Through very odd circumstances I now own an unopened Arii BF-109G6. Oddly, I was thinking seriously of getting Hasegawa’s G2 or G6: I’ve got an Emil and a K and wanted something between. My experience with Arii (Otaki) kits has varied a lot - built a perfectly nice Razorback Jug but was underwhelmed by others I’ve seen. Anyone know if this this one is worth a build or should it help pad my small PayPal balance on eBay?
Eric
The one ARII/Otaki kit I don’t care for is the Spitfire Mk XVIII, and I have I think all of them except the Me-109 you are asking about. The others are all nicely molded and look nice built, especially if you add a resin cockpit. I just don’t care for the Spitfire because they missed the gull shape on the wing trailing edge.
John is correct. It’s a great basic kit with good lines and, IIRC, good fit. Cockpit, landing gear and wheel wells simplified but okay, canopy well-fitting and clear (in the last one I saw, at least). Options included bomb or droptank on the CL, gondola cannon for under the wings, and tropical filter for the intake. I’m pretty sure you could also leave the cowling bulges off if you wanted to do an earlier G model.
Biggest downside to Otaki were the nasty and usually out-of-register decals, but there are lots of choices available aftermarket.
Decent review of the kit (in interesting markings) here.
I don’t know…Hasegawa is king of the Gs right now, but Eduard will be releasing a new tool late this year in 1/48. If you’re gonna sell it I’d do it before the Eduard kit arrives, as I’d imagine everyone will want that one vs. the older kits.
Good news no doubt. But I’ve got an Eduard Dora and P39N in the stash, along with a DML Ju-88, DML Me-110 and a Tamiya/Italeri Ju-87. (Oh, and an AM B-25, SBD and ATM A-20.) If the Arii is a clean build, something simple will fit in nicely. And I’ve got some Aeromaster BF-109 decals already.
I just did an ancient Tamiya Stuart tank. Not up to modern standards for sure (although there aren’t any top notch Stuart “Honeys” out there that I know of) but a really fun build. The instructions were good, everything fit and it even had decent decals and a good painting guide. And I bet my blood pressure went down building it. I call it Zen Modelling and recommend it.
The Otaki/ARII Gustav is a decent kit and will fit your “zen build” needs nicely. Since you can not display the the single piece canopy open, and the canopy glass is a bit on the thick side it is hard to see the spartan cockpit interior. Decals are easily replaced by the plethora of available Gustav decals out there, so the only real tidbit I would recommend for a mostly;y OOB build would be some new wheels or sanding down the tread detail a bit on the kit tires.
I’ve got a “Defender of the Reich” set of decals for three BF-109s from Aeroscale. One is a G6. Sounds like a plan.
that kit was booming back in the day.
Keeper. Definitely. Builds into a very nice model. I actually made a vacuform canopy for mine so I could open it up. Still have the buck so I can make more if I want. The main gear tire treads are a tad heavy handed, but all else makes a very nice model. As others said, add aftermarket decals. Very relaxing build.
Already decided to keep it and checked it out. Looks very clean except for decals. Made in Japan - when that meant something. Looking forward to it. (Very sweet build btw: been a while since I’ve done a LW camo - we’ll keep that pic. Pain job is a challenge of course, but I’m not sure if I’d trust myself doing decals that complex. I do have Aeromaster which I tried before and they were good.)
Eric