Eduard 1/48 Messerschmitt Bf 108B In Foreign Service
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History
The 2-seat Bf 108A, an impressive aircraft for it's time, provided the
basis for the 4-seat Bf 108B. Changes from the earlier 'A' version included
adding a tailwheel and a 240 hp Argus As 8C inverted-Vee eight cylinder
air cooled piston engine. The majority of the 885 Bf 108 aircraft manufactured
were of the 'B' version.
 The
design was found to be suitable for the military communication, liaison
and ambulance roles. It was later refined into the Bf 109 single seat
fighter. As it shared many characteristics with the Bf 109, it was used
as an initial fighter trainer by the Luftwaffe. On July 11, 1938, the
Bayerische Flugzeugwerke became the Messerschmitt Flugzeugbau GmbH. All
subsequent Messerschmitt designs now received the Me prefix instead of
the Bf prefix.
The maximum speed of the Bf 108 was 196 mph. The range (when fully loaded)
was 870 miles. Wingspan is 34 feet, 10 inches, and the length is 27 feet,
2 1/2 inches. As designed, no armament was carried. Aircraft production
continued in France after the end of hostilities as the Nord 1001 Pingouin
I (Penguin).
The Kit
 As
my usual SOP with any kit, I do a rough dimensional check. The wingspan
measured a little over a scale 34 feet, while the length measured slightly
more than a scale 27 feet. This is close enough to the real aircraft for
my tastes. I chose to finish the model as an aircraft of the Spanish Air
Force in 1940, as depicted by the kit's markings.
I decided that I would build the kit as the four seat version, rather
than the three seater with the extra fuel tanks. Except for the seats,
the cockpit interior parts were painted with Model Master RLM Gray 02
before assembly. The seats were painted with Model Master Leather. Assembly
was straight forward, with no fit problems encountered. I left the side
pieces (A15 and A22) off until after the seatbelts were installed. The
rear bulkhead has no positioning pins or guides, so you will need to place
the cockpit floor into a fuselage half and then glue on the bulkhead so
it fits in the fuselage at the correct angle. When the paint was dry,
I gave the interior a light wash of diluted Polly S Oily Black paint.
 The
PE seatbelts are pre-painted, and consist of several parts for each belt.
These proved to be the most demanding part of assembling this kit. Care
must be taken to get the folds in just the right places. The front seat
shoulder belts are attached to the airframe using a "C" shaped
piece of PE. I should note that Eduard has provided extra pieces for many
of the smaller PE parts. Getting the belts and the attachment point in
just the right positions requires some patience. Once the belts were in,
the center console, which is also pre-painted PE, was cemented in place.
Two different PE options for the console have been provided, as well as
a molded plastic version.
 I
attached the PE control cables and plastic wheels for the trim control
to the port cockpit side piece. I left what appears to be the molded-in
throttle alone, and painted it. The instructions show a PE replacement
handle, but after the seatbelt ordeal, I decided I needed to give my eyes
a little vacation from PE. After the parts were painted and assembled,
I attached both sides to the completed floor assembly.
I next jumped ahead in the instructions to the instrument panel. There
are several options for the panel, depending on your likes and modeling
ability. These include a printed decal, a one piece plastic instrument
panel that needs painting, a plastic panel (with dial cutouts) for use
with silkscreen faces, and a pre-painted PE panel with cutouts and separate
PE instrument faces. I chose to use the PE instrument panel with silkscreen.
I painted the backside of the silkscreen white, and when dry, glued
it to the back of the PE instrument panel. The "dashboard" (part
C25) was painted flat black. I carefully glued on the instrument panel.
Although the instructions called out for adding the instrument panel assembly
after the fuselage is glued together, I decided to add it now to the completed
cockpit. This would make it easier to assemble, and also to do any touching
up if I got careless with the glue.
 I
next started the engine assembly. Although not much of the engine is visible
after the fuselage is assembled, you can't just leave it out. It is needed
to hold the exhaust pipes in place, which extrude on the fuselage bottom.
Be careful when cutting the push rods from the sprue. They are very easy
to break. I had to enlarge a few of the holes to glue the cylinders into
the engine block, but no other fit problems were encountered. The cylinders
had some sink holes, but these were covered up when the exhaust pipes
were attached. The exhaust pipe ends were drilled out before assembly.
I painted the engine using RLM Gray 02, aluminum and black as called out
by the instructions, then given a wash of Oily Black. I did not clean
up the molding lines on the cylinder fins, as they are not visible once
the fuselage is assembled.
