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Trumpeter Bf 109 K-4


tucohoward

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Thanks a lot guys! Brian, it's funny, when I read the description of the plane in the JaPo book it said that the plane was very dirty overall and my first thought was, perfect. Troy I totally agree about the JaPo K-4 book. It is fantastic. Thanks to Martin for turning me onto it. It was not cheap, but for me anyway, money well spent. I wish I could find part one as I only have the second. I just finished respraying the spinner in 70. Going to try white over top of it. May not work but I want to try that way first as it is less work.

 

Jay

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As you know I've been following your build Jay, and find I've suddenly concluded I'd like to eventually match my range of Spitfires with a complementary line up of Bf 109 contemporaries.

 

My simple question is do you recommend the Trumpeter K as he best route to a very late war '109 (as in versus a Spitfire XIV) for someone whose limited 109 references mostly date back to the '80s-90s? Bearing in mind I will naturally be stealing all your mods in your build article ... :)

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My simple question is do you recommend the Trumpeter K as he best route to a very late war '109 (as in versus a Spitfire XIV) for someone whose limited 109 references mostly date back to the '80s-90s? Bearing in mind I will naturally be stealing all your mods in your build article ... :)

 

Having both the Hasegawa  and Trumpter kit, it sort of depends on what you want. Both have some accuracy issues, the Trumpeter a bit more so as it isn't a good representation of any '109 and the 'K is more a badly done 'G14 with a couple 'K add-ons. The Hasegawa has the odd squared section on the back and some more subtle accuracy bits that can more easily be ignored, but has the basic bits for a 'K right there. I personally dislike the very heavy rivet patterns on the Trumpter kit and there are several notable details in the build that were not dealt with both for a basic '109 and 'K specific. The Hasegawa kit doesn't have all the rivets and does have most of what you need for a reasonable 'K, though does, right off the bat, needs a rescribe of the radio hatch and the one section of the fuselage spine rounded off (a bizarre artifact, considering the reasonable shape of the earlier kits)

Both kits build fairly well as kits go, the Hasegawa does need a little extra care with the odd fuselage break, but the two are otherwise pretty similar in their assembly.

So, in the end, it depends on the look and how much work and reference material you have to work with to get you where you want to go.

Edited by LSP_Kevin
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As you know I've been following your build Jay, and find I've suddenly concluded I'd like to eventually match my range of Spitfires with a complementary line up of Bf 109 contemporaries.

 

My simple question is do you recommend the Trumpeter K as he best route to a very late war '109 (as in versus a Spitfire XIV) for someone whose limited 109 references mostly date back to the '80s-90s? Bearing in mind I will naturally be stealing all your mods in your build article ... :)

The Hasegawa for sure.

Final result is ok with the Trumpeter kit but on the way you will swear more.

I recently built the G-10 and was not particularly happy to see the engine needed to be installed as it was necessary for the exhausts. (Found a fix around that.) The head armor is made of PE. No plastic option:-( The front wind screen is not correctly shape. On the plus side Montex make a nylon mask for the kit!

You may like to buy a new spinner, for any of them.

There is also a PE set (Hasegawa kit) for the gear well with detail door mechanism. RB production makes it iirc.

 

Hasegawa's Bf will be my choice for any future buy.

Shake and bake, and all that:-)

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Thanks fellows! I will have a little time off for the holidays so I hope to wrap this one up shortly. Just the fiddly bits to deal with.

 

On the subject of Hasegawa versus Trumpeter I generally agree with Steve and Hardcore. The Trumpeter 109's, E-K , go together great and do have some nice features, but overall I still prefer Hasegawa with a bunch of AM. I like rivets, but not the Trumpeter ones, even though it saves me a lot of time versus riveting the Hasegawa 109's. I was hoping for more of the K features on the Trumpeter K, such as the cockpit, which didn't change from their G-10. One of the things I really dislike on the Trumpeter G-10/K-4 and probably any of their 109's with the Erla Haube, is no provision for an open canopy. When I built the G-10 I added a strip along the bottom of the right side of the canopy to have some place to glue it. Not a big deal, just annoying. I considered going with a closed canopy on this one but found it didn't fit well anyway. Besides, I want to be able to see Radu's belts, which are awesome.

 

Jay

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