BlrwestSiR

Since I forgot to follow the instructions, I somehow ended up with the wings attached to the cockpit... Just kidding. They're not glued yet.

While the engine was drying, I started on the cockpit. Here's the parts that make up the floor and rear bulkhead. Again, there is detail that won't be seen once assembled. The next set of parts are for the seat pan, pedal, stick and the expended shell casing container. Here's the two part wing spar mount. Once together, I painted them in RLM 66. The underside will get done in RLM 02 once dry.

The engine oil tank has a couple of hard line that are attached to the back of it. Once in place, the tank is glued to the gear housing. The fit is nice and tight. There's more plumbing to be added to the engine. Here, I suffered my first broken part. I suspect the cat slept on it. Take your time attaching them. Some of the connections are not that clear in the instructions so here's a couple pics of the engine to help with placement. With that done, I gave it a light wash using Tamiya panel line wash.

Nice trick on masking the tailwheel. I'll have to remember that one. For the tailwheel, it will go in place after the fuselage is together. I've tried it a couple time to confirm that. Just leave out the fairing and and it'll go in fine.

That looks fantastic. And fast too! Carl

That BTR looks great Martin. I wouldn't have known it was 1/72 if you hadn't said. Carl

Nice pics of some great looking models. Thanks for sharing Martin. Did Sofia enter her C-17? Carl

Purty!

At least the gear didn't collapse ..

Very nice cockpit Rob. The Barracuda placards add a lot to the cockpit but they're a pain to apply being so small and so many of them. Carl

Congratulations Kevin! That was a fairly low stress GB so let's hope the next one goes the same way. Carl

Nice progress Bill. I'm not sure if I'll catch up to your progress but I'll give it a shot. 😋

Thanks everyone for the feedback. This is my first proper review so I'm glad it's worked out like I hoped. This has been such a highly anticipated kit and from what I've seen online, garnered a fair bit of criticism, not all of which is unwarranted that I felt a proper review should address those issues rather than just be the more typical "it looks good in the box". I mean, my cat looks good in a box . The plan is to build it OOB, and painted accordingly. The only addition. I am going to make is a set of seatbelts. I will even use the decals and not paint masks.

I went through it last night and corrected what I hope is all of the errors. Thankfully there weren't too many.

For that sort of precision, det cord is my go-to.

Move aside Batman, here comes the Blonde Knight! Well okay, maybe the engine to his plane. So far... Thanks to the staff here at LSM, I'm currently working on the new ZM 109. I've done an inbox review already and am working on a build review of the kit. It's posted in the Review section on the main page . Carl

Ernie, these fit issues are some of the things I'm looking to address with my build review. When the kit arrived, the first thing I did was tape the fuselage and tailplane together. Looking at it, Martin and I figured that it's probably the fillet at the base of the vertical tail causing the step. To me, it's a bit exaggerated, sort of like the F-35 RAM panels on just about every model of that plane. Here's some pics I took using just tape to hold things together. The parts are trimmed from the sprues with no mods yet. I think if you sand down the fillet circled in red a bit so it's not so proud, that will fix the look of the tail. As for the engine and cowl fit, it looks like ZM has gone for scale fidelity here and the attachment points are small. So it could be very easy to mis-align the engine. The engine so far in my review kit has gone together perfectly. Everything has lined up and met where it should but some parts don't have the most positive alignment so it wouldn't be hard to go awry. There's more in my build review so I don't clog up Gary 's thread . Carl

Continuing on with the engine, the engine bearers are next up. I've painted the parts in Real Colors RLM 02 1941. First up are the machine gun mounts. They're N-9 and N-10. The instructions give you a nice sized scrap diagram to show you where they go. In fact, the part in the drawing is bigger than it is in actuality. How that looks on the model. Instead of using my usual Tamiya Extra Thin cement, I've been using the regular Tamiya cement but with the finer brush from the Extra Thin bottle. I've found that this gives me better working time to get the parts together and reduces any wicking and cement getting where I don't want it. The kit has a lot of very fine piping in it. The softer plastic helps with removing it from the sprues and not having it break. There's a bit more spring in it. To further reduce the chance of a breakage, I use a fine diamond file to sand down the attachment points. I find a diamond file to be less grabby and therefore helps reduce the chance of breakage. The Tamiya PE file is good for this, if a bit on the finer side. There's a small arm (E-33) on the backside of the right engine bearer. Don't forget it and once you have it in place, be careful not to knock it off. The alignment is not the most clear even after flipping forward to see where it goes so hope for the best. At least they show you where it is supposed to go on the firewall. Part E-20 then needs to be threaded through the right side engine bearer. There's a diagram in the instructions showing how it goes but here it is with the actual parts. Here's the engine bearer in place. You can see how E-20 runs. The upper tip goes into the moulded housing on the top of the engine. The bottom end of it is attached to the exhaust shroud E-14. At this point, I wanted to check out how the engine fit to the firewall. I removed and cleaned up G-12 to see how the engine bearers attach to it. At the top, the mounts are keyed to fit into some hook shaped cutouts on the upper edge. It looks like they sit flush with the backside. At the bottom, there is the smallest of tabs on the ends of the engine bearers. This hooks onto the bottom corners of the firewall. To say that this is delicate is a bit of an understatement. There is more piping to add which may further strengthen the connection but I thought this would help give folks an understanding of how they go together. Out of curiosity, I broke out a Dragon 109 (actually the HGW rebox) to see how they do the same connection. Here's the end of their engine bearer. It's a bit thicker than the ZM one. The connection point on the firewall. The bearers go into the large slotted holes at the bottom and the holes in the square recesses. That obviously helps to keep thing aligned. ZM have obviously gone for scale fidelity here so here's hoping it holds up.

That's the idea behind the build review. See if I can find hangups or problem areas so folks are aware of what to watch out for. I think the magazine was called Military Model Review? I wish I still had my copies.

Thanks Ernie! I tried to proofread this as best I could but I did everything from my phone. Should have used a laptop.

Thanks Gary! Your build has been the one paving the way and I'm using the hurdles you have had to see if there's a way to find possible solutions and help others. I actually considered building the kit with no paint at all. I remember there used to be a hobby magazine that did that. All their reviews were build reviews with no paint or filler. Just glue and plastic.

Nice builds there. Is that 109 with the cowl open the new ZM one?

Here's the start of the build review. I may jump around a bit but I will go through every step and use all the parts in the kit rather than simplifying things. Going into this project one thing I've been very curious about is the fit of the cowl over the engine and upper guns. The Dragon and Eduard 109 kits are basically impossible/ extremely difficult to build with a closed cowl and all the interior details in place. So step 1, the engine block. . You can see the moulded in pistons and con rods. Last time you'll see them. The fit of the parts is good. Tolerances are a bit looser which can very easily lead to fit problems. Here's the cylinder banks to show what I mean. It's a bit too easy to get a misalignment if you're not paying attention. The same parts lined up correctly and glued together. The plastic responds well to Tamiya Extra Thin so that helps. The basic engine block together along with the intake manifold and supercharger. The ignition leads are more durable than I expected which is a good thing for me. The mould seam lines are fairly fine and easily removed with an knife blade. I painted the block using Tamiya Semi-gloss Black and the silver parts are Mr Color. With the supercharger in place and the intake manifold. You can see the impeller detail in the snail of the supercharger. This bring me to the end of the first two pages.

There is definitely a ton of them. And some are tiny too.

Thanks Martin! I've already started on the kit and have some observations to make. Once I have a bit more done I'll start posting. Carl