Next came the fuselage. I glued the two halves together using Tenax
7 liquid cement. It needed some filling here and there on the seams. I
sanded the seams and filled areas down before I glued in the cockpit in
order to keep the sanding dust out of the cockpit. The fuselage was strong
enough without the cockpit assembly to permit sanding without opening
up the glue joints.
 The
engine assembly was inserted and glued in place, followed by the cockpit
assembly. The starboard side of the cockpit assembly had a slight gap
at the top between it and the fuselage side, but the port side fit pretty
good. I decided that once the canopy was installed, the small gap wouldn't
be noticeable. I also glued on the nose piece, which required some sanding
and filling on the top and bottom to match the fuselage contours.
The top wing sections were glued to the bottom wing before being glued
onto the fuselage. There were some areas on the wing seams that needed
filling. I also glued the rudder halves together, but didn't attach the
rudder until after painting and decaling were finished. This also gave
me the advantage of drilling a small hole in the back side of the vertical
stabilizer to insert a brass rod to support the aircraft during the painting
process. Note that the trailing edges of the wings and rudder are somewhat
on the thick side.
 There
were some problems with the fit of the wing assembly to the fuselage.
I had to remove material from the cockpit floor to get the top sides of
the wings to mate with the fuselage wing roots. This left a small gap
in the leading edge of each wing root, and on the trailing edge of one
wing root. The wings did not match the contours of the fuselage bottom
on the trailing edge side very well either, and required some filling
and sanding. However, the fit between the top side wings and fuselage
was very good, and did not require any sanding or filling.
The horizontal stabilizers and their support braces were glued in place.
The fit was pretty good, but you will need to shorten the length of the
support braces a little to match up with the attachment points. I next
carefully glued on the canopy, which is superbly molded. This is one of
the thinnest canopies I have seen in a while. The canopy required some
minor (and careful) sanding on the front and rear mating surfaces, and
also some sanding to match the curved mating surfaces near the bottom
of the windscreen.
The interior of the wheel wells was painted RLM Gray 02. When dry, I
masked off the canopy, air intakes and exits, and wheel wells. The model
was painted overall with Model Master RLM Gray 63, as suggested in the
kit's painting guide. When dry, I masked the wing tips and painted them
(and the rudder) white, then sprayed the model with Model Master Acrylic
Gloss.
 I
wanted to bring out the details, but didn't want to make it too weathered.
I figured as this wasn't a combat aircraft, it probably was kept up pretty
well. I used burnt umber (light brown) water color to mix up a dilute
wash. I added a very tiny drop of liquid hand soap to break the surface
tension, so the water would flow into the recesses. This was applied,
and the excess was wiped off. I used a black drafting pen to give a deeper
accent to the control surface joints on the wings and horizontal stabilizers.
When dry, I again gave the model a light coat of gloss to serve as the
decal base.
Eduard has always provided good decals, and these are no exception.
Colors are good, and the registry is right on target. They are thin, but
I had no tears or other problems when applying. They laid down nicely,
and responded well to having a little Aero Sol II setting solution applied.
The model was then oversprayed with Model Master Clear Flat Acrylic.
 The
"scissors" on the landing gear are molded as separate pieces.
These were attached, and the gear painted RLM 02 Gray. I found that the
PE brake lines were too delicate when trying to attach them with my big
fingers, so I left them off. The wheel hubs and tail wheel were also painted
RLM 02 gray. The front sides of the propeller were painted with Polly
S Aluminum, while the back sides were painted flat black.
According to the painting guide, the canopy framework on this version
was natural aluminum. I added this carefully using strips cut from a sheet
of Bare Metal foil.
I completed the model by adding the landing gear, prop and other fiddly
bits such as pitot tube and aileron counter weights. The landing light
and what I believe is an oil cooler were also attached. Many external
parts, such as the aileron and rudder controls, are provided by PE parts.
Because of their small size, I found them nearly impossible to work with,
and left them off.
Conclusion
 This
is a fine model kit. The molding, especially the canopy, is first class.
The recesses may be slightly on the deep side, but this is only my opinion.
It doesn't detract from the kit when finished. The decals are excellent,
and having six different countries' markings represented is a major plus.
On the negative side, the instruction sheet is somewhat vague at times,
the wing and rudder trailing edges are a little thick, and there are some
fit problems.
You will need to put some effort into this kit here and there, but the
results are well worth it. It builds up into one nice looking aircraft.
It fits right in with those who build aircraft from the 30's, as well
as the WW2 modelers. Having carried a wide range of both civil and military
color schemes, it should prove to be a very popular kit. Definitely recommended.
I would like to thank Eduard for
providing the kit for review.
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