Messerschmitts on a stick! Here is the batch all primed up and ready for paint. The five G-6s which are being compared in this build are to the right, the other five are earlier versions of the 109 that somehow managed to tag along. Priming is the last chance to catch any bad seams or panel lines. One thing I am always on the lookout for are stray mold seams, these can often be found along the trailing edges and tail surfaces. I also try to drill out any needed holes at this stage to avoid potential damage to the paint later.Here are the five G-6s under paint, Fine Molds, Tamiya, Eduard, Eduard, and Hasegawa left to right. This photo illustrates one of the potential efficiencies of building in batches of similar subjects – all of these models are painted in variations of the Luftwaffe 74 / 75 / 76 scheme. The common pallet saves significant time in clean up and prep as each color can be applied to multiple models at the same time.This is the Fine Molds kit with a field applied scheme of RLM 74 over black with subdued markings for night operations. Sources were not specific as to the gray used on the upper surfaces so I went with the darker of the standard grays, RLM 74. The markings were blacked out with Mr. Color Tire Black, which was also mixed with Flat Black to lighten the distemper paint.This is the Tamiya 109 wearing the standard 74 / 75 / 76 colors with 02 blotches, one of the schemes provided on the Eduard decal sheet. The white tail markings were used by flight leaders as an aid in gathering formations together.Another scheme intended for night operations, this is RLM 76 with RLM 74 bands and black undersides. The yellow “1” was simple enough to mask off with tape. There is a similar scheme as one of the marking options on the Eduard decal sheet, this one is another JG 300 machine but has the Red Reich Defense band.The group after the conclusion of the decal-a-thon. Messerschmitts have a lot of stencils which makes this job tedious. These markings are all from either EagleCals or the Eduard kit sheet. I experimented with removing the film from the Eduard decals with low-tack masking tape. This worked but I did tear a few of the markings themselves, likely as the result of the gloss coat underneath failing to adhere. I don’t see a real advantage of Eduard’s new decal type over those from a quality manufacturer such as Cartograph.The design of Eduard’s landing gear allows the building of the complete assembly before it is attached to the model. This is novel so I thought I’d give it a try.Here is the entire batch completed, Hasegawa, Fine Molds and Tamiya in the back row with the two Eduard kits in front. All the kits received Albion tube for the R6 gun pack barrels and pitot tubes. Radio ariels are my go-to Nitenol wire. So how do they compare?
SUMMARY
The Hasegawa kit is now 30 years old and is beginning to show its age. Not that it was a bad kit for its time but it has been clearly surpassed by the newer tools. Like most Hasegawa kits the deficiencies are most apparent in the cockpit area and the wheelwells, both of which are minimalist and lack any detail. The outlets on the coolers on the undersides have been simplified and are best cut out and replaced. The nose is slightly undersized, as are the fuselage bulges for the gun breeches. On the plus side fit is good and the kit goes together without any issues. If you are not too picky this kit can make for a quick “pallet cleanser” or a practice kit for a beginning modeler, but it won’t stand up to scrutiny without some extra work.
Hasegawa
The Fine Molds kit has been my Messerschmitt of choice for almost two decades now, and there are still a few lurking in the stash. With the exception of the later tall-tail variants just about all the major versions from the F-series on are provided for. Cockpit detail is shallow and most modelers will want to make some enhancements here as this will be visible even on closed canopy builds, thanks to the flat panels on the canopy. The canopy is molded as a single piece, so if you want to pose it open, get out the razor saw. You’ll also need the saw to drop the slats and flaps, this is time-consuming and is always a tedious part of the build for me. Build ‘em if you’ve got ‘em, but not the kit to get now if you’re buying new.
Fine Molds
The Tamiya G-6 is an excellent kit and a joy to build, it is everything you’d expect a kit from Tamiya to be. Cockpit detail is excellent right out of the box and the canopy can be posed open to show it all off. The landing gear is well detailed and the engineering ensures proper alignment, the only issue with this is the gear must be installed during the major construction which risks breakage. I’m not put off by this but others might be. Looking at the sprues Tamiya does not appear to be planning any other versions, so the G-6 is all we’re likely to get from them. There are not a lot of options there either. There is a drop tank but none of the fairly common R6 wing gun packs, the packs on this build are spares from Eduard kits. My biggest disappointment with this kit is the need to cut out the slats and flaps, a rather surprising omission from an otherwise excellent effort.
