the local telephone area code and the show was part of a series of events in the greater Toledo area. Being the first show in a while it was on the smaller side. Big Burel’s BBQ food truck was on hand. Everything wrapped up early, with many venders packing up around lunch time, and judging was completed by 3:00.

Women Warriors 266

ATA Commandant Pauline Gower in deHavilland Tiger Moth

Aviation machinist’s mates Mary Arnold, Violet Falkum and Bernice Stansbury adjust the intake on an SNJ training plane on October 27, 1943

Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, Russia

LCOL Teri Poulton flying a C-17 Globemaster III to Afghanistan in 2010

Captain Nicole “Cougar” Jansen-Hinnenkamp, a Weapons System Officer for the F/A-18 Hornet, is attached to Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 224 at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C.

Women in israel defense forces IDF military girls — **Israeli Defense Forces IDF**

ww461b_USAF — **US Air Force Loadmaster**

180124-A-OL598-0188 — **Romainian Soldier with RPG launcher**

ww464_ATA_JackieMoggridge — **ATA pilot Jackie Moggridge**

ww263_BelgianF16 — **Belgian F-16 Pilot**

ww062 — U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter Interceptor pilots of the 3rd Fighter Wing, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, left to right, Major Andrea Misener, 19th FS; Captain Jammie Jamiesen, 12th FS; Major Carey Jones, 19th FS; Captain Samantha Weeks, 12th FS. (U.S. Air Force)

To see more Women Warriors, click on the tags below:

Bf 109G Comparison Build – Hasegawa, Fine Molds, Tamiya, Eduard Kits – Part I

Another comparison build, and another excuse to build a batch of Messerschmitts! This time we’ll see how the new Eduard Gustavs stack up. The oldest kit here is the Hasegawa 1994 offering, it is not really a contender in light of the quality of newer offerings but it is a benchmark to see the progression of kit quality in the last 30 years. The Fine Molds 2005 family of Bf 109s have been my go-to selections, and my most-built kit ever with more than 70 in the case. Tamiya released their G-6 in 2019, it looks like what you would expect from Tamiya but I have not built one yet. Eduard’s 2023 kits are fresh out of the press, with two kits, PE, masks, and a generous decal sheet in the box they are a great value.

Here are the fuselage halves, Hasegawa on top, then Fine Molds, Tamiya, and Eduard. I will keep the H, FM, T, E order in these photos. The Hasegawa kit has a separate tail section to allow for the standard and tall tails. All the kits handle the nose gun bulges differently. Hasegawa molds the bulges as separate pieces, Fine Molds incorporates the forward part of the bulge into separate cowling sides and molds the rear of the bulges as separate pieces. Tamiya also molds the cowling sides separately but includes the entire bulge. Edward molds the bulges as individual pieces which fit into recesses. Fine Molds has cowling panels which are specific to the sub-variant so they can cover the whole family but Tamiya only kits the G-6. Eduard went the other direction, issuing kits for all the variants but cutting new molds for each.

Lower wing panels, H, FM, T, E top to bottom. Hasegawa has taken some liberties with the radiator flaps, sweeping them up to meet the wing trailing edge with no opening to the rear. The Fine Molds radiator flaps must be cut loose if you want to pose them down, both Tamiya and Eduard flaps can be bent down. Tamiya and Eduard both offer wheelwell details which include the limber holes, on Fine Molds these are represented by depressions and Hasegawa doesn’t have them at all. The missing panel in the center of the Tamiya wing is there to trap extensions on the landing gear legs which ensures their proper alignment.

These are the upper wing panels and their undersides which show details molded into the wheel well roofs. The wings are similarly engineered with the exception of the Eduard wings on the bottom. When Messerschmitts are on the ground the leading-edge slats extend, and it is almost impossible to find a photograph without the three trailing-edge flaps in various degrees of deflection. Eduard is the only manufacturer to mold these surfaces as separate pieces, and therefore the only kit to allow for a realistic wing configuration without cutting.

Landing gear components, H, FM, T, E. Proper landing gear alignment on the 109 can be tricky, both Tamiya and Edward have added extensions to the gear legs to help in getting this right. The quality of the components improves as time goes on.

Likewise, the drop tanks get better as well. Eduard and Fine Molds each have the two most common types of drop tanks. Eduard also includes a bomb as well, with the appropriate rack which goes with it.

A comparison of the propellers and spinners. An interesting observation is the spinners (and forward fuselages) increase in diameter as the kits get newer. This can even be seen in the photo.

Cockpits also improve over time. The Hasegawa cockpit at top is the most basic, and is best replaced. Fine Molds is an improvement, but even with a closed canopy much of this will be visible so some extra detailing work will pay off. Both the Tamiya and Eduard cockpits look good out of the box and only a few minor tweaks really make them pop.

Sidewall detail, H, FM, T, E. The Hasegawa 109 has no sidewall detail at all, but the advantage of this is it is the easiest to enhance with an aftermarket cockpit set. Fine Molds has shallow details, I find it best to build out the FM cockpits with Evergreen strips. Both the Tamiya and Eduard kits have excellent details. The Eduard kits enhance this with painted photoetch or decals, modeler’s choice. What is not used to detail the Eduard cockpits can be used on the others.

Assembled cockpit tubs out of the box. Both the Tamiya and Eduard tubs are designed to be inserted after the fuselage sides are closed up.

This is the Fine Molds fuselage with some basic enhancements made from Evergreen strip. The Bf 109 canopy is comprised of flat panels so the interior will be visible even on a closed canopy build. This really doesn’t take that long, especially on a batch build, and enhances the appearance considerably.

Here are the painted cockpit tubs, Eduard, Tamiya, and Fine Molds, left to right. There are differences for sure, but they all came out well.

Part II here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2024/04/26/bf-109g-comparison-build-hasegawa-fine-molds-tamiya-eduard-kits-part-ii/

Picture of the Week 16

A U.S. Navy Sikorsky JRS-1 flying boat in the Yellow Wings scheme, this example was assigned to VJ-4. In the civilian market they were known as the S-43, most famously operated by Pan Am as “Baby Clippers”. The USAAC purchased five as the OA-8, the USN operated seventeen as the JRS-1. The type soldiered on into 1941, where at least one was present for the Pearl Harbor Raid and searched for the Japanese Fleet. A survivor is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.