Model Aircraft – September 2019

I

have a particular fascination for German

aircraft and their design, especially

through the 1939 to 1945 period, even

stretching to the Luft ’46 and other secret

projects. In my view, one of the best

aircraft of World War II, alongside the Fw 190,

the Bf109 was one of the most formidable

aircraft of the War, especially in the earlier

stages of the War with the earlier ‘Emil’s’. As

the war progressed, the Luftwafe identiied

the need of upgrading their ‘Emil’s’ to be able

to counter the British and Russian designs.

The late Bf 109E3, E4 and E7 designs were

needing an upgrade, which created the Bf 109F

‘Friedrich’. The most noticeable diference was

the new engine using the Daimler-Benz BD 601

E. The Bf 109F-4 irst reached frontline units

in April of 1941 and was armed with x1 20mm

MG151/20 through the nose hub and x2 7.92

MG17 machine guns mounted on top of the

engine cowling. The tropical version built here

was irst produced and entered service in the

early half of 1942.

The irst steps of my build were to paint up

the interior using the Hataka RLM66. With a few

light passes of paint, the cockpit and seat were

ready for the interior etch. This kit is a ‘Weekend

Edition’ kit which means it only comes with the

kit plastic parts, however, I decided to upgrade

it to almost the standard of a ProiPACK kit and

add the interior etch to it along with the canopy

mask and later, resin pitot tube. After all the

iddly pieces had been added and the lovely,

easy to bend, photo-etch seatbelts had been

added, I gave it a mixed wash of Flory Models

Washes consisting of Black and Sand to get that

grubby feel with a hint of being in the desert

environment. Light chipping was added with

some random silver paint to imitate scratches of

war and the fuselage was ready to be closed up.

Out of Africa

James Bamford builds the 1:48

Eduard Bf109F-4 Weekend Edition

Manufacturer: Eduard

Scale: 1:4 8

K i t Ty p e: Plastic injection moulded

Kit Number: 8 414 6

Eduard Zoom set – FE844

Eduard Bf109F and G Pitot Tubes – 648332

Eduard Mask Set EX535

Hataka Paint Set ‘Africa Campaign’ – HTK-AS06

Flory Models Washes

Bf 109F-4 Weekend Edition

(^54) BF 109F-4 WEEKEND EDITION WWW.MODELAIRCRAFTMAG.COM