It looks like you have conquered the paint problem. They are looking great ! Thanks for the updates. It should not be too much longer and you will have these two finished.

Overall which one has been the best to build and which one would you recommend as far as fit and accuracy ?

A quick update on the Zvezda model.

All airframe camouflage has been applied, now time for some washes soon.

Some subassemblies are also completed but the most visible, the engine, is still halfway done.

To avoid further troubles with paint peeling I resort to repaint the entire wing surface and this time used Gunze 75, maintaing MRP 74. The wing crosses are decal, both up and down. These are from the Eduard box and are very thin, nice color density and sharp image, but also stick very fast to the surface, so take some care when handling them.

I leave you with a few images. Thanks for stopping by!

9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thank you David, glad you find it useful. This was just a good excuse to build me yet another couple of 109s 🙂 By the way, what diorama will that be?

David, you have a sharp eye for big details my friend... I don’t usually go about painting parts while still attached to the sprues, but Zvezda has their 109 G designed to have the engine exposed as you can see in the photo, and the 2 cowling halves are easier (at least to me) to paint while still on the sprue tree and simply remove them only when all engine parts and bits are in their proper place, since they are the last detail to be assembled in that area of the model. The sprue connectors are thin so cutting, sanding and painting the small bare plastic visible after should be effortless. In the end the handling of those parts is a lot easier and safer. Any kit part that requires one or more parts attached so has to become one piece, like for example upper and lower wings, etc, those I go the usual route, painting only after all is completely assembled.

BTW, your diorama will take a lot of a number of things...Time+Research+Space to display it, mental health, etc, etc ;-). Looking forward to it, will follow your thread with interest

if there is a rule that one needs to follow all time while building the Zvezda 109 is always dry fit every single part before glue.

Guess what? I didn't follow it. That left me with a huge problem in hands, the engine mount is too far ahead of where it should be. this produces the gap you see in the photo, and I don't think pushing the engine wall further inside the fuselage will be a good thing to do. Yes it should place the engine in the right measure but will most likely crack open the entire fuselage and, most likely also, screw up the cockpit.

Guess I'll sleep over this tonight and see what is the best approach to solve this.

any feedback is appreciated

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great thinking, Louis and lovely photo.

Time for a quick update on the Zvezda kit.

Work on the engine is going slowly but steady. As you can see the engine only needs some plumbing added to look like any AM expensive product.

The issue, once all engine parts are glued and painted accordingly, will be the fit.

Now this is no kit problem, by all means. My fault because I sh loud have dry tested the whole engine assembly before coming to this latter stage of the build. On the other hand, this kit is not very forgiving so any less careful move can result in a less perfect fit of parts... a bit like Wingnuts engineering for those you know what I mean.

Despite this I am very happy with the kit so far, found it the best looking 109 I made till now.

More soon and then off to complete the Eduard kit. Thanks for stopping by!

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Greg is right ! This is looking fantastic. Now it reminds me of some photos I have seen of 109's without the engine installed. Maybe this would be a good one to use for a Luftwaffe maintenance diorama ?

Well done my friend... The mottling on the fuselage sides looks very convincing. It's hard to get to look just "right" but you have done a bang up job on it.