Tamiya
The Eduard kits are the most detailed Messerschmitts in the scale and represent the best value – my Dual Combo pack was less than $30 from Hannants. The decal sheet provides fourteen options with stencils which is almost worth the price alone. Also included are canopy masks and PE frets. The kit itself has parts for just about any option you’d want as well as spares for the tiniest of the fiddly bits – a nice touch. There will be plenty of parts left over for the spares box! Surface textures are outstanding and feature finely engraved rivets. The biggest innovation is the kit comes with separate slats and flaps for the first time, no more cutting. You will have to pay close attention to the instructions to get the most out of this build, many of the parts options are similar and PE is always tricky to work with, but the result is a gem of a model. You could make the argument the Eduard kit is over-engineered, but the true Messerschmitt aficionado will appreciate the attention to detail and the plethora of options provided in the box. This is a more complicated build than the Tamiya kit, but the Eduard kits are the best detailed and the best value for the money.
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.
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.
Here is the Airfix Hornisse under a coat of primer, if you look closely you can see a few areas where I have re-filled seams with Mr. Surfacer 500. There are always a few spots which need a little extra attention, that may just be a me thing but I always find a few spots to fill or re-scribe.The undersides have been sprayed and the Grauviolett has been applied to the uppersurfaces. The fuselage sides were masked with poster putty and the splinters with Tamiya tape. After the Graugrün has been painted I’ll go back and fill in the mottles and touch-ups.It looks like the vast majority of Me 410s were delivered in the standard Luftwaffe day fighter scheme of RLM 74 / 75 / 76. There are some profiles using other colors but looking at original photos I find these unconvincing. The Me 410 looks good in the grays, I always enjoy the painting process as this is where a model starts to look like something to me.Decals for all four builds came from Xtradecals sheet 72286, these were printed by MicroScale and go on without any drama. The Airfix kit decals use orange instead of yellow for the fuel triangles, also the spirals for the spinners did not fit well. Swastikas were sourced from the spares box.Panel lines were washed with a dark gray on the undersides and black on the uppers. I try to attach everything I can that isn’t easy to break off before applying the flat coat, the flat helps bend in all the paint on the small bits and hides any stray glue marks. Also, the clear coats act like a weak form of glue and helps attach the parts.Here is the finished batch, the new Airfix kit in front and the three Fine Molds kits in the second row. Most modelers will be able to get a good result from either kit, and both build up well. The biggest challenge with either kit is aligning and gluing the three-piece canopy, the canopies are molded in three parts due to the lateral bulges on the original design, this makes assembly a bit tricky but there is really not a good alternative.
Summary
Fine Molds
The Fine Molds Me 410 was released in 1996 and is a good kit for that era. There were multiple boxings issued, many of these simply had different decal sheets. The kit decals in all three of my examples were the thick type with creamy whites found in many Japanese kits, the only items I found of any use were some of the instrument decals. The cockpit detail is adequate but the cockpit decking should have some detail added as this will be visible on the finished model. The wing leading edge slats should be cut out so they can be shown dropped, this is the normal configuration when the aircraft is on the ground. The kit has sharp trailing edges on the wings and tail surfaces, the only fit issue I encountered was the need to fill the seam at one of the wingroots. The Fine Molds kit is still quite buildable so I wouldn’t rush out to the vendor’s room to sell mine if I still had any in my stash.
Fine Molds
Airfix
The Airfix kit took everyone by surprise. Just this week Eduard released a kabuki tape mask set for this kit (you’re welcome), but don’t waste your money on the KV masks as they don’t fit and wouldn’t stick if they did. Being a new mold the details are sharp and the fit is excellent, the only need for improvement I saw was the wing trailing edges required some thinning. Cockpit detail is excellent, you may only want to add some belts to give it a finished look. The control surfaces are positionable in and of themselves or provided with optional parts for an alternative position and this includes the leading-edge slats and radiator flaps. Drop tanks are included for the wings, but I replaced mine with spares from Fine Molds Bf 109s as these looked slightly better. Neither kit included rocket launchers which would have been a nice touch. Due mainly to all the optional parts the Airfix kit has a higher parts count than the Fine Molds, and being a newer tool the details are a little sharper. The kit decals are also sharp and printed well with all the stencils represented. I found the fuel triangles to be too orange for my liking though, and the spinner spirals did not fit well. I liked the Airfix instructions, the one nit-pick here is the colors are all called out as numbers; it turns out these reference Humbrol paints, and there is no Humbrol to English dictionary included anywhere so if you don’t know 62 means brown you may be left scratching your head. In all I’d rate the Airfix kit the better of the two so if you’re in the market for a new Me 410 kit this is the one to look for.
