[Serpiko]

PROS

- Highly detailed cockpit
- Many alternative E3/E4 parts
- Good overall fitting

CONS

- "Flat" gear bays
- Mediocre decals



THE PLANE

ALLIED PLAYERS know the 109 for being a NASTY yellow-nosed bird that keeps popping out of the sun anywhere and anytime, distributing some 20mm candies, and then zooming back up like hell. :evil:

AXIS PLAYERS know the 109 for being a TRUSTY yellow-nosed bird, good in every map for diving on Allied planes, distributing some 20mm candies, and then climbing back up like hell. :mrgreen:

And "FWs-ARE-BETTER-THAN-109s" GUYS, they'd better remember that the BF-109 was already the backbone of the Luftwaffe when the FW-190 was barely a draw on paper, and it kept up fighting on-par against state-of-the-art Allied planes until 1945, roughly doubling its performances from first to later series. So, pay respect! :!:



THE KIT

This BF-109E kit from Academy supposedly allows you to build either an E3 or an E4 version. In fact, it provides alternative parts for canopy (two 3-pieces sets), bulkhead and gauges panel. Two alternative spinners are also provided (either with or without cannon muzzle); however, the wings are molded with built-in MG-FFs, so it is not possible to make an E3 with nose cannon only. Other optional parts include either standard air intake or tropical filter, and a centerline rack for a bomb (not sure if SC250 or SC500, but it's rather large! ).
The sprues are flash-free and very good-looking, showing recessed panels and an overall high detail level. Cockpit details, in particular, are excellent for a "stock" injection kit of this scale: nicely molded gauges, pedals, stick and seat (with raised seatbelts), and also beautifully detailed side walls inside fuselage halves, including internal framing, throttle console, switches panel, oxigen canister box, some cables and more! There's even the flap control wheel, coming in 2 pieces! This is even more remarkable, considering that the cockpit of the 109 is so cramped, that all this beauty will hardly be visible. In this sense, the open canopy option is almost mandatory! 8)




On the downside, surprisingly, such a marvelous cockpit lacks a gun sight, probably because there wouldn't be room for it (the windshield is quite thick). But the main "Achille's heel" of this kit is in the gear bays. While gear legs and wheels are adequately detailed, main gear bays are awfully "empty": just flat slots and holes, showing the empty interior of the wings (and even sink marks). Hopefully, this should at least leave enough room for wheels in case you're building the gear retracted. Also engine exhausts could have been better, but that's my opinion.
The decals sheet provides markings for three machines, which I'd be glad to report here... if only the instructions weren't printed in Korean only! ;dd The one I did is a yellow-nosed machine with a desert camouflage ("probably"... since colour references are in Korean, too!), while the other two look like wearing BoB paintscheme. Sadly, some decal colours appear to be a bit off-register, thus hampering smaller decals (such as some nosearts).




BUILDING

Generally, 109 kits use to be simple builds, and so is this one. Even better, it fits great in most critical parts, i.e. the fuselage-wings joint is nearly perfect (see photos - no sanding/filling at all!).
This said, and since some illustrations on the instructions sheet aren't totally clear, here's a list of the steps where a little care is required:
- It is not clearly shown which side of the rudder pedals goes upwards. After a little research, I put them as in the pictures.
- The propeller hub needs to be set in position before joining the two fuselage halves, but the way it will fit relies 100% on how you've built it. Try dry fitting of hub components on fuselage halves before applying glue!
- Mind the correct placement of the two struts under the tailplanes, since their attachment points are not very accurate.
- Main gear legs fit easily enough, but they will remain fragile!
- While searching the sprues for the four little bracets that go onto the tail fins of the bomb, I could NOT find them. Instead, there were TWO longer bracets that weren't needed for any other part. Cutting them in half and putting the pieces onto the fins of the bomb did the job.

Once the building is over, nit-pickers may argue about some details (i.e. the two MGs on the nose are maybe a little too distant), but I think the final result is good enough for most people.




PAINTING AND DECALS

As I said, some knowledge of Korean is adviceable in order to fully understand painting instructions. If this is not the case, luckily, box arts and pictures are enough to get an idea.
Whatever scheme you choose, they all share most of the markings and stenciling. Decals look quite gloss; their finesse is average, although some of them show printing inaccuracies (i.e. colors are offset) and smaller stencils aren't clearly readable. Annoyingly, some of the stencils have an unnecessary white background, that made me choose not to use them.
On the positive side, decals are acceptably thin, while still being easy to handle without breaking up, and they suffer no "silvering" effect (transparent areas REMAIN transparent).

P.S.: I admit, I went a bit too heavy with the weathering one more time... :oops:




CONCLUSIONS

I do recommend this kit to modelers of any skill level. It may not be the most accurate Emil kit on the market, but nevertheless its quality-price ratio is great IMO (again, +1 to the beautiful cockpit, -1 to the flat gear bays). It makes you wish to buy another one and build both E3-E4 versions! (I would... if my "to do" pile wasn't dangerously tall already! :roll: )

GREEN LIGHT!

[Deutschmark]

Very nice build Serpiko looks GREAT!!!
And a other well done review by you.
Thank you.

Deutschmark

[LeBigTed]

Hi Serpiko !!!!

Before reading your review, I had to tell you that you did a great great work !!! The weathering is impressive and perfect !!!!!

Photos are really awesome !!!!!!

Now I will read your lines...

Ted ;o)


AFTER READING : Another great review !!!! This is a plane for Planemad, he like Emils :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: ;o)

[Jambo]

And once again, Serpiko: awesome just awesome! 8)

Very nice and beautiful! 8)

Jambo :wink: