One of the areas that the 1/32nd scale Hasegawa Bf-109 kits lacks is the wheel wells. There is no lining and the detail is a little heavy. Aires now offers an option.

The Aires set includes two resin wheel well inserts and a small fret of photoetch. The parts are molded in light grey resin without any imperfections that I could see. The instructions are adequate for the job at hand.

Start the addition by deciding whether or not you want the round or squared off wheel wells. If you elect to use the squared off one, you’ll have to do it now. Then start thinning out the upper wings and the area around the wheel well opening. You will have to remove a good amount of plastic and thin out the upper wing, but nothing that a Dremel tool with sanding bit can’t fix. The process was actually quite easy. I removed some of the stiffeners in the kit wing but it wasn’t really necessary.

I removed the backing plates from the resin wheel wells. This was actually relatively easy too. Once I had that done, it was just a matter of test fitting the parts. And keep checking them often so there are no problems. Once the fit was good, I did slightly bend the photo etch roof of the wheel well by placing it between my fingers and thumb and squeezing. This will help form it and keep it in place. I ended up adding the stiffener AFTER the roof part was glued in. These parts also need to be bent slightly to get a good fit. Extra thin super glue was used here to keep the amount of glue residue minimal.

I filled in all gaps with Apoxy Sculpt. Painting and weathering was accomplished as with any other modeling project. The parts were pre-shaded with flat black and painted RLM02.

The only downside of this set was the lack of the retraction piston which is inside the wing. It isn’t a big thing but would have been nice to include. Some tubing with tape wrapped around it works well enough, but it would have been nice to include them in resin.

This set is a relatively easy correction set for the molded-in bulges in the wing. It provides you with the canvas cover and the top of the wing. I think it looks very much the part of the real thing. I am going to purchase another set for my other F model. That is about the best recommendation that I can give any product.

Highly recommended.

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