Kit: No. 61063
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Tamiya, distributed by Tamiya America, 2 Orion, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656-4200, phone 800-826-4922
Price: $23
Comments: Injection molded, 73 parts (two vinyl), decals.
Pros: Good overall fit, excellent detail, dropped flaps and slats, complete set of stencil decals, optional spinners and tropical filter
Cons: Fuselage too narrow, resulting in poor fit of instrument panel and wings
Tamiya, perhaps responding to criticism of its previous Bf 109E-3 kit, has issued an E-4/7 Trop with corrections. The new upper cowl has less slope between the gun troughs and the spinner. A dimple has been added to each side, a panel line runs between the gun troughs, and the troughs have heavier lips. There's a rivet-pattern change in the panels and a narrower oil cooler intake beneath the engine, too.
The rest of the kit is similar to the earlier issue, except for a new decal sheet and optional tropical filter for the left side of the nose. Modelers will relish the deployable flaps and slats, the three-piece canopy that can easily be posed open, and all three styles of spinners. Panel lines are crisply recessed, and a pilot figure is included. Optional underbelly fuel tank and armored glass for the windshield are also provided.
One of the kit's highlights is the decal sheet, with markings for three aircraft and a complete set of stencils. The instrument panel has raised detail, and a decal goes over it to represent the gauges.
I question the shape of the kit's seat; my references show a squared-off bottom, but the kit provides a rounded pan. If you add the pilot, you won't see the seat pan.
The overall fit of the parts was fine, but it appears that the halves produce a fuselage that is too narrow, creating several problems. The instrument panel wouldn't slide far enough into the top of the fuselage, leaving the gunsight a little low in the cockpit. Both upper and lower cowl covers extended past the fuselage sides slightly. When I attached the wing, the wingroot stubs didn't quite reach the top surfaces of the wings. Finally, the bottom edges of the windshield and the rear canopy overlap the fuselage sides slightly. The easiest fix would be to add thin styrene strip between the fuselage halves from the nose back to about an inch past the cockpit.
The struts supporting the horizontal stabilizers came up short, resulting in a degree or two of anhedral to the tailplanes.
All the aircraft represented on the decals are attractive. I chose "Black 8." Before November 1941, Bf 109s were delivered to Africa in the standard Europe scheme of RLM 70/02/65 that was introduced with the E-4s in May 1940. Upon arrival in the desert, these aircraft were given a mottled application of green over yellow on their upper and side surfaces using Italian paints. A color in-flight photo of "Black 8" on page 119 of German War Birds by Kenneth Munson shows that the factory RLM 02 on the lower sides and RLM 65 on the undersides were not repainted.
I used Floquil Railroad Depot Buff and Floquil Military Italian Olive Green for the upper surfaces. AeroMaster RLM 02 and RLM 65 Hellblau were used for the sides and bottom of my model. The profile of "Black 8" on the side of Tamiya's box shows what the plane should look like. I have too much green and not enough RLM 02 on mine.
Although a bit thick, the decals were great to work with. They soaked loose quickly, were easy to handle with tweezers, and responded well to Micro-Set.
The finished model scales out almost perfectly according to measurements in War Planes of the Second World War-Fighters Vol. 1 by William Green. The opening for the tropical filter seems a bit small because the walls of the opening are too thick.
I spent nearly 25 hours on this model, most of it researching and painting the four-color scheme and working out the problem of the narrow fuselage. Modelers who use an airbrush should be able to produce a great looking "109" from this fine Tamiya kit.
- Al Jones