Revell 1/32 Me109 G-6

[BarryW]

I sat down to start this kit at 9pm and at 9.20 I am posting this wishing I had not bothered to buy this crappy fourth rate Revell kit. Almost all that 20 minutes has been spent looking through the sprues for the five parts needed for step one, well I found three of them I suppose.

I really don’t know why I bought it, Revell never fail to disappoint with their cheap plastic, poor engineering and thoughtless production.

Rant over, let’s me explain properly why I am so disgusted not only with Revell but all those who did so called reviews of this shoddy kit.

The box
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Look at step 1, just a mere five parts, four of which are pictured.
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The first thing I noticed is how the sprues are not identified in the instructions. That means that you have to search every sprue for every part, the parts are not even grouped, part 1 is on the same sprue as part 108! part 7 is on another sprue and It’s a separate sprue to part 8, no picture so you cannot identify it by shape and, what is more which part applies to the early version I am building? no hint at all.

It gets worse, there are two more parts in step 1, two numbered 6. But where are they? I searched every sprue three times looking for them, then I looked closely at the sprue diagram in the instructions, you need a magnifying glass to read the numbers incidentally. No sign at all.... no parts.

See for yourself.
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So what next I wonder. I can live without the pedals in the cockpit but this does not bode well for this build, just step 1. At least even Kittyhawk did not cock up that quickly. Unbelievable.

This is not an old kit. It was released in 2014.

Revell really should stop producing cheap shoddy crap like this.

OK it is only £23 but so what? Better that they charged a bit more and actually produce something worth buying.

This is where I would say that I will not buy a Revell again but I stupidly also bought their new tool Spitfire II with a lot of resin to correct its many errors and build a Mk1 as flown by Bobby Oxspring, I have wanted a Mk1 to do this a long time and held off to await a decent kit, but I got impatient and with my much reduce stash went for the Revell plus aftermarket instead. I should not have bothered.

I will carry on with this crappy Revell though and see what else Revell cocked up in it.

[Guest]

Part 6 on sprue D, of which there are two.

Also, step 1 seems to be four parts with 7 & 8 optional? 7 on I and 8 on M.

[BarryW]

Part 6 on sprue D, of which there are two.

Also, step 1 seems to be four parts with 7 & 8 optional? 7 on I and 8 on M.

Thank you for spotting that. I read this and wondered how on earth I missed part 6 three times, so I popped down and looked at sprue D and realised that there is so much flash around these parts they look nothing like what they actually are so I did not even look closely at the faint 6 on the sprue to check them.

The only issue with 7 and 8 is that it’s pot luck as to which applies to which version. Not that it helps pick the part out from so many sprues when you don’t know what it looks like. I did find it though.

I don’t take back anything I said about Revell. A decent company would not be expecting you to spend more time searching sprues for a part than in the construction. It may be OK for a small 1/72 kit but certainly not a 1/32 with the number of parts this has. Decent sprue organisation and labelling is such a basic matter.

Thanks again.

[Guest]

I don’t take back anything I said about Revell.

Why would you! I can see your point completely. The part marks should have sprue references and if they provide marque options they should be made clear!

Glad I could help. As a draughtsperson you learn the value of a second pair of eyes very quickly!!

[Guest]

Revell kits vary from the pathetic (like you have experienced, Barry) to very good (e.g. Ju-88 - Battle of Britain). One should never purchase a Revell kit without first reading a comprehensive build review. Caveat emptor.

[BarryW]

Here are those elusive parts below. I thought I had better take a picture before I fully cleaned the both up.

On the left it is all ready to install, the one on the right has already had two big sprue gates removed and a lot of flash cut away so it is now at least recognisable for what it’s meant to be. Nevertheless even cleaned up they are not really very good but little or nothing will be seen of them so it’s not worth worrying about.

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Next the seat. I have no problems with moulded in seatbelts. If painted well they can look quite good but these are so insipid that I decided to sand them off and I use the Finemolds set. It was a bit of a chore scraping and sanding the seat well but any imperfections will be hidden by the Finemold seatbelts.

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Here is the prepared seat and the Fjnemold seatbelts ready to install.
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One tip. It is best with the Finemold seatbelts to dip them in boiled water and put the main bends in them before painting. It helps. Below this has been done and they are attached to sticks for painting.
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Finally here are the other cockpit subs ready to paint.

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I am off to Duxford this weekend so I don’t expect to get any more done until Monday.

