Airfix 1/48 scale
Messerschmitt
Bf 109 E-7/Trop

by Tony Bell

Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-7/Trop

Hobby Boss' 1/32 Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop is available online from Squadron

It may be hard to believe, but Airfix's "new" tool Bf 109E is almost a decade old.

Typical of their more recent efforts, it's quite nice, striking a good balance between simplicity and detail. Engineering and molding finesse is decent, but not quite at the same level as say, Tamiya or Eduard. However, with care and attention, the use of filler can be kept to a bare minimum.

I approached it as a relaxing, straightforward build following a more involved project. I had a number of Ultracast goodies in the stash, including seat, exhausts, wheels, prop and spinner, that I decided to put to good use. These were designed to fit the Tamiya Emil, but with some minor tweaking they can be adapted for the Airfix kit.

Paints were a mixed bag, with Gunze H67 RLM 65 for the hellblau (it's supposed to be RLM 78, but 65 was close enough), a mix of Tamiya colours for the RLM 79 sandgelb and AK Real Colors Olive Green RAL 6003 for the green mottling.

The major markings were painted on using homemade masks cut with my Silhouette Portrait stencil cutter, with the JG27 emblem, swastika and stencils being pilfered from various Aeromaster decal sheets that I had kicking around. Unfortunately, the Airfix decals were essentially useless, being thick and impervious to any setting solutions.

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2019 by Tony Bell
Page Created 19 March, 2019
Last Updated 19 March, 2019

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