History Brief

The main German fighter at the outbreak of WW2 was, of course, the Bf109E. Playing a vital role in the early Nazi campaigns, the Bf109E was an important instrumental weapon used by the Luftwaffe, easily piercing through well defended countries like Poland and France. Dominating most of the European skies in less than a year, it was the apex leading Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.

The Product

Inside the familiar Eduard box, we find the standard has been raised again with beautiful, all new tooling, I was impressed with the excellent level of detail, superb fit, and the full-color painting guide. Plus, a color PE detail set and a canopy mask sheet are also included in the Profipack boxing. The instruction sheet is well thought out and presented in a booklet form. The decals are very nice and printed by Cartograf, and also include complete stencils.

Kit contains four marking options.

The FW-190A-7 was one of the last versions that Eduard had not covered directly, the other being the A-9. You could always build one from their Royal Class kits but never as a standalone kit. Well, Eduard has stepped up to the plate and has hit another home run.

I’ve built the A-5, F-8, A-8, and D-9, so I have some experience with this series of kits. That said, this kit is just as good as those kits and why shouldn’t it be? It contains the same parts.

The kit contains six sprues of RLM 02 plastic with minimal flash. One sprue of clear parts, two frets of photo etch, one of those being pre-painted, and a set of masks rounds out the parts. Of course, there are two decal sheets which contain markings for four aircraft. The instructions are printed on high quality paper stock. I found the instructions to be easy enough to understand.

Background

The trouble (at least for me) with pitot tubes as furnished in most aircraft plastic kits is they are normally the last part installed and the first part broken off. I build 1/48th scale aircraft and will replace the kit pitot tube with lengths of aluminum or brass tubing. I use the kit part for the proper dimensions, but do allow at least ½” extra length in the main shaft for a secure mounting within the model’s wing or nose cone.

The Company

The company Master is located in Poland, and the owner is Piotr Czerkasow, who is also a modeler. By vocation he is a mechanical engineer. The product line includes aircraft and naval accessories in several scales.

The products are distributed worldwide, including the United States, with Sprue Brothers being one of the sources.

The Soviet fighter Yak-3 is part of Zvezda’s new “Snap Fit” series. You get 45 medium gray hard plastic parts and two clear parts with minimal flash. The instructions are very well illustrated with seven sequences of assembly. The detail is exceptional and surprising for a snap fit kit. The three piece pilot figure is a work of art, with the seat pan molded to the pilot. A seat without pilot is also provided, should you wish that option. The kit is designed for snap assembly and can easily be assembled with no glue. However, I plan on using glue. Areas of concern are the sink marks on the upper wings (part 40) and front top cowling (part 41). Filler will definitely be required. You also get two finely detailed instrument panels, one to be used with kit supplied decals and the other with raised details for the instruments if you prefer to paint yours. You also have the option for wheels down or wheels up.

Eduard's color etch sets are really great looking and this one is no exception. This set is made for Trumpeter's 1/72nd F-100F and, when you first look at it, you wonder "where does all of this stuff go?" This set is also self-adhesive, which actually ends up being more trouble than advantage. By the time I had cut a few parts from the fret, I had basically destroyed the backing paper and the adhesive was no longer effective. But, that didn’t slow me down. Gator Glue to the rescue! The cockpit gray of the consoles and instrument panels is more of a light blue than anything related to cockpit gray. I could not find anything in all of my paints that was a close match, so I mixed my own. Don't ask me for the formula, because I have no idea, except that it came close.