Trumpeter

1/32 Messerschmitt Bf109E3 German Fighter

Kit Number: TSM-2288

Reviewed by  Fred Amos, IPMS# 6672

MSRP: $62.95 Website: www.trumpeter-china.com Review kit provided by Stevens International - www.stevenshobby.com This is the fourth 1/32 scale model of the Bf 109 E3 series (unless you count the EI, E2, and E3 of Eduard, then the count is six). Some may ask, after the production of Eduard's superb E3 model, why Trumpeter would follow with one of its own. I have built several of the Hasegawa and Matchbox kits, but not the Eduard kit. The following analysis is based only on the two that I have built. The Kit: On opening the very sturdy box, you will find seven sprues of light gray parts, two of clear parts, rubber tires, a very extensive fret of photo-etch brass that includes the seat belts, fine cockpit details, screens for the radiators, and metal linings for the wheel wells. Trumpeter has gone for a level of detail unseen in the Hasegawa and Matchbox kits - but then considering the time frame that they were produced, they weren't all that bad. Cockpit Area: As always assembly begins with the cockpit area and covers the cockpit floor, seat, instrument panel, (two fine decals) the firewall and ammunition cans and the two machine guns, but no ammunition belts. A very well detailed engine then mounts to the firewall. The cockpit sidewalls are mounted to the fuselage sides in a later assembly step.

As I continued on, I soon realized that the color for the cockpit interior called out by the Trumpeter (Tamiya XF-22) instruction was not correct, so I switched to my old standby: FloQuil Military Colors. The radio gear and oxygen tanks were assembled for installation in the rear fuselage. To me, all of the interior details are a waste; none of it can be seen from more than a few inches away. With the interior assembled, painted and put in place it was time to close up the fuselage. Fuselage: The first thing to do is place the cockpit and engine assembly into one side of the fuselage. This has to be done by placing the exhaust stacks in the slot provided and then sliding the whole assembly back until the slots in the side of the cockpit floor can be pushed on to the tongues on the fuselage half and glued in place. Then the exhaust stacks on the other side are placed in the slot provided and the fuselage slid forward until the slots in the other side of the floor engage the tongues on the second fuselage half. When you are absolutely certain that the fuselage halves are perfectly lined up you can proceed with gluing them together. Now, wouldn't that have been a lot easier if the exhaust stacks could be put in place after the fuselage halves were joined? Wing assembly: The holes for the fuel tank pylon should be drilled now. The wheel wells get photo-etch details. On the lining for the large opening, you will find a mark on the backside. This shows where the piece is folded, and then the rest is bent into shape. After the test fit, the detail was super-glued and held in place with some small clamps. When I got to the smaller detail, I couldn't make it fit so I left it off. The radiator screens are brass as well and fit very well. The fit of the upper to lower wing parts is very good. However, when the wing is glued into place under the fuselage, there is a pretty large gap (see photo) from about halfway of the chord to the leading edge. I fixed this problem with stretched sprue (again, see photo) placed and glued into the opening and later sanded down, followed by a layer of Mr. Surfacer. That was then leveled by rubbing it down with Denatured Alcohol.

The tail planes were then attached, leading to a minor struggle with getting the support struts in place. The rudder is left off until final assembly. At about this time I realized that I had broken the little antenna mast on the tail. Nothing unusual, almost every Bf 109 I have ever built has had the mast broken off. I replaced it as a last step with some scrap stainless steel (see photo) cut to shape and super-glued into a slot I cut in top of the tail. Cowling & Gun Barrels: Going back the front of the airframe, I tried to fit the cowling to the top of the fuselage, only to find that the gun barrels on top of the engine wouldn't go into the holes in the cowling. This is because the cowling is designed to drop in place but the barrels are forward of the holes. I tried to raise the barrels but couldn't get them into the holes. I am going to cut the barrels off and glue them to the inside of cowl and protruding so that the tips will be seen. I put masking tape over the exposed engine so as not to ruin it while painting the cowling and nose. Painting and decaling: I painted the forward part of the fuselage RLM 04 yellow using Model Master paint. After it was sufficiently dry, I masked that area as well as the canopies and placed tape over the exposed and open cockpit. I painted the upper part of the fuselage spine and parts of the wings and tail planes with FloQuil Military Colors RLM 71. This was then masked according to the instructions and painted with RLM 70, again with FloQuil. After it was dry enough, I completely masked the wings, tail planes and upper spine of the fuselage and painted the rest of the fuselage and the bottom of the wings RLM 65. Yes, with FloQuil. When it was dry, I removed the masking tape and carefully sprayed the mottling on the fuselage sides. When that was dry, I gave the whole model a generous application of Testors Gloss Coat in preparation for the decals. The decals are beautiful and in perfect registry. There are markings for Joseph Priller and Heinz Bar during the Battle of Britain and another set for a Swiss E 3 of early 1940. The only problem I encountered with the decals was that there are spots on the decal where water was slow to penetrate the paper. And some of the small decals were so thin they folded over themselves and couldn't be used. A few decals had to be nudged from the paper with a fine paintbrush. They eventually came loose but a few of the smaller pieces like the red stripes on the wing broke first. The decals are compatible to the Micro System. After all the decals were in place, I gave the model a liberal application of Testor's Dull Coat to cut the over-all gloss finish. Final thoughts: This is a fine kit, but I don't believe it is for novice model builders. There are several fit issues and a lot of detail that is hidden deep inside the fuselage and can't be seen. There may be a problem with the landing gear assemblies. It appears that either I screwed up or that the parts numbered F34 and F35 are mis-numbered. When I dry fitted the landing gear to the bottom of the wing, I found that the wheels didn't line up properly. To adjust, I carefully cut the F34 and F35 parts off the legs and drilled holes in them to place a wire pins and super glue them back together. I would like to thank the distributor, Stevens International, for contributing this Trumpeter kit to the IPMS/USA for review.