MikeMaben Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 22 hours ago, thierry laurent said: 1. Whereas the Spit and P-40 were globally sound from a shape and dimensions perspective, the 109 was an absolute mess! 2. I just realized that the very first kits had the best panel and rivet scribing (overlapping panels, scribed screw heads and a mix of recessed and protruding rivets) whereas the later kits had far more simplified and less accurate surface features. This is a rare case of a model company releasing kits that were not better than their ancestors. They were the innovation of 1/32 a/c kits which became popular pretty quickly. It may be that they wanted to permeate the market and decided that quantity outweighed quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I agree with you. They surely decided that such a quality was probably too expensive in comparison with the average customer expectations. Nonetheless it is interesting seeing such a technology was already possible more than fifty years ago. MikeMaben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 Brian Cauchi did a couple of 109s, and IIRC, found the fuselage short. He cut the kit just aft the cockpit and slid the tail back and voila! all the panel lines fell into place. He rescribed part of the fuselage, but it was a neat solution. The surface detail is fantastic on the 109. The early Revell kits had a lot going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Alas Mike there are tons of other dimension and shape issues. John Beaman published a fantastic book many years ago. It had scale plans showing how to correct the existing kits. The Revell one was analyzed in detail in that publication. By the way, it is still one of the very best sources of 109 1/32 scale plans. https://www.scalemates.com/cs/books/the-last-eagles-1-john-r-beaman-jr--107888 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 I have that and the one on....the Ki 61? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 3 hours ago, LSP_Mike said: Brian Cauchi did a couple of 109s, and IIRC, found the fuselage short. He cut the kit just aft the cockpit and slid the tail back and voila! all the panel lines fell into place. He rescribed part of the fuselage, but it was a neat solution. The surface detail is fantastic on the 109. The early Revell kits had a lot going on. The A6M was the first of the big Revell kits that I had, and I recall with a great degree of clarity that I was super impressed with the exterior molding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 2 hours ago, thierry laurent said: Alas Mike there are tons of other dimension and shape issues. John Beaman published a fantastic book many years ago. It had scale plans showing how to correct the existing kits. The Revell one was analyzed in detail in that publication. By the way, it is still one of the very best sources of 109 1/32 scale plans. https://www.scalemates.com/cs/books/the-last-eagles-1-john-r-beaman-jr--107888 I have that book (as a pdf), but have never actually read it. Perhaps it's time I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Indeed, he also made a smaller one about the Tony (I have a bad digital copy of that one) and another good one about Allison Mustangs. LSP_K2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 I never heard of that one. Prolly handy to have for my hobbycraft Mustang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 1 hour ago, LSP_Mike said: I never heard of that one. Prolly handy to have for my hobbycraft Mustang. Here it is: https://www.scalemates.com/fr/books/the-unknown-mustangs-2-john-r-beaman-jr--123430 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 And it looks he also wrote one about the Spitfire but only for 1/72 kits. Considering what information was accessible to modellers at that time, such books give an incredible wealth of information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Back then there were Bruce Culver's basic corrections in an IPMS pub ,,, thierry laurent and Astro32 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 I'm remembering that one. I saw it when I was an IPMS member decades ago. Btw such pages only covered part of the issues (the wings being quite inaccurate as well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 Ah yes. I did one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astro32 Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 The Revell Japan 32nd kits are a great way to have some nostalgia but end up with reasonably accurate models. Revell's domestic kits from that time look like they were done from basic dimensions and photographs, particularly their Bf-109 and Curtiss P-40. Their Ki-43 I've already mentioned and their F4F Wildcat being notable exceptions that I'm familiar with, having built them so many years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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