Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2/4

21st Century Toys, 1/32 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

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21st Century Toys has been making a name for itself in the collector's market with their large-scale, pre-assembled and painted aircraft and military models. Now, 21st Century Toys has expanded into plastic construction kits.

The first batch of 1/32 scale kits includes a Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2/F-4.

We have been waiting for a Friedrich variant of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 in 1/32 scale for a long time. Revell's 1/32 scale Bf 109 F from the 1960s displayed some fatal accuracy issues, and Hasegawa seems to be in no rush to expand their excellent 1/32 scale Bf 109 family.

So do we finally have a decent 1/32 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109 F?

Underneath the striking box art, 21st Century Toys' 1/32 scale Bf 109 comprises 69 parts in grey plastic and five parts in clear, plus eight metal screws. The grey plastic appears to be regular hard polystyrene, and responds normally to model cements. Parts are not attached to sprues. Instead, they are packed in small groups of loose parts in separate plastic bags.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Surface detail is by way of recessed panel lines and a small number of rivet lines (on the lower wings only), plus raised fabric detail. The surface detail - both recessed and fabric - is noticeably heavier than Hasegawa's 109s, but not as exaggerated as some mainstream releases of late. Surface texture is very much a matter of taste, but I will probably at least be sanding down the raised detail on the control surfaces.

The general outline of the kit is quite accurate. I compared the wings and fuselage to Hasegawa's Bf 109 G-4/Trop kit, and they conformed extremely closely in terms of size and profile. The wing chord and span is between 1 and 2mm shorter on the 21st Century kit. The most noticeable difference was the profile of the rudder. The 21st Century version was a little flatter at the top and very slightly narrower in chord. I think the shape of the Hasegawa rudder is more accurate.

The clear parts are quite clear, but they are thick and location points do intrude beyond the frames into the clear parts of the canopy. Clear wing tip navigation lights are included.

Some details are nicely done, including the narrow main wheels with the "cast" wheel spokes moulded separately from the rear of the hub, and gear legs with hydraulic lines moulded on. I think the gun trough insert looks better than the Hasegawa part included in their Bf 109 G-4/Trop kit too.

The seated pilot is one of the finest figures I have ever seen supplied with a aircraft model kit. He is made up of a body, two poseable arms and a separate head. Unfortunately, my sample has two left arms (I know how he feels sometimes).

On the other hand, a number of items have been simplified or omitted. These include missing radiator and oil cooler faces, no separate balance horns for the ailerons and solid fuselage intake scoops.

In the box, the cockpit looks a bit basic. However, the front office looks good when carefully painted. The photo below shows my cockpit painted and ready for assembly. The only additions to the cockpit are a flexible resin harness, a length of fuse wire to complete the fuel line on the starboard sidewall (the front part in front of the inspection tube is not moulded to the sidewall), and lead foil for the rudder toe straps. I also used a few placard decals from MDC and Reheat.

Options and features include movable leading edge slats, retractable landing gear and opening canopy; ETC rack; 300 litre drop tank; 250kg bomb; tropical air filter (one piece and cleverly moulded open); underwing 20mm cannon gondolas and a DF loop.

Markings are supplied for three aircraft:

1. Bf 109 F-4/B of JG 2, France, early 1942

2. Bf 109 F-2 of 7./JG 54, Eastern Front, Autumn 1941

3. Bf 109 F-4 of 9./JG 3, near Stalingrad, June 1942

The decals are a real highlight - thinly printed, crisp and plenty of tiny detail extending to the smallest stencils. The red was slightly out of register on my sample, but this only effected one emblem.

Kit Engineering

I assume that, in addition to its current guise as a construction kit, this mould will also be used as the basis for a pre-built and painted static display model. That being the case, kit engineering has been optimised for ease of mass production by unskilled labour. The good news is that it should be easy for new modellers to build too.

The first thing you will notice when you open the box are a number of large holes in one fuselage side and on the bottom of the wing. These are holes for the screws that hold the main fuselage and wing assemblies together. Plastic plugs are supplied to fill these holes, but many modellers will also want to fill and sand the circles.

The workable slats are simply designed to be trapped between the top and bottom wing halves. - no complications there. The retracting landing gear is just as simple. It is secured by a single part screwed into place.

