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Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 by Roy Long
Here is Hasegawa's re-tooled Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 in 1/48 scale.. This model depicts Hauptmann Herbert Ihlefeld's 109E-3 when he was Kommandeur of II(J)/LG 2 in Hungary at the beginning of the Balkans Campaign. The aircraft apparently had a very interesting career, being flown by Pips Priller during the Battle of Britain, then transferred to LG2 in France, which was in turn sent to Hungary. LG2 was under JG 52's operation control in the Balkan Campaign.
I picked up the Third Group Decals sheet #48-008 "JG 77, I(J)/LG 2 1940-41 Me 109E-1/3/4" at a contest. When I read the description and imagined what it would look like with the yellow cowl, fuselage band, tail, wing tips and trailing edges along with the red chevrons and the red markings on the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, all on top of a very non-standard camo scheme, I just had to give it a shot. I was unable to locate pictures of this particular aircraft Third Group Decals gives references as Geschichte Des Jagdgeschwaders 77 Teil 1: 1934-1941; J. Prien, 1992. I didn't have this one. This kit also gave me the opportunity to use a bunch of aftermarket goodies. The cockpit is the very nice Hawkeye Resins set, the control surfaces are the fairly nice, (but warped) KMC set and True Details wheels complete the package. This aircraft was equipped with a Peil Geraet IV blister, which was carved from a block of basswood, sealed with superglue then sanded smooth. The tail wheel well was filled I with layers of baking powder and super glue. This is a very cheap and strong filler for large holes.
Hasegawa's retooled 109E is a nice kit which requires little effort to build into a nice model. The Hawkeye cockpit set was an easy replacement for the kit cockpit and required no extra fussing. Using the KMC control surfaces required working the warps out and the expected cutting of kit parts. Painting was done with mostly Xtracolor paints, RLM 76, 74,75, 02, 04 and 23 were used. Third Group Decals went on with out any problems. Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2000 by Roy
Long
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