Eduard 1/48 Bf109F-4 Weekend Edition
By Jacob Russell
Eduard's Messerschmitt Bf109F-4 is back, reissued as a Weekend edition kit. It consists of 210 injection molded parts, molded in gray and clear on 5 sprues.
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The surface detail is excellent, with great rivets and finely recessed panel lines.
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The multi piece cockpit will look convincingly busy with an oil wash and careful detail painting. The landing gear and main wheels look great.
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The fabric control surfaces and wing leading edge slats are separately molded. The kit includes 4 different decal options:
"Yellow 14", WNr. 8673, Hptm. Hans-Joachim Marseille, CO of 3./JG 27, Quotaifiya, Egypt, April 1942. One the planes of the legendary "Star of Africa", this Friedrich was painted in Desert Theatre colors of RLM 79 and 78 with an RLM 04 Yellow lower cowl and white fuselage band and wingtips. The rudder features 100 kill markings.
"Black 9", Lt. Hans-Joachim Heyer, 8./JG 54, Siverskaya, Soviet Union, September 1942. This colorful Bf109 was painted in the mid-War European Theatre colors of RLM 74/75/76 with RLM 04 Yellow lower cowl, fuselage band and wing tips. The spinner was half white and RLM 70 Dark Green with an RLM 70 backing plate. The fuselage spine and upper wings were overpainted with temporary white winter distemper paint.
"Yellow 1", WNr. 7420, Lt. Hermann A. Graf, CO of 9./JG 52, Kharkov-Rogan Soviet Union, May 1942.This plane was painted RLM 74/75/76 with RLM 04 Yellow cowlings fuselage band, spinner and wing tips. The fuselage had a dense RLM 74/75 mottle.
"Yellow 3", WNr. 10145, Fw. Rudolf Muller, CO of 6./JG 5, Petsamo, Finland, June 1942. This Friedrich was painted in segmented RLM 78/79/71 with an RLM 04 Yellow lower cowl and wing tips. The spinner was half white/RLM 70 with an RLM 70 backing plate.
The decals are very well printed, in register, and have accurate colors, and there is a separate sheet of stencils.
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The instructions are well illustrated and include a parts map, stencil placement guide and color callouts for GSI Creos (Gunze) Aqueous and Mr. Color paints.
Conclusions
I am glad to see Eduard's Bf109F-4 back on the hobby shop shelves. It's an excellent kit. It's accurate and well detailed plus you have a plethora of Eduard's aftermarket accessories (Brassin resin, masks, photo-etch) to choose from. I recommend Eduard's Messerschmitt Bf109F-4 and I would like to thank Eduard for the review sample.