With the cockpits completed I moved on to the major assemblies. I like to sand down the wings and fuselage separately as I find them easier to handle that way. When it came time to join the assemblies the wing roots had gaps. This can be problematic due to the raised details which would be easy to sand off.A quick fix is filling with Perfect Plastic Putty. After it dries it can be “filed” down using a wet cotton bud, this fills the gap without sanding away any of the surrounding detail.There is a lot of structural detail on the decking around the cockpit, and this will be visible under the canopy. The Fine Molds kits needed a little help here but the Airfix kit has all this molded in. Anything missing from the Fine Molds kits was built up using Evergreen stock.Fine Molds provides no detail on the radiator faces, they are molded as flat panels. This doesn’t really jump out at you on the finished model but I added some radiator faces using sections of 1/700 ship railing. Not perfect, but it will give the appearance of some detail.One of my subjects will be a night intruder fitted with flame dampers. Neither kit contained parts for these, so I made a set from 0.25” round stock with the ends drilled out.I purchased all the Fine Molds kits at model shows over the years and one of these kits was missing the clear parts. Falcon has a vacuform part for the main canopy but doesn’t provide a nose piece. I tried plunge molding a nose piece from clear stock but the piece was very thin and flimsy when done. This is my second attempt using 0.020” stock and a spare clear part from the Airfix kit.This is the Airfix kit assembled and awaiting primer. At the time of this build there have been several masking sets announced but none are yet available. If you are considering buying a set intended for another kit and seeing if it will fit save your money, the Airfix canopy has different shapes. The white panels are from a KV set and the rest were cut from Tamiya tape.I did buy KV mask sets for the Fine Molds kits, but these were problematic. The masks tended to lift from curved panels, and the Me 410 has a lot of curved panels. The shapes were right though, so I used the KV masks as templates and cut replacements from Tamiya tape. I paid the money for a mask set and still had to take the time to cut the masks myself.
When was the last time there was a kit released from a major manufacturer with no hype, or hint of any kind for that matter? Airfix’ Me 410 took everyone by surprise, including myself. If there was some buzz about this kit I missed it completely. In fact, I had planned to build a few Fine Molds Me 410s as my next batch. Two days after I had placed an order with Hannants the Airfix kit became available, so I put aside the stack of Fine Molds kits and waited a few months until I had another order ready from Hannants so I could build them all together. Second time that has happened in the last two orders. I’ll place another order in a couple of months, so if there’s any new kit you’d like to see it will surely be released right after I place the order!The Fine Molds kit was originally released in 1996. Fine Molds has a business relationship with Hasegawa and the engineering of this kit is typical for a Hasegawa release of that time. Molding is crisp and panel lines are recessed. The cockpit is actually pretty well detailed, but there is still some room for improvements if you desire.Smaller sprues, there are two copies of the sprue in the upper right which should also contain the main wheels and prop. I have three FM Me 410 kits, all three were purchased second-hand at model shows over the years. All had been tinkered with by their previous owners, one had all the parts cut off the sprues in bags, and one was missing the clear parts. Not exactly mint condition but nothing which can’t be overcome.The Airfix kit looks like a gem in the box. Everything is well-detailed and crisply molded. For dangly bits there are two drop tanks included, and optional parts for deflected elevators. In fact, all the control surfaces are molded separately including the wing slats and radiator flaps.The Airfix kit has a higher parts count than the Fine Molds, in part due to all the options provided. In the upper right is the sprue for the armament options which allow the builder to choose between the U2 and U4 variants.I also picked up a set of the Quinta Studios cockpit details to try on one of the Fine Molds kits. These are 3-D printed on decal paper, the details are not flat but have some relief to them. Once released from the paper they need glued to the model, there is no adhesive on the back like a decal would have.Here is a comparison of the upper wing panel, Airfix on top and Fine Molds on the bottom. The Airfix kit provides optional parts to represent the wing slats opened or closed. The Ailerons are molded separately, as are the radiator flaps. I have cut loose the slat on the Fine Molds wing panel as these were normally dropped when the aircraft was on the ground.The fuselage parts compare well on both kits both in shape and in detail.This is the Airfix kit with the cockpit parts in place. The rear crew position is mounted to the center wing section. The Airfix kit has superior detail, this will be most apparent when looking at the detail on the upper decking of the cockpit as the dark RLM 66 tends to obscure anything inside.The Fine Molds kit is not quite as sharp as the Airfix but it is pretty good all things considered. All the major components are represented well and both cockpits are a good basis for those who want to go the super detailing route.This is the Airfix cockpit under a coat of paint. Belts are Eduard PE. I have used the kit decals and picked up various details with a fine brush.This is one of the Fine Molds cockpits with the Quinta Studios detail set. I will use a vacuform canopy from Falcon to replace the missing kit parts so I hope to be able to open up the canopy panels and show this off. I have not installed any of the details on the upper decking yet so I can address any issues with the seams.