The tail unit is a separate assembly from fuselage panel K and aft. This suggests that we will see at least a Bf 109 G-14 and/or a tall tail G-6. The tail halves and the propeller assembly are installed before the fuselage halves are joined.

There are lots and lots of locating pins - some big and some small. Even without the screws the fuselage stays quite snugly in place without glue.

The cockpit floor, rear bulkhead and instrument panel will slip into the assembled fuselage halves from below.

After that, the wing is offered up to the fuselage, screwed in place and the final details fitted.

This should be a very fast build.

Many modellers will be thrilled with the low price of the kit, perfectly happy with the contents in the box, and build the model per instructions. Others will be interested in the finer details of the actual variants that can be faithfully portrayed from the included parts.

The following analysis of the kit contents may be of interest to the second category of modeller. What variant can we accurately build straight from the box?

The fuselage halves include engraved detail for various filler and access hatches. Similar to Hasegawa's Bf 109 family, some of these will have to be filled depending on the variant being built. Importantly, these hatches do not include the unique Bf 109 F fuel filler under the port-side canopy. Also, the nose features four small intakes which were not introduced until the Bf 109 G series (in this case the intakes are in-line, not staggered per the Hasegawa kit). The tail wheel well is covered over in the kit, whereas this should be open for the Bf 109 F and even the early G series.

Moving to the wings, the wheel well openings are round per the F series, and the upper wing panel lines are also appropriate for the Bf 109 F, but the small panel for the underwing FuG16ZY Morane antenna mast (not introduced until the G-6) is also present.

The real devil is in the detail. The propeller blades, oil cooler housing and supercharger intake are all later than a standard Bf 109 F-2/F-4. This style of deeper oil cooler and larger supercharger intake were first installed on the Bf 109 F-4/Trop and F-4/Z, but are more typically associated with the DB605A-powered Bf 109 G series (G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, G-5. G-6, G-14). The broad propeller blades as supplied in the kit were only seen on the F-4/Z and F-4/Z/Trop. By the way, the size and shape of the supercharger intake is reasonable, but the opening is squared off and too small due to the thickness of the plastic. If you are not planning to install the tropical filter, I recommend thinning the opening from inside.

The spoked narrow main wheels are correct for the Bf 109 F and the Bf 109 G-2 / G-4(early). The tail wheel is the smaller style (290mm x 110mm) seen on the Bf 109 F and G-2. This was replaced with a larger tail wheel (350mm x 135mm) on a fixed strut from the G-3 onward.

So far, we have some attributes of a very late F and others of the early Bf 109 G series.

The canopy adds to the confusion. Although the windscreen has frame lines moulded onto the bottom quarter windows (which were only applicable to the F series), the heavy windscreen framing and absence of opening forward quarter window is much more like a Bf 109 G. The canopy centre section does not have the centre frame, so looks like a Bf 109 F.

So, 21st Century Toys does not include all the parts to build a completely accurate Bf 109 F-2 or F-4 standard variant straight from the box. However, there are a number of other choices for finishing the kit.

These are my suggestions:

Bf 109 F-4/Z or F-4/Z/Trop

If you want to build your model as an F-4/Z or F-4/Z/Trop, you will need to do the following:

1. Check your references and fill access panels and filler hatches not appropriate to the Bf 109 F.

2. Scribe in fuel filler port under port-side canopy

3. Slice off the two small intakes on both sides of the nose

4. Open up the tail wheel well opening using the panel lines as a guide (the tail wheel leg can still be installed after this operation)

5. Check your references to see if your subject had the starboard side windscreen bottom quarter window covered (fairly typical for late Fs)

6. Paint only the outer frame of the windscreen to represent the thinner framing (or, if you are very brave, sand the detail off, polish and rescribe new lines. But only if you are very brave).

7. Scribe a vertical line in the centre of each centre canopy panel (represents the break for the sliding windows). and on the sides of the windscreen (for the inward-opening quarter windows)

Bf 109 G-2 / G-2/Trop

The least amount of work for reasonable accuracy straight from the box is to finish the model as a Bf 109 G-2. If you want to build your model as an early Bf 109 G, you will need to do the following:

1. Check your references and fill access panels and filler hatches not appropriate to the Bf 109 G-2. Some of the G-specific hatches are missing or in the wrong locations too, so while you have your filler and scriber handy it may be worth repositioning these (most notably the fuel filler hatch on the port-side spine).