[stona]

I don't really know why you expect all your kits to jump out of the box and build themselves. The sprues might be inadequately numbered, but having to search for parts is an irritation, hardly a game changer. I've built limited production kits costing several times the price of a Revell kit like this, in which no parts are numbered at all and the instructions assume a certain level of familiarity with the subject (to put it kindly).

You will have to put a bit of work into the Revell kits but the newer ones generally build up fairly well, despite some strange decisions taken during the engineering stages.

My issue with them is not whether to build them, but how far I want to go to correct some of the inaccuracies. This is not an issue unique to Revell. You can build a perfectly decent Bf 109 G from this kit, or spend four times what you paid for it on after market corrections for all the bits that could be better. I faced exactly this quandary when I built the Revell He 219 a while ago. In the end I built it out of the box and it looks just like an He 219; even if I know there are some issues with it 99.9% of people looking at the model do not. The biggest issue was cleaning up all the flash which is always a tedious job.

[Jim R]

Hi Barry
I thought you were after a stress free build to enjoy during the lead up to your retirement. Methinks this don't fit the bill :rolling:
Jim

[BarryW]

Make no mistake Steve I do not have high expectations of Revell, like accuracy and good fit, but sprue organisation is pretty basic and is not exactly rocket science. I was prepared for some crap with this kit but I did not expect so much in step 1.

[stona]

It's all part of life's rich tapestry Barry.

I'm absolutely certain that once you find the parts you will be able to make a very nice Bf 109 from this kit

[Defiant911]

Make no mistake Steve I do not have high expectations of Revell, like accuracy and good fit, but sprue organisation is pretty basic and is not exactly rocket science. I was prepared for some crap with this kit but I did not expect so much in step 1.

We have faith in you Barry, your make a silk purse out of it I’m sure.

[rtfoe]

Sounds like the Revell Typhoon but I enjoyed the challenge of knocking it into shape.
With your skills Barry, it'll will look like an Me-109 G in the end or be a bin filler.

Cheers,
Richard

[BarryW]

I am working through various sub-assemblies before painting.

There’s a rather blob-like transparent part meant to fit in a hole in the fuselage side. Even with my optimiser I cannot even make out what goes into the hole and what is surplus plastic. Besides it looks as if it does not fit the hole provided that you can see in the picture. It looks as if you have to drill the hole for the piece but the instructions do not say so. An indentation is there to drill.


I checked some on-line sources and it does look like you need to drill that hole, so I did no and have thrown away that blob of transparent plastic mean to fit in it. I will glaze the hole after painting with Micro Krystal Clear.



more optional parts, below, without any indication of what part goes with the early or late version.


I looked at both, identified a small detail difference between them and looked at the illustrations with the painting instructions. They both looked the same, so I am using that particular one. Why did they not identify that part then? I am not saying that it’s wrong to provide both styles, far from it, its nice to have the option but why not just tell us which one applies to the two schemes in the kit....

I suppose that you cannot really expect Revell to adopt slide moulding at this price point, so we have solid exhausts. I did contemplate drilling them and/or getting resin (if available) but in the end decided to just go with what I have. I will drill the main nose gun barrels though.


i really don’t want to fit the tail wheel until ‘final fittings’ as it’s far too vulnerable. So I cut off a location point to enable me to slide the wheel in to the hole when finished, a spot of c.a. is al that will be needed and I don’t think it will make the weak leg fitting any weaker.



I will never be a fan of Revell as they cut far too many corners to keep the price down, but this kit is actually growing on me. The fit is quite good and the issues are just irritating, nothing really much of a problem. The transparent parts are crap, there is much too much flash, but cleaned up it works, so far. In a way that makes me more annoyed at Revell as just a little more consideration, a little more thoughtful planning, presentation and production and this kit could have been a great one. Even if it added £5 to the price it would still be cheaper than 1/32 competitors by a significant margin.

[BarryW]

One quick p.s. to the above, Seeing how well this is coming together I am now regretting not investing in some resin exhausts. I could try drilling them 'in-situ'.... maybe. Perhaps a metal u/c as well can now be justified as, according to reviews, the kit ones are a bit weak.

What was meant to be stress free build, stressed me out in the very first step, then it settles into a decent, better than even originally expected, build and now here I am thinking about taking on what will be a repetitive and perhaps tricky task..... mmmmm

[Guest]

Nice work Barry. Revell yes but try a Mach2.

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