The kits were primed with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and checked for flaws. I had to work on the seams on all three kits so there were no clear winners here. You can pretty much see any issues after priming, so anything which needed work was immediately filled with Mr. Surfacer 500.Most of the markings were painted and masked off rather than using decals. The Hinomaru were painted using mask sets from Maketar, I’ve used these before and they work really well. The Mr. Color red covers without any issues, but yellows are always problematic. I prime yellows with enamel Model Master yellow and then apply Mr. Color yellow over that after it has dried.Smaller parts are taped to cards for painting, these are parts from several kits.This is the Fujimi Judy with Mr. Color 15 over 35. If you model many Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft you will wind up with a green over gray scheme for the majority of your builds. The nuance is the manufacturers used different variations of the colors, so there are several similar but slightly different shades.The F-Toys kit wears a variation of the normal color pallet for the Judy. This one is marked as one of the two developmental aircraft which was used for reconnaissance at Midway. It lacks the yellow wing identification stripes and has grey green undersurface colors.Here are all three kits together, you can get a good representation of the Judy from all three manufacturers. This batch took a lot longer to get across the finish line than I anticipated, mainly due to family commitments and a lack of bench time. There was nothing particularly difficult here but none of the kits were “box shakers” either.
SUMMARY
The Fujimi kit is the oldest of the three, but is a good kit for its time. The cockpit detail is very basic, most modelers will want to do some work to improve things here even for a closed canopy build. The wheelwells are molded into the lower sections of the wings and are far too shallow, if such things bother you plan on some extra work here as well. Fujimi has an odd habit of designing the wing parts such that the seam runs through the middle of the underside of the flaps which ensures that there is filling needed there. The kit is engineered to allow Fujimi to issue kits of all the major Judy variations using the same mold so the engine and cowling pieces are broken out separately. The kit decals suffer from all the foibles of the older Japanese kits and are best discarded. Not a bad kit, it will need some work to add details but is still buildable.
Fujimi D4Y3
I was initially dismissive of the F-Toys kit, but Jim Bates had published a review of the kit on Hyperscale ( https://www.hyperscale.com/2018/reviews/kits/ftoys603279reviewjb_1.htm ) and encouraged me to pick one up. It comes pre-painted, but that will not be an advantage for modelers who want to eliminate seams and mold lines. The parts press-fit together but react well to MEK and superglue. Many of the parts are intended to be moveable, this is not a liability except for the bomb bay doors which do not fit well and should be replaced. The fit overall is not as tight as a conventional kit so expect to spend time test fitting and working on seams. The surprise here is the cockpit, which was the most detailed and accurate interior of the three and one of the better cockpits right out of the box you’ll find.
F-Toys D4Y1
AZ Models have issued a family of Judy kits which cover all the major versions. The parts are the same in all the boxings, so any Judy can be built from any kit provided you have the correct decals – my boxing was intended as a radial-engined D4Y3 but I built an inline-engined D4Y2-S nightfighter from it. The instructions cover all the versions as well. I only used the tail codes from the kit’s decal sheet (on the Fujimi kit) and these performed well. Oddly, the instructions include a placement guide for stenciling decals and PE, neither of which are included. This is a limited run kit with all that implies, and there are fit issues to address. AZ has also engineered a seam lime through the flaps which will need filling, same as Fujimi. Cockpit detail is good but can be improved, and wheelwells are molded separately which deepens them somewhat. The AZ kit builds up well but the fit issues make it more work than it should have been.
