Eduard

1/32 Messerschmitt Bf109E-4

Kit Number: 3003

Reviewed by  Floyd S. Werner, Jr., IPMS# 26266

MSRP: $74.95 Website: www.eduard.cz,   Direct link to item The model Eduard announced this kit at the Nationals in Virginia Beach and I must say I was very excited about the prospect of a new large scale 109. Previous to this you had a choice of either the Matchbox or Hasegawa kits; both had issues with shape and showed their age. What you get inside a very sturdy box is six sprues of plastic molded in a shade of RLM 02. I had no flash anywhere and molding was crisp and clean. If you like rivets then Eduard has them. Personally, I love them, especially when they are as nicely done as Eduard does them. Noticeable without being a distraction. Very nicely done. You also get a sprue of clear parts. There has been some discussion on the clear parts. There is an issue with the shape of the canopy. It appears that Eduard got the profile shape perfect but missed the plan shape causing the upper parts to be crimped, more on this later during the build. Two frets of photo etch, one prepainted, provide some really beautiful detail. There are kabuki masks for the canopy included as well. To round off the kit are some really nice decals from Cartograf. My copy had an issue with the crosses and they appeared to be smeared before they were dried. This is not the norm for Cartograf and was probably a fluke in my kit. I am sure that I could have contacted Eduard for a replacement sheet. This would cause me issues later. The instructions are the typical Eduard instructions, printed on high quality paper printed in some color. You will need to study them as there is a different assembly sequence for the engine cowling opened or closed. Let's get started As usual for most airplane kits this one starts in the cockpit with adding sidewall detail. I did not have any issues with this arrangement and found that the pre-painted stuff worked great. There is so much detail printed on these pre-painted parts that I could never achieve with paint. While you have the fuselage half out you'll also have to decide whether or not to add the flow divider on the oil cooler. I elected not to install this piece. I had to do some work on the leading edge of the oil cooler ramp to get a good fit. Nothing drastic but it annoyed me. Then I must admit that I was amazed that you could see through the oil cooler assembly on the sides. That was totally unexpected. I had to use Apoxy Sculpt fill the area which took care of it, but I didn't think that an aircraft of this size or pedigree should have that issue. Cockpit I looked over the cockpit and I decided to use an out of production Cutting Edge seat with molded on seatbelts instead of the supplied kit one. The kit seat looked a little clunky to me. Assembly of the cockpit was easy enough but there was one other issue to deal with. The oxygen regulator appeared to be a little too tall. I ended up cutting off two rows of holes to make things right. The whole assembly was preshaded with RLM 66 and then painted RLM 02. To weather the interior I used some Sin Pigments to add some variations in color. Chipping was accomplished with a sponge and some magnesium and a lighter version of RLM 02. Fuselage I elected to have my engine compartment closed. This required following the instructions very carefully. I downloaded additional instructions online that were clearer on what needed to be done to have the cowling closed. So you can close the fuselage halves now with no issues. The fit was near perfect. Part F2, the rear cockpit bulkhead, seemed a little out of place as the detail on it was raised and really looked like a left over part from the 60s. Once painted up it wasn't that noticeable. I elected to leave off the tail planes until after the wings were attached. Wings and Master-Models Guns Building the wings is nothing dramatic. The Master-Models cannons were added to the wings as the instructions called for. These little gems are machined brass and absolutely perfect. They fit in the wing exactly the same way as the kit parts do. I attached mine with superglue. The breakdown of the wing is beautiful and only requires a little filling. Test fitting of the coolers is required as they are not symmetrical. Also Eduard does not indicate where to drill for the ETC rack or for mounting the Eduard Underwing Stores.

