History

The Bf109G-5 and -6 fighters were produced in parallel and were pressurized and non-pressurized versions of the same fighter. The G-6 was most widely produced variant and remained in service till the end of the war. Erich Hartmann was probably the most famous pilot to fly the Bf 109 and is the highest scoring ace in the Luftwaffe.

The kit: Hasegawa has released versions of the G-6 or -14 at least 12 times and nothing has changed with this boxing other than the decals. The parts are crisply molded in grey with recessed detail and little to no flash. The clear parts typical Hasegawa quality and look nice. The resin figure is very nice but has a mold seam line down the middle of his face and back of his head…this will be a pain to clean up.

SE.5a Wolsely Viper

This is an excellent newly tooled kit from Edward, who continue to set the standard for the finest in model kits. This kit will appeal to less experienced modelers, who may not want to use the photoetch or install the plane’s rigging. More advanced modelers will be able to enjoy the detail provided by the photoetch and rigging. Either way, this builds into a beautiful model.

This is a nice resin & photoetch set that replaces the Vickers and Lewis machine guns in Eduard’s new SE.5a kit. The resin has better detail than the kit plastic parts and the Vickers gun is easier to install. Some of the resin and photoetch pieces are extremely small.

Background

The Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a was armed with a single synchronized .303-inch Vickers machine gun mounted in the fuselage in front of the cockpit. Many versions also had an upper wing-mounted Lewis gun fitted on a Foster Mounting to allow the pilot to fire at overhead aircraft. Eduard’s newly released SE.5a kit includes both guns, which are replaced by the parts in this add-on package.