Here are the interior components for the Fujimi Judy. The kit part is at the top for comparison, the replacements are a combination of resin castings from the F-Toys and AZ kits along with Evergreen stock.The F-Toys kit interior in many ways is the best of the three. The components are nicely molded and there were no fit problems, really the only thing most modelers would feel the need to add are seatbelts. This is the one place where the pre-painting could prove to be an asset, you could assemble the cockpit right away and close up the fuselage rather quickly.The AZ cockpit is pretty well detailed right out of the box, but I added some resin components cast from the F-Toys parts.Here is the AZ fuselage ready to be closed up. No fit problems, even with the extra components. The AZ engine was better detailed than the Fujimi, I added ignition wires which make it look much busier. The AZ kit has parts to make all the D4Y variants, I will finish mine with the inline engine and use the radial in the Fujimi Judy.This is the F-Toys cockpit, re-painted and with seatbelts added.The Fujimi kit has shallow wheelwells. I know this is not a big deal to most modelers but I bugs me, so I ground out the shallow wells with a Dremel tool and built it back deeper. I left the gear attachment points intact, this will ensure a solid join for the gear legs. You can compare the depth of the original molded-in wheelwell with the replacements at this point.The F-Toys wing has deep wheelwells, but there is a prominent ejector pin mark which should be removed. The main flaps and ailerons are molded separately and are intended to be moveable but I glued them in place with MEK on my example. All the control surfaces have exaggerated rib detail which was removed with an Xacto knife and sanded smooth.The bombay doors are also intended to be moveable, and the kit includes a bomb which is designed to swing out. The bay doors didn’t fit well so I replaced them with Evergreen sheet, and I also used a smaller bit to fill in openings in the fuselage where the wheelwells tie in.The AZ kit has some fit problems. The worst area is at the point where the wing leading edge and various fuselage components come together. There are five major parts at this junction, and none of them fit very well with each other. I joined this area with superglue and then filled & sanded until it was smooth. The wing to fuselage joint also had gaps, and the gaps were big enough to insert some strip as the first step in blending.I wanted to pose some of the canopy sections open to show off the cockpit detail, so I used the plunge-mold technique to form center sections which would be thin enough to stack up realistically. The mold is a resin cast of the AZ canopy mounted on sprue sections. The clear material is PET (recycling type 1) from a cookie container. The plastic is heated over the flame until it softens and is then quickly draped over the mold. Completed sections are visible on the bench at the top.This is the Fujimi kit with the major assembly complete and ready for primer. The white filler is Perfect Plastic Putty, which can be removed with a wet cotton bud in areas where sanding would destroy detail. I find it is particularly useful around canopies, as seen here.If you’re building the F-Toys kit as a model and not a toy any benefit of the pre-painted components is lost when filling and sanding seams. The drop tanks are molded as single pieces, but they had prominent mold lines which had to be sanded off.The AZ kit required a few filling and sanding sessions to make up for the poor fitting parts, but it does look good once everything is smoothed out.This is the underside of the Fujimi Judy showing the Evergreen wheelwells. The curved ribs were made with a Waldron punch set. The outermost sections on each side are the gear leg attachment points from the original molding.