Attaching the wings to the fuselage indicated that there was going to be a need for some filler at the front and back, but mostly at the front by the oil cooler. I needed Apoxy Sculpt to fill this one as the gap at the front was much larger than I would have expected coming from Eduard. The flight controls, including the tail ones, all have positive locking and fit perfectly. I thought that the fabric control surfaces were a little overdone but I leave that up to you. Under paint they don't look too bad, maybe a little overdone. I think a little bit of Gunze Mr. Surfacer 500 in the recesses and sanded out would take care of this. One thing that I noticed was that the slats appear to be too long in chord (fore and aft). Maybe it is me. We'll see. The slats fit perfectly. Tail assembly Once the wings were set up I went back and added the tail planes. These fit perfectly. Make sure that the support struts are installed so the airfoil is correct but other than that they set the angle perfectly. Again the fabric maybe overdone, but it doesn't look bad under paint. Wheels and Landing Gear The tail wheel is another area that needs to be addressed. The tail wheel is based off the tail wheel on the Hendon's 109E. Normally that wouldn't be an issue; however, the Hendon aircraft has a tractor tire mounted instead of the appropriate one. It wasn't too much to deal with. I simply used a Master Casters sanding stick and removed the molded on tire tread. It really was that simple. No big deal but again I ask how could they miss that? The landing gear legs get a brake line to them. This is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the wheels let the landing gear down. The shape of the tires and the spokes are not very accurate. Enter Eagle Parts with their beautifully cast wheels. These resin wheels are easy enough to use. Simply cut them off, slightly enlarge the mounting hole and paint. The Eagle Parts wheels also have a valve stem and a decal for the spokes. This is the level of detail on the resin pieces. I set the completed landing gear assembly until later in the assembly. Engine assembly I was lucky enough to have the Quickboost exhausts for review and I added them to this kit. This really was a drop in fit after painting. They fit beautiful. Adding the side parts to the engine cowling showed that they needed some filler as well. Nothing drastic, just a smidge of Tamiya putty and it was ready to assemble. Before you attach it permanently don't forget to add the guns. I used the Master guns from Poland here too as they are part of a set. I cut off the kit guns and then pinned in the brass barrels, which had a mounting stub, to the kit mounting part. Adding the intake to the left side also brought up another issue. The real intake is louvered but the provided one is a simple piece with scribed lines to represent the louvers. I'm sure that Eduard could have done better. Canopy Use the kit canopy or not? The kit canopy is really nice, however, the plan view is too narrow. One option is a replacement canopy from Squadron. I checked the fit and it was perfect. I opted not to use it. I also checked the fit of a Radu PE canopy and it also fit real well. So there are options. The kit canopy isn't bad once it is posed open. It really isn't noticeable. Paint A quick wash of the model with grease cutting dish detergent and a wipe down with some Polly-S Plastic Prep the model was ready for paint. A quick shot of Alclad Grey Primer showed where I needed to touch up. After taking care of those areas again and it was time to pre shade the panels with some RLM 66. I consider this the first step of the weathering process. The first color to add to the kit was Gunze RLM 65. I followed this up with Gunze RLM 02. Hard masks were used to add the Gunze RLM 70, Dark Green. Gunze RLM 04 was added to the cowling, spinner and rudder. This added some color to a typically drab airplane. Landing Gear Now was a good time to add the landing gear. I think the angle and stance of the landing gear looked suspect to me. I could be wrong but they seem to sit too vertical. The mounting points are not as good Eduard's FW-190s. I eventually got them to sit where I thought they should. Decals- Kit and EagleCal I used a mixture of kit decals and EagleCals. Since some of my crosses were smeared I couldn't use all of them. I was just going to use the markings from the E-1 kit but when I looked them over they were too small. No problem just use the EagleCal ones correct? When looking at the sheet it appeared that the EagleCal wing crosses were going to be too big. Why was that? It had to do with the slats. The slats were too long in chord so they made the wing area too small. I was able to get them to fit but they weren't perfect. Both the Eduard decals and EagleCal ones worked very well with all the setting solutions that I used. The EagleCal decals worked well, especially the unique markings of Assi Hahn. The crosses didn't settle down initially but after a couple of applications Solvaset they looked great. I did find out that a coat of Mr. Mark Softer under the decals seemed to work the best. A coat of Dullcoat brought me to the weathering stage. Weathering The first thing was a wash of Burnt Umber artist oils along the panel lines and the rivet detail. This in itself added to the look of the kit. Then I thought what the heck, let's try something different. I added a Sin Filter Grey for Bright Green over the entire airframe. This added another dimension that had been missing before. For the yellow I used the Brown for Desert Yellow Filter. Allowing it to dry overnight, I used a sponge to add some paint chipping to the leading edges and wing walk areas. This was followed up with some Tamiya Flat Earth and Flat Black highly thinned and built up for the exhaust and gun stains. I then streaked some very thin Tamiya Buff from front to back on the wings and top to bottom on the fuselage. A little bit of Mig Pigment European Dust on the wing root to simulate mud from the crew's boots and the weathering was complete. Final details I then added the wing mass weights, pitot tube and antenna to the canopy. The attachment points for these parts are very small so they are very fragile. Removing the canopy masks showed that they worked as advertised. The canopy is attached with white glue and the PE spring was added for support. Some EZ line was added for the antenna and this model was done. Conclusion I must say that I like the look of the model now that it is done but I was not impressed with the kit. The canopy issue, the slats, the decal problem, the oxygen regulator, fabric on the control surfaces and the landing gear issue are not what I've come to expect from this manufacturer. Maybe I've become jaded by their excellent FW-190 kits. While there are issues this kit still comes out really nice when built. Recommended.

