I managed to sit down last night and during a Netflix binge of Supernatural I got these turkeys done. Since I was building this one and the Tamiya kit together, I had full intentions of comparing them, then telling you guys what I thought....the pros and cons if you will. I finished both last night and must say they are both great. Here's my take on them.
1. Both kits are wonderfully engineered and well detailed. They both put the old Hasegawa kit pretty much to shame. I don't think Eduard missed a rivet. Except for a few small details here and there. They are fairly equal in these regards.
2. Eduard gives you photoetch and canopy masks. I like this feature with their Profipack kits a you get everything you might need without the need for ebay or Spruebrothers. Tamiya gives you decal seatbelts and decal instruments. I suppose it's all preference but I don't care for these.
3. Eduard was able open all the gun barrels but Tamiya couldn't do this? I found this strange as they certainly have the technology to do this. Perhaps it's to throw a bone to the aftermarket companies. That said, Since the G-2 was an R-6 version with wing cannons, I used the Tamiya cannon pods on the Eduard kit because they were much better detailed. I did use the Eduard barrels themselves. A bit of surgery.
4. I like the design of the Tamiya kit's landing gears as it's impossible to get the rake wrong. Not to say Eduard is bad, but Tamiya is fool proof.
That's all I can think of. I'm sure there's more that I forgot. I see many more of each in my future.
Anyways, here's the finished Eduard kit. To recap its in the markings of JG 5 Knight's Cross recipient Horst Carganico on the Eastern Front in the light distempered early spring of 1943. Carganico would score 60 kills, including 6 on the Western front. This one was built right out of the box. I used Mission Models paints and as stated earlier, I had an almost disasterous experience with Montex masks. They left adhesive residue behind that wouldn't come off. I ended up sanding, repainting, then using decals. For weathering I used a combination of Flory and AK Interactive washes. I was worried thy wouldn't mix,but I hand no issues as I used them separately. I was pleased with the overall grungy appearance. The "Mickey Maus" decals provided by Montex fortunately went down perfectly.
Aside from the Montex mishap, which I'm sure was an isolated issue as I've never had problems before, it was an enjoyable build. As I said, I will definitely be building many a more Eduard 109.