Time for another comparison build, this time I’ll be looking at three kits of the Yokosuka D4Y “Judy”. First up is the Fujimi kit which was released in 1983. This was a good effort for its time, and Fujimi engineered the molds in such a way so as to allow for all the major variants to be built.The kit features crisp detail and recessed panel lines. The small sprue to the right accounts for the parts needed for the radial engine and tall tail of the D4Y3 version. The top sprue contains the interior, consisting of a floor with a pair of crudely-molded seats. Wheel wells are shallow, and are molded into the lower wing. The radial engine is basic but will look okay inside the cowling.The AZ Model kit was originally issued in 2012 and has recently been re-popped with new decals. There are several boxings to cover all the major versions, but in this case the plastic inside is the same. If you are planning on using aftermarket decals for your subject any boxing will do as all the parts are included. The instructions are also generic and show the construction steps for all versions.Here are AZ’s sprues. As you can see, you can build both the inline and radial engine variants and both types of vertical tails are included. Panel lines are recessed and molding is crisp. The cockpit is built up from several parts, a vast improvement over Fujimi’s.Last up is a “Gashapon” kit from Japan. These are intended as collectable toys and feature a number of working parts. They are designed to be press fit together, but the plastic also reacts well to modeling adhesives for those who want to glue the parts together permanently. This one was issued in 2017 by F-Toys. I was initially dismissive of this kit but picked one up on the recommendation of Jim Bates.The parts are pre-painted and come packed in a vacuform tray. If you’re interested in your kit as a quick assemble toy this is fine right out of the box, but serious modelers should expect to paint everything again after eliminating seams and mold lines. There is a small decal sheet containing tail markings and the choice of bordered or unbordered underwing Hinomaru depending on the particular aircraft being modeled.Molding is surprisingly good, and many of the parts are superior to their counterparts in the more traditional kits. I am under no delusions of any of the paintwork surviving the assembly process, and will just build this kit as I would any other. Here is a comparison of the wheels and cockpit parts. At the top are parts from the LS kit from 1964. I had intended to build this one as well and see what improvements could be made, but the kit was poorly shaped even considering its age and is actually 1/75 scale so I set it aside. The next row is the Fujimi parts, the wheels are an improvement but the cockpit is only a little better. The middle rows in green are from the F-Toys kit. Surprisingly, this is the best cockpit of any of the kits, and if you wanted to crank out the build quickly you could easily add some seatbelts and close up the fuselage in the first modeling session. At the bottom are the AZ parts. These will build up into a presentable cockpit and with a little extra effort can be made into a gem. The AZ wheels are also the best molded of the lot.Here are the underwing parts. The Fujimi wing on top has had the shallow wheel bay detail ground out, I plan on building this out deeper with sheet stock. The F-Toys wheelwell extends all the way to the inside of the upper wing surface but sports an ejector pin mark where it is most visible. This type of thing negates any value of the detailed paint job for the serious modeler, but probably doesn’t detract for the toy collector. At bottom is AZ’s wing. This displays some nice recessed detail. The wheelwells are separate pieces, a little on the shallow side but I decided they would be adequate.Here are the fuselage halves compared. At top is AZ with Fujimi, middle is F-Toys with AZ, and at bottom is Fujimi with F-Toys. The cockpit openings lined up well. AZ is the longest and Fujimi shortest, with F-Toys in between. The differences in length are all between the cockpit and the tail.
The Eduard Wunderschöne Neue Maschinen boxing provides markings for fourteen different aircraft and the instructions show a four-view full color illustration with color call-outs for each scheme, so I decided this batch would all use the Eduard markings. This example was painted freehand, I substituted Mr. Color 123 RLM 83 for the 303 Dark Green in the instructions simply because I had the 123 on hand and the colors are similar. This camo was applied free hand, all the others were masked.All of the 109s in this batch wore field-applied schemes, one advantage of this is that in general many of the stencils would be painted over so decaling is much easier. This aircraft wore an RLM 70 / 71 splinter scheme on the upper surfaces, colors which are more commonly found on bomber or transport types.Early in the war Luftwaffe fighters wore an RLM 02 / 71 / 65 scheme, but this example utilized a non-standard pattern for these colors. The Yellow areas are recognition markings, earlier the entire cowl would be yellow but most units began overpainting the cowls on the upper surfaces because they were just too conspicuous. This example is unusual in that yellow “mottles” were retained on the sides of the nose, making the scheme hard for me to resist.There were several Bf 109s in the RLM 78 / 79 desert colors which wound up fighting over the Eastern Front, there the units broke up the desert scheme with field applied colors which better matched the local terrain. All of these models were primed with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and then the Yellow panels were sprayed and masked first.I used the Eduard decals for all the individual markings, and there were enough Balkenkreuze for two of the aircraft. All these conformed very well, even the fine