Peterpools

Scott Looking mighty good and thanks for the heads up on what to do and more importantly, what not to do when decanting and air brushing Tamiya TS paints.

Nice progress on the X-1. Completely agree with Carl, the interior does look like Dark Dull Green.

Oliver, Awesome and easy to see, you are never satisfied with close to perfection.

Martin,, always glad when you are along for the journey and adventure. Would be grand if it were in 32nd scale ... hint, hint Kotare.

Nice and on the to buy list.

Carl The detail is amazing and the fit looks awesome. Maybe the FOD mesh should have been PE? Of course the builder's skill has so much to with how well the assembly comes together and is done - yours looks perfect. For me, the hidden key is the instructions - if well done, they should be a plus in guiding the builder through the assembly and locating all the small parts, leaving no guess work as to alignment and placement. Surely seems as that's the case. Looking mighty good

Thanks Carl, very much appreciated. MiniArt for my money seems to just keep over engineering assemblies and I'm guessing toallow them to add/cram in as much detail as they can. Just seems there needs to be a better tradeoff between detail and complexity. I just finished the cowling, cowl flaps and gluing the finished assembly onto the fuselage and what should have been a snap, turned into a frustrating procedure with all sorts of small fit issues. I know a lot has to be me, as I've never built a MiniArt kit before and how they chose the parts to be added leaves no room for the slightest alignment error.

Paul Right with you. Of course I would be doing cartwheels if someone would do a Vought SB2U Vindicator. Of course I just hope we wouldn't have to wait as long it took Trumpeter to bring out their Devastator.

Carl Makes sense but there is a limit as to how many companies manufacturing basically the same aircraft model will sell enough to turn a good profit. Just seems there was a so many modelers waiting to buy Kotare's Spitfire when it was first released and that enthusiasm isn't here for their 109. I'm not a 109 guy and I know that's part of the problem for me ... just a big disappointment. I did buy and built the ZM 109 and I have their 190. For me, that's more then enough. Of course, I hope they do well and can be more creative in their next release down the road.

Carl Maybe so but the overall reaction I've seen online is still: another 109 ... oh hum. To me that doesn't translate into overwhelming sales. Right now, I just can't see it being a runaway best seller as their Spitfire was. Yup, I'm surely disappointed.

Awesome .. if only I could actually figure out how to build a biplane and rig it.

Rob Couldn't have said it any better. I have seen on another forum, who spend months and months enjoying a guessing game of what Kotare's next kit would be, the response to the announcement seems to be about the same as ours. Except for the '109' aficionados, just can't see anyone really getting that excited about Kotare's choice; just wonder what they were thinking.

Awesome for sure and will be onboard for the build.

Rob Exactly ... couldn't have picked a less exciting subject.

Guess I'm on the other side of the fence, but another 109, just what the model world needed. Talk about being unimaginative and boring. I'm out and no interest at all. Could have given us a great kit, the choices and ideas were all over the forums. My personal favorite choices were a P-51B or a P-47D; done by Kotare would have been gems and awesome kits. The only Kotare kit I've purchased and built is their first release and passed on the early Mk !. Most likely I'll buy the Spit Vb. The ZM kit was just fine for me and if I ever wanted to build another 109, there are plenty of others to choose from.

Right with Kev.

Thanks Kev and I completely agree - a happy accident.

Your "B" looks awesome and the Twin of the Mustang in the photograph. Some mighty fine work as always.🏆

PW Nice choice for your next build. Wood interior looks spot on the money and thank you for sharing your tool/method for making the eyelets.

GETTING READY FOR PRIMING To my dismay, the wing to fuselage glue-up didn’t go according to plan. I’ve become fond of the “run through fuselage spar system” which aligns and squares the wings easily, helps ensure the correct dihedral and greatly helps eliminates gluing issues. MiniArt’s Jug uses two small stub spars which are part of the wing construction and are inserted into slots in the fuselage. Not a sure-fire way of helping with the alignment and trying to maintain what I thought was the correct dihedral and I wound up with a small gap at both wing joints. My best guess as to what caused the gaps; the flaps, which seem to have been designed to be positional and installed in the down position, which can only be done that way in the Advanced kit. I later discovered, when I glued up the wings, the flaps didn’t sit flush in the slot next to the fuselage, forcing the wing to be slightly out of place and thus the gap. - strictly my goof. Yup, becoming all thumbs these past few years, I managed to bend and snap off three of the eight machine guns. I should have cut off the MG barrels right from the start and glue them back on at the end of the build. I wound up removing all eight MG’s and buying a few sets of Quickboost 50. Cal MG’s. The holes in the wings leading edge were all drilled out with a 1.0 drill bit, the MG test fitted and are now ready to go when needed. Last major assembly: The BiG P&W R2800 and cowl assembly. The engine is beautifully molded with loads of details, no exhaust pipes (none would be seen anyway) and I had a devil of a time getting the major parts to fit together, including the engine mount system … just way too fiddly. Looks wonderful now that’s it done. The four-piece exterior cowl does assembly went well with no real issues. I’m just not a fan of multi piece cowlings and am assuming to mold in the all the details, this is a concession that needed to be made. The internal part fit is fiddly as well. Still some tweaking and a bit of CCA to take care of a few offending seams. Some parts in this assembly have locating pins, which just don’t work well in alignment, others none and you’re doing a lot of guessing. For my money, this entire portion of the build should have been regulated for the Advanced kit and a less detailed engine with a one piece cowl for the basic kit, would have been just fine. MiniArt seems to have taken this approach with the flaps and this area would have benefited as well for me. I’m almost ready for priming but still waiting for my Eduard canopy mask set to arrive. Surely wish a set of masks would have been included as it is a huge aide in painting prep work. Closed cowl flaps shown but I'll be going with the open ones, as so far, the fit has a few issues, but time will tell.

Rob Fantastic purchase and I'll be waiting for a build thread.

Great attitude Dennis. I did the same and used modeling as therapy for my hands and eye-hand coordination. Frustrating at first but slowly, I gained confidence and saw improvement.

Gus Glad it's still an enjoyable build which helps keep the juices flowing and eager to spend quality bench time on the project.

Oliver Good decision for sure - the more real estate, the better.

Carl WOW, the molded-on detail is insane ... a steady hand for sure.