# Heller Bf-109: NOT what you want to get next!



## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

It seems we often hear criticisms of new models, even though they are really quite good. 

My guess is that we've forgotten just how bad things USED to be and can be. Maybe some of us haven't really ever experienced the pain of some of the older kits. 

Well, here for your viewing pleasure is my out of box review for the old *Heller Bf-109*.

Enjoy, and let's all be glad they don't make them like they used to!


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Tell the truth, you just wanted to use "festooning" and "replete" in the same sentence.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

You realize that is the Airfix kit that dates back to the late 1950s...

Heller has their own 109G that is rather nice except the fuselage is too short.


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

Hey, no whining here, it _ain't_ no ones fault but yours!

May I suggest being heavily doped while building? (_parody commit only_) Then you can "festooning" and "replete" all you want without agony or pain!

HAL9001-


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## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

Hey, don't get me wrong - there's no one to blame but me, and I know it!

Since I hacked that kit up for a what-if project (Me-609; a jet powered 109 like a Yak-15) it was perfect.

I was just aghast at how crappy it was. If someone bought that thinking "man, this is half the price of the Academy one, and should be just as good" or "Hmmm.. it's form the 80's, how bad can it be?" then they'd be in for one rude awakening.

I don't need doping for that thing, just a sturdy wall against which to bang my head! :freak:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Its from the late 50s actually. This is the second 109 Airfix did way back in the day. It predates the Revell 109E by many many years. For years this and the old Hawk kit were the only G's on the market.

I built this one from a late 60s bagged kit








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## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

Man, that's a nice job on that old dog of a kit! 

Hard to imagine there was a day when there weren't any G's around, eh? Man, that's freaky, especially since there seem to be a lot of them now!


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## Modlerbob (Feb 10, 2011)

Once upon a long time ago, like in the 1960's, I was given an Aurora 1/48 Me 109. The plastic was purple, the pilot's head was molded into the fuselage halves, the wings glued into the fuselage halves with shallow tabs making alignment very difficult and the landing gear just glued into holes in the bottom of the wings, no wheel wells. Gosh awful but it was the only game in town.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

To be fair to the OLD kits, there is so much more reference material available today than 50 years ago. A lot of the Aurora stuff came out just 10-15 years after the end of World War II. No one knew the 109 came in A, B, C, D, E, F, G and K versions plus an infinite variety of sub types like the K-4 or G-12. When Aurora did their Japanese Yamato battleship kit, the only reference photos were a picture of her port side and starboard side taken at two different times in her career, and the aerial photos of her being sunk.


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## Seaview (Feb 18, 2004)

Modlerbob said:


> Once upon a long time ago, like in the 1960's, I was given an Aurora 1/48 Me 109. The plastic was purple, the pilot's head was molded into the fuselage halves, the wings glued into the fuselage halves with shallow tabs making alignment very difficult and the landing gear just glued into holes in the bottom of the wings, no wheel wells. Gosh awful but it was the only game in town.


 
That sounds an awful lot like a 1/72 scale Japanese "Val" that I built back in the late 60's. I think it was from the "Pearl Harbor Attack Diorama", from MPC. The base of the kit was a thinner than thin vaccuform piece with a destroyed P-40 Warhawk molded into the landscape. I DO remember setting it on fire and "whooshing & crashing" it in my back yard a couple of years later. :dude:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The Val diorama was from MPC and from the 1970s. You got a white plastic base, the Airfix Val and set of Airfix soldiers. There were a few of these with aircraft, and more with armor.


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