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1/32 Me109e Trop best build?


Pup7309

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What Nick and Kevin said.  I am currently building an Dragon E-4 for the BoB Group Build and enjoying it very much.  I have built 109s from DML, Eduard and Trumpeter and the DML is the best of the three; though to be fair the Eduard kit is not far behind.  HGW sells a "full meal deal" DML E-7 Trop that looks to be very nice, though it does cost a bit.

 

Ernest 

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Matt is right.  If you want to build the Dragon kit with the cowl closed up I recommend the following:

 

1)  Just construct the engine block, the lower radiator assembly and the retaining arms.  You can dispense with any of the parts at the rear of the engine as they can cause some fit problems.

 

2)  You have to trim the top of both the MG17's and the mounting hardware on the MG Tray or the upper cowling will not fit.

 

3)  Pay close attention to fit of the forward fuselage and wing joins to make sure the upper and lower fuselage sides are aligned.  This greatly aids the process of aligning the cowling when the time comes.  

 

HTH,

Ernest

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'HGW sells a "full meal deal" DML E-7 Trop that looks to be very nice, though it does cost a bit.'

I believe the only difference kit-wise between the E-4 and the E-7 are decals and sand filter.  If you can keep the cost of an E-4, decals, and sand filter below the cost of an E-7, you've come out ahead.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

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I admit to picking up one of the HGW E-7 offerings but not at full price. The Dragon Cyber Hobby kit was getting a bit thin on the ground and hard to find for a reasonable price here (we don’t get the Dragon USA blow out sales here sadly where they sell 1/32 kits off at silly prices). I figured the base kit would set me back £50 or thereabouts probably closer to £60 with shipping and import taxes add more for decals and the Yahu panel that comes with the HGW kit, as does some quite nice exhausts though the kit ones are quite nice for injection moulded offerings, the rivet decal set I’m not sold on, I feel even under a coat of super thin MRP paints they may well disappear. So all in all I figured buying the HGW boxing for the £70 I got it at with all the extras I was going to come out ahead of the price of getting the kit and the extras as stand alone items. I did however get a different set of decals as I want to do mine as an E-4 from the Battle of Britain time frame. So a basic Xtradecal set was purchased and I’ll use the kit stencils. I did however take advantage of an offer luckymodel were running the other week where they offered various levels of discount depending on your overall spend plus $8 flat rate surface shipping and went for a regular Cyber Hobby E-7 as they claimed to be able to get one and the 1/32 Bf-110D/E nightfighter combo kit so hopefully they can come through on that, if not no big deal. But anyway, the HGW offering isn’t so expensive if you can get it at a lower price considering what’s in the box. 

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21 hours ago, ade rowlands said:

            (we don’t get the Dragon USA blow out sales here sadly where they sell 1/32 kits off at silly prices).

 

Uuuh, where is 'this' ???

 

:huh:

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9 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

 

Uuuh, where is 'this' ???

 

:huh:

I refer to the time where DragonUSA were selling off their Bf-110 kits for silly low prices, I think it was like $30 or something daft. It was the 110F if I recall correctly and possibly the 110D with the fuselage fuel tank which includes all the bits to build a regular 110D-3 anyway. Infact I think they are still selling the 110D at a low price. I’m also pretty sure they had the 109E-7 in the original sale if prefer to. I added some to my basket only for shipping to totally nix the deal. It came out at $75 for shipping alone which wiped out any saving in the kit. Luckily Revell reboxed the Dragon Bf-110 later anyway. Scored one of those for a nice price. 

Edited by ade rowlands
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On 6/30/2020 at 10:01 AM, ade rowlands said:

I admit to picking up one of the HGW E-7 offerings but not at full price. The Dragon Cyber Hobby kit was getting a bit thin on the ground and hard to find for a reasonable price here (we don’t get the Dragon USA blow out sales here sadly where they sell 1/32 kits off at silly prices). I figured the base kit would set me back £50 or thereabouts probably closer to £60 with shipping and import taxes add more for decals and the Yahu panel that comes with the HGW kit, as does some quite nice exhausts though the kit ones are quite nice for injection moulded offerings, the rivet decal set I’m not sold on, I feel even under a coat of super thin MRP paints they may well disappear. So all in all I figured buying the HGW boxing for the £70 I got it at with all the extras I was going to come out ahead of the price of getting the kit and the extras as stand alone items. I did however get a different set of decals as I want to do mine as an E-4 from the Battle of Britain time frame. So a basic Xtradecal set was purchased and I’ll use the kit stencils. I did however take advantage of an offer luckymodel were running the other week where they offered various levels of discount depending on your overall spend plus $8 flat rate surface shipping and went for a regular Cyber Hobby E-7 as they claimed to be able to get one and the 1/32 Bf-110D/E nightfighter combo kit so hopefully they can come through on that, if not no big deal. But anyway, the HGW offering isn’t so expensive if you can get it at a lower price considering what’s in the box. 

 

You got a nice deal there!  I am currently building the Dragon E-4/B kit as an E-4 in the BoB Group Build.  This is the third Dragon 109E offering I have built and, as always, it has been mostly a pleasure to build.  I used the HGW rivet set because I wanted to see if they were worth the money, and can say I am on the fence here.  The decals themselves performed well and I think they provide a realistic representation of the riveting.  I laid them down over a black primer base and then sprayed various mixes of Tamiya acrylics to represent RLM 02, 65 and 71; and some old JPS Color RLM 04.  The riveting is very subtle, and under the darker RLM 71 hard to see, but overall I think the rivets do look realistic as on the actual aircraft they are not that easy to make out if you take into account the viewing distance "in scale".  I am on the fence because the process of using the rivet wet transfers is a fair amount of work for not much return IMHO.  I am may use them again depending on how I feel as they are a good product.  Just my .02 cents.

 

Ernest     

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