The Bf-109F had a very unique flap setup when compared to the Emil version. The split flaps required extensive engineering. The outer portion was the traditional flap style, but the inboard flaps were different. The inboard flaps had two functions, one was to act as a flap but the other was as a cooling flap for the glycol radiators. The Friedrich had a unique style as well with a boundry layer being channeled through the upper portion of the inboard flap. This caused the F to have a ‘space’ between the two layers on the upper inboard flap. This is impossible to mold in plastic effectively.

Eduard has offered a complete photo etch version of this which works well but required a lot of bending. This new set offers the best of both worlds, resin and photo etch. This set comes in a blister pack with six pieces of grey resin with no blemishes. And one fret of photo etch with 14 pieces of brass to add. Most of these are stiffeners.

Removing the resin pieces is easy enough if you pay attention to where the mounting lugs are. They are typical of the kit parts. I was in a hurry on one flap and cut off one of my mounting lugs before I realized it. So just proceed with caution. Clean up was quick once I figured out what I was doing. The detail is much finer on the flaps here with no plastic sink marks.

The upper inner flaps are what makes this set for the Friedrich. To build up the boundary layer you are required to bend the flap and add the stiffeners. This ‘opens’ up the boundary layer portion of the flap after it is added to the resin piece. Once primed and painted it is then just a simple matter of adding it to the kit as per the instructions.

I preferred this method to all the photo etch folding of the other Eduard set. That said the only drawback I can see, if you can call it that, is that you can’t position the flaps in any position other than the full down. 109s normally had their flaps in this position seen in the kit but not always. Not a big deal but it would have been nice to have another position available. I’m sure I could cut off the mounting points and do whatever I wanted to do, but in the interest of the review I stuck to the instructions.

Simple cleanup and depiction of the flaps arrangement with no plastic sink marks makes this a winner in my book. I think this is an essential set to depict the flaps properly on the BF-109F. Another winner of a set from Eduard. I think this set is required to properly display a flap for the Bf-109F.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Eduard and IPMS/USA for the review copy. You can obtain your copy by contacting Eduard at www.eduard.com or your local hobby shop or online retailer.