History

Messerschmitt believed in low-weight, low-drag monoplanes, so the armament was placed in the fuselage. This kept the wings very thin and light. Two 7.92mm MG 17 machine guns in the forward fuselage with 1,000 rounds per gun, were mounted in the cowling, firing over the top of the engine and through the propeller arc.

The review

Eduard have released several Brassin sets for their range of 1/32nd Bf 109Es, which include the DB 601A/N engine (632003), Bf 109E wheels (632004) and SD 2 cluster bomb set (632007), and the latest to appear is the MG 17 mount.
I was going to send this Brassin set out to someone who had one of Eduard's kits, but I made the mistake of opening the box to have a peek.
My first thought was "there are a lot of pieces in here" followed by "wow". I am no going to get a 109 so I can add this Brassin part.
Packed in a sturdy box, the seven resealable bogs holding the resin and P.E parts are cradled in foam inserts, so care has been taken to insure the parts arrive un-damaged.
Six of the bags contain resin parts which include, detailed barrels with the deflection supports, ammo tunnels, cartridges and spent ammo links chutes, the fuselage bulkhead, engine and control accessories, engine starter, ammo boxes, machine gun housings and various other small parts. Two bonus items are included in this set, separate ammo boxes (including ammunition lines) as a special addition to dioramas. the other bonus is a accurately detailed instrument panel, which has detail on both sides. The reverse side of the panel has all instrument corpuses and swatches, plus fittings, which are visible from the gun bay.
The detail for the 33 resin parts is absolutely exquisite, with the cowling having some beautiful raised rivets and internal framework on it. A large pour plug will have to be removed from this part, so care will need to be taken as the part is quite thin.
The machine gun barrels are very well rendered, with the perforated cooling sleeves as recessed detail which once painted will look very good. The machine gun deflectors will need to be drilled out, which could be a little tricky as the pieces are quite small and fragile looking.
The fuselage bulkheads contains all fitted cables as raised detail and has a very busy look to them.
You use the engine starter motor from the kit as a base for a couple of resin parts which replace the moulded on detail of the "heads".
Smaller pieces are just as detailed as the rest of the resin parts but do suffer from a little flash, but nothing a quick scrap with a knife can't handle.
The ammo bins are hollow, and have the machine gun rounds as inserts, as well as P.E handles.
The instrument panel has raised relief for the dials complete with beveled edges. The rear has all the dial coverings moulded onto the part, and really completes the mount as an exceptionally detailed part.
The steel Photo Etch fret holds the handles for the ammo boxes, latches for the cowling and some support brackets. These parts are of the usual Eduard quality and are not pre-coloured or self adhesive.

Instructions

The instructions are printed on two sheets of postcard size paper, and the build sequence looks pretty straightforward, even if the sequence isn't numbered. Plastic parts that are replaced and parts that need removing are highlighted.
No colour guide is given for any of the parts (but I would imagine that you follow the colour guide of the kit).