Inside the Ersatzteiliste (parts manual) for the Bf-109E is a special tools section. Before now, if you wanted to add this to your diorama, you were limited to scratchbuilding it, and then you still had to find the tools to fit. Eduard has made this a lot easier.

Contained on a single brass fret is a roll of tools, a special tool kit, and all the tools for both. The first assembly sequence is a tool roll which can be looped over the wing. There is a second one that is all folded up. These are both perfectly formed and textured to give that canvas look. The tools fit along a canvas strap. It might be easier to add this strap from tape, but the PE part is quite adequate. As a personal aside, my thought is to use the Eduard PE part as a template to cut the “canvas” roll out of masking tape, both for scale thickness and that more realistic canvas texture that masking tape suggests.

The rest of the parts are for the four-layered special tool box. These were probably made of wood and should be painted accordingly. Each layer contains the base piece, and tools are then fitted into the outlined areas. This will ensure that the tools are properly positioned. The box itself will require some forethought about the folds, but it shouldn’t be too difficult as long as you have a bending tool.

I’d recommend painting the tools on the fret before you remove them, then just touch up the attachment points. The tools themselves will add to the look of any diorama. They can just be tacked in place on your model.

With this tool box and tool roll, the modeler can add an additional layer of reality to his 109. The only down side that I could see is that there are no painting instructions.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Eduard and IPMS/USA for the review copy.