Academy 1/72 scale kit finished

[matrixone]

No, not a what-if but the way Academy goofed up the research on this kit it might as well be a what-if.

I wanted to have a small scale Me 109E in my collection and the only one I had in my kit stash was the Academy Me 109E that I bought years ago.
This was intended to be a quick build but I was only a short way into building this thing and realized just how bad the accuracy in the shape and panel line detail was I nearly binned it but did stick with it and eventually got it finished.








Matrixone

[Gondor]

The phrase "Making a Silk Purse out of a Sow's ear" comes to mind. 

Gondor

[matrixone]

Thanks Gondor!
This is a 'back of the shelf' type of model for sure.


Matrixone

[NARSES2]

The phrase "Making a Silk Purse out of a Sow's ear" comes to mind. 

Gondor

Absolutely  Plus one of my favourite camouflage schemes 

[PR19_Kit]

This is a 'back of the shelf' type of model for sure.

Your 'back of the shelf' are my 'Contest Entries' Matrixone. 

It looks terrific from here. 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys!

From a few feet away the Academy kit looks okay but up close the errors in the accuracy are painful to look at.

But the good news is my next two small scale Messerschmitts will be pure what-if.

However this was not my original intention...my plan was to build one Messerschmitt real world and the other what-if, the plan failed because the kit that was chosen for the real world build was the HobbyCraft Bf 109G-12, this kit is a total turd!
I have built a number of the older short run kits before and have plenty of experience dealing with fixing fit problems but this HobbyCraft Bf 109G-12 kit is the worst I have seen yet.
The fuselage halves have locating pins like most other injection molded kits but in no way do they work even after trimming the pins and enlarging the holes, I simply removed the pins and tried dry fitting the fuselage halves together only to find they would need some sanding to remove the high spots so I did that and then found one fuselage half was larger than the other! There was no way to fix this without sanding off the molded in detail...re-scribing panel lines lost from sanding is no problem but removing the tiny air scoops on the nose would be a problem.
And then I tried to see if the wings would fit together...nope. It was at this point I realized this kit was not worth the effort to finish, and when you factor in the rough surface detail on the large parts and the flash on the smaller parts that would need to be trimmed off I could see no point in going any further.
So if you have the HobbyCraft Bf 109G-12 in your kit stash think twice before building it...and these words are coming from a modeler that has NEVER given up on a kit before.

Matrixone

[su27rules]

 

[DogfighterZen]

Detail inaccuracy on a kit doesn't bother me much if the build looks great like yours does! 

[Old Wombat]

Nice looking build, matrix, but I can see you weren't too keen on it by the end - it lacks the brilliant wear & weathering you usually do that makes your builds so life-like.

[Gondor]

This is a 'back of the shelf' type of model for sure.

Your 'back of the shelf' are my 'Contest Entries' Matrixone. 

It looks terrific from here. 

I agree 

Gondor

[matrixone]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Old Wombat,
After realizing half way into this build that this kit was so bad in being accurate no effort was made to add weathering to it, I just wanted it out of the way.
Just because I skimped out on weathering this model does not mean I won't go back to my old ways...I have plans to build a 1/48 scale Ta 183 and finish it as a war weary 1947 or 1948 machine complete with extensive paint chipping on the fuselage and parts of the wooden wings exposed with some paint worn off.

Matrixone

[Old Wombat]

We-ell, I kinda figured it was just this one build.