2. Cut open the tail wheel well opening using the panel lines as a guide (the tail wheel leg can still be installed after this operation)

3. Square off the outboard profile of the main wheel well openings.

4. Add a chordwise panel line to the top of each wing (check references).

5. Either sand off or preferably fill the lower quarter windows on the kit windscreen.

6. Add a vertical panel line to each of the three clear panels on the opening canopy section.

7. Add FuG25 mast to the bottom of the fuselage from fine rod or wire.

Bf 109 G-4 (early)

You could build the kit as an early Bf 109 G-4, but you will need to source a larger tail wheel. The steps are the same as for the G-2, plus the following:

1. Check whether your subject had open or faired-over tail wheel well. Some very early G-4s may have been open. If required, open up the tail wheel well using the panel lines as a guide (the tail wheel leg can still be installed after this operation)

2. If you are building an early G-4 with the faired over tail wheel well, you will need to replace the tail wheel with a larger item and add a canvas boot (from Milliput or similar). Note that later G-4s had the wider main wheels of the G-6, and the bulge on top of the wings so is probably out of the scope of this project.

3. Move the antenna wire lead-in position aft (just forward of fuselage station K). The antenna mast may be shorter on some aircraft.

Common Modifications

In all of the above cases there are a few other modifications required. These common changes are:

1. Fill and sand the join line between the gun cowl insert and the main engine cowl. There was no panel line in this location.

2. Fill and sand the triangular hole for the DF loop on the fuselage spine

3. Fill and sand the four holes in the bottom of the wings for the gondolas.

4. Fill the lines for the small Morane mast mounting panel under the wing.

5. Scribe in small engine primer hatch and auxiliary power unit access hatch on the starboard fuselage.

6. Drill or scribe jacking points on both sides of fuselage panel K.

We often speak of scale aircraft modelling as if it is one hobby. In fact, there are as many different interpretations of the hobby as there are modellers.

In my opinion, there is no single "correct" goal, whether it be accuracy, artistic attractiveness, or something as simple as finishing a model that looks vaguely like the intended subject aircraft. If the individual modeller is satisfied with their result, that is enough.

There has been much discussion recently about factors that will bring about the death of our hobby. The long list of these fatal influences includes Mike Grant's "smoke ring" decals, Spitfire fuselage lengths, the rise of die-cast collectibles, video games and the emphasis of surface detail on particular kits. Without doubt, 21st Century Toys' new inexpensive kit line will be added to this Doomsday list.

Even so, I believe that this model will be appreciated by an assortment of people for different reasons.

My seven year old son loves the recent series of 1/72 scale Hobby Boss aircraft kits. We have sat down and built a few together. It won't be long before he is building these simple kits himself. I can see a time in a few years where he would be delighted to be able to buy 21st Centurys' 1/32 scale Bf 109 with his own pocket money, and build it in one afternoon. Thinking back 36 years to myself at 10 years old, that scenario sounds kind of familiar.

Similarly, for modellers coming back into the hobby after college and family, these kits will represent a way to create a nice model with basic skills, and encourage our new recruit to try something more ambitious next time.

Even the more experienced modeller might feel jaded sometimes. This kit could represent a refreshing sorbet between heavier courses. Or if someone prefers painting to construction, this artist might use 21st Century's Bf 109 as a plastic palette for their penchant.

There is no doubt that, in a side-by-side comparison to Hasegawa's 1/32 scale Bf 109 (G-4 in this case), the Hasegawa kit is clearly superior in terms of surface finesse, detail and finish. Despite this, there is an important place for the 21st Century kit for less experienced modellers and, with a sticker price of around USD$11.00, modellers on a budget. 

As noted in the analysis above, the kit contents are somewhat confused, almost certainly as a result of an attempt to extract the maximum number of variants from a single set of moulds. In my opinion, this model best represents a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2, although a little extra work (mainly scribing and filling) will result in a Bf 109 F-4/Trop or F-4/Z. Of course, many people will not be concerned with the depth of an oil cooler or the location of a panel, and will just build the kit straight from the box.

21st Century Toys' 1/32 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109 F will be ideal as an entry-level large-scale kit, or a "slammer" to test your painting skills, or a low-cost alternative if finances are tight.

It is nice to have the option.

Thanks to 21st Century Toys for the sample.

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2007 by Brett Green
Page Created 07 February, 2007
Last updated 31 December, 2007

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