Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $49.90 Web Site: www.dragonmodelsusa.com I probably don't need to go into the history of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 in any great depth. According to Wikipedia, "It was a fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. The Bf 109 was produced in greater quantities than any other fighter aircraft in history, with a wartime production (September 1939 to May 1945) of 30,573 units." It is fairly obvious that this kit is based on an older issue of the Hasegawa kit, with fine raised panel lines and rivets, and relatively sparse detail by today's standard. The molds are beginning to show their age, as evidenced by a small amount of flash on the various parts. Inside the box are three large sprues of injected molded light gray plastic including 82 parts, and one sprue of clear plastic including 7 parts, for a total of 89 plastic parts (3 parts are indicated as "not used"). Early and late canopy styles are included. There is a clear resin ventral bubble included for the Peil G IV radar unit.

The instructions are an eight page foldout type, comprising 16 assembly steps with two pages of (unused) painting & marking profiles. There is a separate 2 page foldout instructions that include the resin attachment point and two profiles of nightfighter markings. The first of decals depicts 109E-4 "G9+JV" of III./NJG1, October 1941 (overall RLM 66 Schwarzgrau), and the second depicts 109E-3 "Black Chevron" of I.(j)/LG2, Hptm. Ihlefeld, April 1941 (a much more colorful version). Most of the parts have paint codes listed for Gunze Sangyo and Mr. Color, but the RLM numbers are also included on the chart. There are some questionable areas in the painting instructions. Specifically, the instructions call for the landing gear struts and hubs to be painted RLM 70 Black-Green, but all the references that I can find have the struts in RLM 02 Grau and the hubs in gloss black. Some of the parts do not have clearly indicated attachment points in the instructions.

The kit includes an engine, which is a nice addition, and fairly common to this scale. If it is to be displayed with open panels, I think it would benefit from some added details. The same could be said for the cockpit, too. The molded belts on the seat are not very good. The landing gear bays are very shallow, and have no detail in them at all. The 1:1 gear bays are pretty plain, so a few minor details could be added here. There are ejector pin marks on various parts that will need to be corrected. The worst of them, that I've seen so far, are on the landing gear struts. A pilot figure is included on the sprues, but I would not consider it very well detailed. The decals appear to be thin and printed in perfect register. Surprisingly, there are swastikas on the decal sheet. Also, included on the decal sheet and supplemental instructions is an instrument panel decal. This was apparently not included in previous issues of this kit, since the main instruction sheet indicate painting instructions for the panel. There is a lot of clear carrier on the Instrument Panel decal. I think it might be best to separate the instrument faces and apply them individually.

Overall, this is a fairly nice kit … and one that could produce a good model. Some extra details would really help to bring it to life. Superdetailers will have a good platform to turn out a striking model of this particular nightfighter variant. I could recommend this kit to modelers of all skill levels. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to DragonmodelsUSA and IPMS for this review sample.

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