Clunkmeister

Oh man! Martin is the research KING!

This is the nicest Tin Can build I’ve seen in a very long time, and your base is flawless

May I put this on our Facecrook page?

HOLY CRAP! Mike, that’s amazing! I’m shaking my head in awe, and that’s no exaggeration

Gary, yesterday I did find a cool picture of a 109 and how it looks today.

Here in the US, we occasionally find the Pro Modeler boxing in an LHS. Basically just a US boxing of the same kit, sometimes with different decals, but always with the RoG impossible to decipher instructions seemingly written on rice paper.

That big yellow logging truck is truly mind blowing.

Yep please do. Either kit is great. The 109 is quite simply the finest and most accurate 109 kit out there, period. The Kai is easily the best F-4 model on the market as well. Ask Carl, he’s done one. And is doing the 109, as is Gaz.

Well, all the models were amazing, and quite honestly, I didn’t have a clue until it happened. An armor kit came real close, which is nice. It’s all in fun, and it’s a good thing

Looking GREAT, John. What brand GSB are you using?

Yep. I made the huge mistake of attempting to cut and lower the center flap on my -5 kit. I was going for the full meal deal: opened aux intake doors, ALL flaps dropped, and the canopy slid back for the spooled jp on the cat look. I found the Mother of All Air Bubbles in there. A bit, no, ALOT of creative reassembly followed. No muss, no fuss, but after that, it still sits on the SOD.

That’s a nice touch. All in all, the kit looks like a gem with a few VERY minor issues easily fixed by someone experienced enough to tackle a ZM kit.

Nice parking job. It sure would free up a lot of room on the ramp.

I believe that we all just need to bear in mind the limitations of plastic injection molding. I understand exactly what they were trying to do, and it makes perfect sense, but it fell slightly short. Not badly, just a bit. The good news being that’s an easy clean up and fix. I doubt Tamiya will do any better than this, to be honest. They may simplify stuff, but theirs will miss the mark in a spot or two as well.

I wish everyone could get one, but LSM ain’t that flush yet. 🤣

Determining the winner was extremely scientific. I had all the kids on our street over yesterday afternoon, and showed them the pictures. The results were: KevinM’s ICM 111 with 2 votes. Dick Clark’s Zvesda BTR with 2 votes. PeterPools Embraer with 1 vote Martin’s MiG-29 with 1 vote Carl’s ICM Cobra with 1 vote. So a tie, on to round 2….. By a vote of 4-3, KevinM is the winner, as chosen by pre teen Texas kids. KevinM wins his choice of: ZM Bf-109, or the limited edition ZM F-4 Kai. Either version of the F-4 Kai can be chosen. Model will come direct from SB, or if out of stock, from an alternate source. We’ll do it again in a month, guys, and thanks for participating.

It is, but it’s a kit you need to be careful with. If you can build a wooden ship, you can build the Walrus. It’s a gorgeous model.

That’s an interesting way of putting it but oh so true and spoken like a true Brit and I LOVE IT! I blew coffee out all over my keyboard

Carl, the little nubbie hanging off the landing gear attach point looks like an injector nubbie that needs to be rubbed out by judicial use of force, Semtex, or sprue nippers, your choice. 😎😚

I can go back for you I’d you wish, but then my name will be tagged at the bottom and I’d prefer not to look like I was messing with your text. That’s how rumors get started.

Great start, Bill. Gaz’s trailblazing will certainly help all of us. I’ll be following along with this as well

Gas, I built two Ta-152s of theirs, and learned much in the first build. The first one had been started when I got it, and I had multitudes of issues with the wing roots not fitting correctly aLong with exaggerated wing root detail, etc,.. much like you’re seeing here. So this one can be chalked up to styrene molding tech limitations? I’m inclined to say so here. Those tailplane fillets could have looked gorgeous in thin brass sheet, but no kitmakers could ever do that. Resin? Maybe, but it’d be crazy fragile. As for the engine and cowl fit, I had the same issues on my first 152, but worse. All previous builds pointed out a small filler piece behind the prop that wasn’t angled correctly and I concentrated on getting that absolutely perfect. Which meant cutting out the engine and reimagining the engine mounts. It got pretty ugly under that hood, exacerbated by having to remember that the rear engine and accessory drive protrude into the gear wells and are plainly visible for all to see. The surface repairs and describing took longer than the majority of the build. Forewarned and forearmed, the second built was dry fitted so many times I probably “built” it 20 times, and in the end, lo and behold, it fit perfectly. The thing that grated on me was fit the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong. Maybe, if you’re going to close the thing up anyway, refrain from engine paint? Nevertheless, you’re doing a fabulous job here, showcasing what we need to watch for a d plan ahead go to. Great build thread so far.

Hmmm. Im an unqualified observer here simply because I know so very little about the type. I have great respect for Radu’s talent not only as a researcher and model designer, but also as a genuinely decent, respectful, and all around good guy. He’s the best there is, folks. And I’m pretty good at some stuff too and tend to hold my own when questioned, just like Radu. My personal opinion is that there are serious limits to what even the most careful IM procedures can achieve, and ZM has done some seriously brilliant kits throughout their relatively short life. Maybe a bridge too far here? Who knows. But what I DO know is that Radu is correct, as the stabilizer needs to change incidence as the pilot adjusts his trim wheel, but Martin is also right in that the pictures show no gap, because at the distances we view from, the gap would be invisible to the human eye. Let’s face it, the designers at Messerschmitt were, by that time, trying to eke every last knot they could out of an obsolete airframe, and extra tight tolerances would be expected. Maybe tighter as the war dragged on and Germany was harder pressed to produce much needed equipment? Who knows. Messerschmitt engineers have long since passed away so we can’t ask. But an untouched original Czech built 109 variant doesn’t lie, and neither do period photos at exact angles to showcase any gap. Personally, I’m just happy to have a 109 that’s had Radu do the design work. We all knew months ahead of time that no matter how good it was, a 109 will always come out of the box with SOME perceived error. Never has there been a more closely studied aircraft. In watching the various builds take place on here and elsewhere, I’ll be inclined to figure out some way of eliminating the complete engine from inside the cowl, IF it continues to be an issue with all builds. My .02 only. Marring is one of the most gifted model builders I know, and by far, the most in depth research guy I know, and Radu matches Martin in research and is simply put the reigning King of kit designers in my opinion.

I like to come unglue on people too, in my mind, but then I just start laughing when I can’t keep a straight face. I always start laughing when I say “twatwaffle”

That HPH Walrus is a TOUGH build. I’d be careful of getting carried away in the wireless room, because after super detailing it, the lower wing support wire cuts right through the middle of it all. Drat! (OK, Ernie made a funny) hopefully SOMEBODY gets the joke There is also absolutely no jig included to align the engine and upper wing. The instructions give the angles, but you need to build a jig of your own design. Not tough for a ship modeler, but for someone who builds nothing but Trumpeter, Tamiya, and Hasegawa, they WILL have an issue