Messerschmitt Bf 109 W
conversion set for EduardBf 109 F kits

Halberd Models, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

As far as I can tell, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 W existed only in technical drawings.

The concept is perfectly sound. The Bf 109's nemesis, the Spitfire, had an operational floatplane fighter in the family. It was surprisingly nimble considering its two large floats, which were lightweight and aerodynamically designed.

Even so, it would appear that the Bf 109 W never made it off the drawing board.

Halberd Models from Ukraine has decided that they will show us what the Bf 109 W might have looked like if it had proceeded to prototype stage.

This set has been specifically designed for the Eduard 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109 F kits.

Halberd's conversion comprises 17 parts in green coloured resin, four parts in black resin, four vinyl tyres and decals for one marking scheme.

All the parts required to convert Eduard's excellent kit into this hypothetical floatplane variant are included in the box. A ground handling dolly is also included.

The conversion has been designed to be easy to build.

The surface textures on the resin conversion parts are the equal of those on Eduard's excellent kit - crisp, fine and consistent.

Each float is cast in one large piece with a separate nose cap and small rudder assembly. The design of the floats appear to the same or similar to those fitted to the Arado Ar 196.

The combination of raised and recessed surface textures look great.

The resin conversion parts also include a replacement full span lower wing.

This has been moulded with a locating slot to accommodate the floats' pants.

Production quality of the resin parts is excellent, with only minimum cleanup required and no imperfections visible on my sample.

The ground handling dolly is pretty big by itself. This includes fittings for the top and the sides, two small castors plus four wheels with tyres presented in black flexible vinyl.

I'm not usually a big fan of vinyl but these look very good with crisp detail and no evidence of raised centreline seams.

A set of decals with national markings. stencils and codes is included.

The model wears radio codes typically allocated at the factory and usually removed and/or overpainted when the aircraft was delivered to its operational unit. Prototypes usually retained their factory codes during test flying.

These codes, BC+YH, have been seen before on Amodel's 1/72 scale Bf 109 W kit but I could not find any evidence that a prototype was manufactured. Feel free to use whatever codes or other markings that you see fit!

The instructions look easy to follow.

A parts list and camouflage and markings guide round out this package.

All you need to add is an Eduard 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109 F kit. If you don't have an Eduard Friedrich already, the best value for money will be to buy an Overtrees boxing from Eduard's website. These are white-box basic sprue sets with only the plastic parts. They are available for the bargain price of USD$16.96.

This is a comprehensive and well executed conversion for the hypothetical Bf 109 F floatplane.

The quality of the surface textures and casting is outstanding. Its simple design, easy cleanup and minimal surgery also means that only a moderate amount of modelling experience will be required to tackle the project.

The other Halberd conversions reviewed on HyperScale have been snapped up in hours grab one of these while you can.

Thanks to Halberd Models for the sample

Halberd Models eBay Shop

Halberd Models Facebook Page

Text and Images Copyright © 2021 by Brett Green
Page Created 1 November, 2021
Last updated 2 November, 2021

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