background

In the mid-1930s Luftwaffe saw the need to update both fighter and bomber airplanes. German fighters were then mostly in a biplane configuration, but William Messerschmitt was ahead of time with his design of the Bf 108 which was a direct predecessor of the Bf 109. Messerschmitt, and Heinkel were competing in the fighter aircraft class. Only the Heinkel He 112 could compete with the Bf 109, which resulted with orders for ten prototypes of the He 112 & Bf 109. In the end the Bf 109 won,with more than 33,000 units produced it is the most produced fighter airplane in history. It first flown in 1935 and introduced in 1937. The Luftwaffe used it until 1945 and the Spanish Air force until 1965.

Since the Eduard kit represents the Bf 109E I will skip all the other versions (but if you are interested you can read more in one of the links or books I will mention in the reference part of the review). The 'E version ( commonly known as Emil) was first used in the Spanish civil war and was one of the most important aircraft during the blitzkrieg. Around 4000 Emils were produced. The 'E-4 version was equipped with Daimler-Benz DB601 engine. It carried two MG17's in the cowl and two wing mounted MG FF/m cannons. An interesting fact that it was flown by the top three Luftwaffe WWII pilots.

You can read about other eduard Bf 109 boxing and a wonderful review of this kit by
Allen Berry

Contents

The kit is packed in a nice sturdy box with box art on the top and decal options on the sides. In there you will find 5 sprues, 2 frets of photo etched parts (one in color), 1 masking sheet and 2 decal sheets. All sprues and other bits were carefully packed in separate bags.

The instructions are a 16 paged A4 booklet printed in color on a glossy paper. First page gives you a little intro in the airplane and its history, page 2 covers the sprue layouts and paint numbers (only Gunze). Pages 3-10 cover the construction and pages 10-16 cover decal and stencil placements.

The decals are separated onto two sheets (one with basic markings and the other one with stencils). There are options for 5 different aircraft. They are very thin and colors are in register,I expected no less for decals printed by Cartograf.

The parts moulded in a green-grayish color are separated into 4 sprues:

Sprue A covers the fuselage and the cowl all parts are nicely moulded with no visible pin marks or flash.
The panel lines are finely engraved and to finish it off the whole fuselage halves are nicely riveted.

Sprue C covers the wings (a different sprue than from the 'E-1 version boxing) which are also nicely engraved with no visible pin marks.

Sprues D and E cover all other smaller parts like the wheels, engine and wheelbays.

The G sprue contain clear parts for the canopy and gunsight.

Eduard also provides two photo-etched frets which include various cockpit bits and other details, plus a masking sheet for the canopy.

Conclusion

Eduard is pushing the line with their new releases and this Bf 109 is one of them. Finely detailed and full of parts with photo etched parts and masks this kit is a very nice OOB build.

Aftermarket extras

Eduard also offers some additional BRASSIN sets for this model:

Bf109E Cockpit and radio compartment # 648074
DB601 A/N Engine #648059
Bf109E MG17 mount #648060
German MG17 WWII guns #64806
Bf109E wheels #648058
(The links take you directly to Eduard's webshop)

References

There are many references out there but I would recommend following

Squadron/Signal books Bf 109E Walkaround by Hans-Heiri Stapher
Kagero Topshots #7 Bf 109E-4 by Mark Beckwith & Jakub Plewka
Kagero Top Drawings #4 Bf 109E by Mariusz Lukas
Schiffer books Messerschmitt Bf 109E by Rudolf Hofling
Aerodetail #1 Messerschmitt Bf 109 Emil
Wikipedia
IPMS Stockholm

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