Messerschmitt BF110E

[woody37]

Messerschmitt BF110E

Eduard 1:48 Weekend Edition

Winning over rival competition from Focke-Wulf with the FW57 and Henschel with the HS124, the BF110 first flew in 1936. It's role was that of heavy fighter supporting bomber and ground attack missions during the Blitzkrieg operations benefiting from a healthy range and heavy armament. It gained early success over Poland, Norway and France where the fighter opposition was limited, however it's limitations were exposed during the Battle of Britain when it encountered the Hurricane and Spitfire. It's main draw back was it's lack of maneuverability where it was simply outclassed against Britain's modern air force. The BF110E was a fighter bomber powered by the Daimler Benz DB601B or P engines and carried a greater defensive armour, however this increased the weight making it unpopular with it's crews due to inadequate performance. The BF110F introduced more powerful engines to combat this situation. Despite the issues over Britain, the BF110 had greater success in other theatres such as North Africa and the Balkans, however it's most notable success was later in the war as a night fighter where it found it's niche carrying radar and intercepting the bomber streams.

The kit

The Weekend Edition of the kit is aimed at offering a lower priced kit by not including the resin and etch parts that are otherwise included. What you get with this is is 7 frets of olive green plastic and two frets of clear parts. The detail in the kit is crisp, with finely engraved panel lines. Some manufactures go a little too far in my opinion on the panel lines, looking more like trenches, but Eduard have this just right.

The design of the kit has been well thought out. Whilst this may be the cheaper kit, there is nothing left out of the plastic options. The cockpit is beautifully detailed. Throttles, ammunition, instruments, seats and even the underbelly cannons are all finely detailed and on show through the greenhouse cockpit. As you can see from the frets below, Eduard have added plenty of detail throughout the model, which is reflected in the 314 coloured parts count. The instructions start with the cockpit assembly before fitting it into the 2 fuselage halves and are superb. There are no less than 5 pages just covering the cockpit assembly reflecting how much detail has been squeezed into such a small space. With fuselage together, the cannon and machine guns follow on. The 4 MG-17 machine guns in the nose can be faired over or open depending on your choice. With such lovely detail on show, it would be a shame to hide it !

With assembly of the wings next comes the tricky part. I've heard that care has to be taken to get the cowlings to align correctly so patience will be the order of the day here. A good practice of dry fitting should indicate any issues to be addressed. Again, however, the detail in the engine cowlings and wheel bays is nicely presented. The ailerons are separate parts giving the ability to have them deflected slightly to add greater interest in this area. The fabric effect on them is very well moulded and a light wash should bring this out nicely. The instructions recommend to glue the exhaust bases to the engine then glue the exhausts to the bases. When I come to build this kit, I will give it some thought as to whether to do this or fit the exhausts after painting.

The instructions show only bombs to be fitted, however wing drop tanks and a huge ventral fuel tank are supplied in the kit by default.

The clear frets provide no less than 12 parts. The rear gunner position allows for either an open or closed rear canopy. The front canopy is supplied as separate parts, which is great if you want it open, but more tricky if you want it closed as the upper and side panels will have to be glued together. A separate armoured panel is provided for the windscreen too.

The decals

Disappointingly, only one scheme is provided in the kit, that of Commander Lt. Felix-Maria Brandis of JG.77 based in Finland in 1942 who scored 14 victories before dieing in a landing accident in bad weather. However, the decals are of excellent quality with a vast amount of stencils. If painting the instrument panel is not your cup of tea, sanding the detail off and applying the supplied decal is an option.

Conclusion

This is a fine rendition of the BF110 that I'm looking forwards to building. The detail is quite simply stunning and to think that this is the cheaper option goes to show how far manufacturers like Eduard have brought the hobby on in recent years. There's a lot of fine and small parts, so patience will be required and protection from the carpet monster a must. The only thing I can say against it is lack of another decal option, however, that can easily be rectified with the aftermarket options on the market.

Review sample courtesy of

[galgos]

I'll be watching this with interest Woody. I did a review for Scale Modelling Now of Eduard's 1/48th Bf110G-4 - in some areas I found it "over-engineered" or unnecessarily complicated though it does make up into a good looking kit. Watch out for the fit of the wings to the fuselage, lots of dry-fitting needed here to avoid gaps!!

Regards

Max