The aftermarket things were all great. The Master-Models guns were flawless and add to look of the model. The Quickboost Exhausts were simple and very effective. The EagleParts wheels are the only accurate ones on the market that I'm aware of. The EagleCals were very nice and if you want to do an Assi Hahn machine these decals are definitely the way to go. EagleParts has announced new control surfaces but they were not available at the time of this review. The use of the Cutting Edge seat was a personal choice since I had it and wouldn't use it any other way. The one in the kit was okay. I hope Eduard 'fixes' the issues that I had when they release their 1/48th scale kits. I am really looking forward to that. Eduard has announced that they will replace the canopy on future releases and that they will replace the ones sold already. No instructions have been released yet as to how to do this yet. I'm sure they are still being re-engineered, but good job Eduard.

Aftermarket items · Master Model #AM-32-005, Bf-109E3-E9, T Armament set MG17 (tips), MG FF Barrels. Highly Recommended. You can obtain your copy of this and the other excellent machined barrels at Website: www.eduard.cz . Tell them IPMS/USA sent you. · EagleCals EC#50, Major Hans 'Assi' Hahn. Highly Recommended. · EagleParts EP#29-32, Messerschmitt Bf-109 Wheels. Highly Recommended. You can obtain copies of the EagleCals, EagleParts and the Assi Hahn book from Website: www.eagle-editions.com . Tell them IPMS/USA sent you. · Quickboost QB 32055, Messerschmitt Bf-109E Exhaust. Highly Recommended. You can obtain your copy of this and the other excellent resin parts at Website: www.quickboost.net . Tell them IPMS/USA sent you. · Cutting Edge CEC32111, Bf-109E Pilot's Seat with Pads and molded on belts. Highly Recommended. Out of Production. References · The Messerschmitt Bf-109: Modellers Datafile No. 9, Lynn Ritger, SAM Publications, ISBN 0-9551858-0-7 · Major Hans "Assi" Hahn- The Man and His Machines, Jerry Crandall, Eagle Editions, ISBN 0-9721060-0-6 · Walk Around Messerschmitt Bf-109E, Hans-Heiri Stapfer, Squadron/Signal Publications, ISBN 0-89747-474-0 · Aero Detail 1, Messerschmitt Bf-109E, Dai-Nippon Kaiga. · Messerschmitt Bf-109B-E, Model Art.