rivets were able to show through. The Fine Molds Decals are on the thick side, and the AZ decals looked like they were a little transparent, although I did not try to use them to see for certain. I was not able to remove the carrier film from the Eduard decals, even the trick with the thinner and a Q-tip didn’t work. I just left the carrier film in place, it doesn’t look any different than any other decal film.All the models were washed with Tamiya Panel Line Wash to bring out the details. Excess wash was removed with a Q-tip and thinner. If you pull the wash in the direction of airflow while doing this it looks like natural weathering. This is the Fine Molds kit.Here is the underside of the Eduard kit after the excess wash was removed. The rivet detail held up well, and it is not overdone. I have to admit I like the effect more than I thought I would.This is a comparison of nose contours, AZ on the left and Eduard on the right. Size wise, the Fine Molds kit is in between these two. The AZ kit is known for its undersized nose, which is especially apparent from this angle.All four together for a group shot. In the rear are the Fine Molds and AZ Model kits, the two in the foreground are Eduard. I measured the finished models with digital calipers and all were well within what I consider acceptable margins of measurement and construction tolerances, especially given the lack of consistency in what various sources state as the length and span of the actual aircraft. Measurements given in millimeters. Subject Length Span Actual 9020 9920 Scale 125.3 137.8 FM 125.6 136.8 AZ 126.4 136.9 Ed 126.9 138.2
SUMMARY
Fine Molds
I have built over seventy of the Fine Molds Messerschmitts over the years, often in batches of a dozen or more so this kit holds no surprises for me. The cowling panels need a couple (but only a couple!) swipes of the sanding pad on the ends for a perfect fit, and you must pay attention to get the boattail aligned properly. On the deficit side the cockpit sidewall detail is very shallow and should be built up even on a closed canopy build. The flat panels of the canopy are free of distortion and so will still allow much of the interior to be seen. The canopy itself is molded as a single piece, so modelers wanting to display an open canopy will have to either replace the part or get out the razor saw. While the razor saw is out you’ll also want to cut out the slats and flaps, as Messerschmitts are only very rarely seen on the ground without them dropped. Fine Molds provide parts for all the major versions from the F-series through the K, with the odd exception of the tall-tail versions of the G-6 and G-14. This is a good, solid kit which builds up well.
Fine Molds Bf 109F-2
AZ Model
It became obvious during construction that many of the parts in the AZ kit were “inspired” (to be generous) by the Fine Molds kit. With both on the bench simultaneously, it was easy to see where some panel lines had been added or removed from the FM parts, in some cases there were “ghost” images in the parts where the molds had still picked up the modifications. Therefore, the best comparison for the AZ kits is to the Fine Molds kits which inspired them. On the plus side the cockpit detail is better on the AZ kit, especially on the sidewalls where the detail is much deeper. The AZ kit still needs the slats and flaps cut loose so they can be posed naturally, with the exception of the lower radiator flap sections which are molded separately. There are also a few more parts for the spares box. On the down side, the nose section is noticeably undersized and there is just not a good way for the modeler to correct this. The contour of the upper section also looks off, especially right behind the spinner and at the “shoulders” of the cowl. Fit is not quite as good as the FM kit but still not bad. AZ has boxed the entire range of Messerschmitt sub-types, and there are newer boxings touting re-tooled fuselage parts so perhaps the issues with the nose have been corrected if you get the right boxing.
AZ Model Bf 109F-4
Eduard
The Eduard Messerschmitt is the new kid on the block, and the new release comes with lots of bells and whistles in the form of two PE frets, Kabuki tape masks, and a generous (and interesting) decal sheet. Surprisingly, the price point for all this was still about the same as what I paid for the AZ and Fine Molds kits on a model-for-model basis.
The Eduard kit raises the bar across the board. The surface detail is quite impressive and is some of the finest I have ever seen on any kit in any scale. The parts fit well and did not require filler, however the horizontal tail piece will need some trimming to slot together. The fit of the cowl guns and their troughs is fiddly so take your time there. The cockpit looks great without anything additional being needed, and the canopy can be posed open to show it all off. Eduard molds all the smaller bits for the entire range of Messerschmitts on a single sprue so there are loads of parts for the spares box to update other kits. They have also provided duplicates for the worst of the bustoffables such as aileron mass balances, radio masts, and gun barrels, so the modeler is saved anxiety when a small but necessary part offers itself as a sacrifice to the carpet monster. But the biggest advance is all the slats and flaps are molded separately, so no more need to cut these loose to get a Messerschmitt which looks right on the ground. In addition, the ailerons and rudder are also separate pieces and can be deflected if one chooses. This is the new king of 1/72 scale Messerschmitt kits, I am anxiously awaiting the release of the rest of the series!
WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS (LIFE,LIBERTY,AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS) IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT, AND TO INSTITUTE A NEW GOVERNMENT― Thomas Jefferson
Inch High Guy 