Just finished building and painting the airfix 1/72nd bf109 g6 and quite frankly I would rather throw myself into a vat of boiling paint thinner than do this kit again
Overall the internals were incredibly simple, but I’m not going to complain on 1/72nd internals because what do you really expect
Moving to the externals, I noticed then that the g6’s humps weren’t even separate, they were together like some weird tumor growing infront of the cockpit, nevertheless I got myself ready and looked at the provided schemes, it was at this point I made the thoughtless choice to do an airbrushed snake pattern on a 1/72nd scale model
what proceeded was an entire Sunday wasted on essentially wrestling with my airbrush and the kit in order to get a somewhat satisfying result, after the day I had concluded I wasn’t going to put any more effort into this kit than I had to get it looking acceptable on a shelf, I proceeded to try out a nice blue squiggle pattern and do a little black belly, apply decals and varnish it up (note, this was my first time using gauzy agent, this stuff rocks!)
When it came time to weather my considerable hours of battling the kit with my mother’s nail files came back to haunt me and half the panel lines remained completely unshaded, resulting in a really unappealing patchy look
Overall, it didn’t take me long to realise I wouldn’t get much out this kit, but I definitely underestimated the toil I’d have to go through to get it to behave to my liking
If this is the kit I think it is, perhaps you should have delved into Scalemates, just to check its provenance; if you did, or do, you will note it hails from 1959, so will reflect manufacturing and even customer acceptance levels from that time.
If you wished for a more acceptable kit in terms of accuracy and fitting, perhaps you should have cast your net a little further, Revell or Hasegawa perhaps?
I built it a couple of years go in a fit of nostalgia, yet finished it as I would have done when a schoolboy, (though hopefully improved) removing at a stroke any angst over fit and accuracy; it was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience:
I looked at a 1/72 Airfix G6 and it was more Starfix than Airfix. Must of been at least late 50s or early 60s mold. Guy in a chair was suppose to be a pilot in a seat, a lot of stuff molded on. I totally bypassed that kit!!!
Just to add that Airfix did a completely new tool Bf.109-G6 in 2009. If you don’t always check Scalemates for the history of some kits, some kits also get released under other companies labels so again worth checking.
Just to add that this kits tooling dates to 1956 and has been reboxed by Heller, Smer. intech, Hobbycraft, MPC and Mistercraft amongst a few others. It’s been reboxed multiple times.
Well, that was rather my point! Don’t denigrate a manufacturer when the product is one of their first - in this case dating back several decades. If you want a better product, shop around!
Adding to what Littorio wrote, it is a good idea to check out every model on Scalemates before making a purchase. The Product Timeline, Instructions, and In-box reviews sections are especially helpful.
Some model companies have molds going back many decades. The people at such companies will release models formed from very old molds, put new artwork on the box, and provide no indication when the molds were made.
I tried building one. I knew before I started that the fuselage gun covers were suspect and I attempted to correct them. Partly achieved it but then the under-cart went wrong so it got consigned to the wbp…
Not a very successful build on my part, but those gun breech covers are definitely wonky OOB!
Craig, if you want to build another 109 in 1/72, you might give the kits from Eduard a chance. They have quite a range of them in that scale. You might like to check out the builds of our Magnus for motivation The Collection - Models by Magnus :)! - Aircraft - KitMaker Network
I have built a few of these kits in 1/48 and I must admit, that I’ve become an Eduardoholic …
