1/24 Trumpeter Messerschmitt

Bf-109G-6

by Rafi Ben-Shahar

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Normally, I shun from recent 1/24 and 1/32 model aircraft because of the poor rendition of surface detail. If you look closely at the 30 years old 1/24 Airfix Bf 109E, you will see what I mean. Nonetheless, I made an exception with Trumpeter's 1/24 Bf 109G-6. In addition to the very low price that I paid for this kit, I remembered the favorable reviews and it also complements nicely my Airfix collection.
Encouraged by the in box review by Lynn Ritger at Hyperscale and the build review by Scott van Aken at Modeling Madness, I set to build the beast.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

Indeed, the model is relatively well designed albeit some structural flaws that can be corrected. I managed to follow most of Lynn's suggestions and observations that saved a lot of frustration for the aftermath of construction. Nonetheless, if you plan to build this model, bear in mind that the reviews merely bring you to a "ready to assemble" point and a lot of work is required to materialize the potential of the model. Particular areas that received attention were the cockpit area, engine, wheel struts (with working oleos) and wheel bay.
In the end, after 10 days of leisure work, I gave up at the point where the decals proved to be incredibly brittle. Hence, I left out the spelling mistakes, omitted the Wk.Nr. and did not correct the design flaw of wheel strut.

Bottom line, the two reviewers were right and I got an impressive "109", which is hardly the word for the most detailed or colorful "109" of smaller scales in my collection.

Rafi

Photos and text © by Ben-Shahar