Bf-109G-10 Mtt Regensburg

Published on
March 18, 2019
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$49.95
Product / Stock #
82119
Company: Eduard - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: Eduard - Website: Visit Site
Box Art

Eduard continues its way through the development of the Bf-109. Their latest offering is the Bf-109G-10 produced at the Regensburg manufacturing facility, of which 130 were built. This particular variant comes with the small bulges on the wings but large asymmetrical gun cowlings with a long tail wheel.

The kit comes in a sturdy cardboard box with some wonderful box art. There are five sprues in light grey plastic. The two ‘standard’ sprues are included and one sprue for the fuselage and two wing sprues. The new sprue for the fuselage contains the new parts, including the propeller, tails, the supercharger intake, and oil cooler. There is a clear sprue for the clear parts. This release has two frets of photo etch. The first is the ‘standard’ pre-painted fret with seatbelts and instrument panel. The other one is the night fighter exhaust shrouds. A set of masks is included as well. The instruction booklet is printed in color and features five aircraft. The decals are in perfect register. They appear to be printed by Eduard so they are thin and in perfect register.

So what is actually new in this kit? To start off with the fuselage halves and upper cowlings are completely different than previous releases. The wings are the same as found in the G-14 kit. This kit also comes with the extended exhaust deflectors frequently found on Wilde Sau aircraft. This is on separate and brand new photo etch fret. For the first time we get to use the wide chord blades. A new lower oil cooler is provided as well. All these parts are on the new fuselage sprues. So how does it build up? Let’s see.

First off you’ll have to select your subject aircraft as some have some unique things that need ot be opened up. The build starts in the cockpit. The cockpit is essentially the same as the previous releases so it is very complete. Somethings are done in photo etch and some are done in plastic. I like to leave the circuit breaker panel in plastic but that is my preference. Building up the instrument panel is fairly easy. I’ve learned that if you are going to use the sandwiched photo etch piece then it is easier to add the backing (H3) to the fuselage half first. This will allow you to add the photo etch parts later and make sure they are aligned and properly seated. I sprayed the cockpit area with Tamiya Dark Grey. It isn’t quite as stark as some colors but this allows you to see the detail and matches the Eduard pre-painted instrument panel pretty well. A wash of Lamp Black artist oils thinned with turpenoid. This was then dry brushed with RLM 02 and Model Master Magnesium. Some details were picked out with a silver pencil and acrylic paints. Adding the seat belts and shoulder harnesses is easy enough. Then the instrument panel was added and the whole assembly given a coat of Alclad Flat. The gauges were given a drop of Microscale Krystal Kleer. With that taken care of it was time to close up the fuselage. Don’t forget the tail wheel assembly.

The fit of the fuselage is perfect. A hint for a flawless fuselage is to remove the parts from the sprue with a razor saw. This will ensure a flawless removal. Be careful if you’re building Marking B, you will need to open up the hole for the antenna since it is mounted on the spine and not the canopy . I leave off the supercharger intake until later. I do like that Eduard provides you with a scribing template for the saddle panel in front of the canopy. I impart a slight bend to mine so that it conformed to the cowling better. Then I used a pin vise to scribe the panels. The ones that were molded on were removed with the slight sanding to blend the panel.

The wings are next and they are flawless. If you’ve built any previous versions of the Bf-109 then these will come as no surprise. The wheel wells are easy to assemble. Don’t forget to open the holes for the drop tank if you need it. I didn’t need to.

Surprisingly, it appears that Eduard forgot to tell you to open the hole for the wing antenna, the FuG-25. Don’t forget to open it up. All the versions require it.

The fit of the wings to the fuselage is good. Eduard has molded the aft portion of the wings in a V shape which is not on a panel line. If you take care to align it properly it fits well but does require clean-up and a little bit of filling. There are also fasteners that are not completely molded. I use a beading tool to add them back in. I also use Dymo tape to extend the wing panel line to the first fuselage panel line. This is slightly offset. This isn’t a big deal but it is a requirement for all of the Eduard 109 kits.

The tail surfaces all build up perfectly. There is a new vertical tail on the new sprue. It is beautifully rendered.

The rest of the build is easy. Yes the landing gear struts are actually the early type and not the later heavy duty ones but only the most ardent 109 fan will know. There are Brassin ones that are better for this. Speaking of landing gear, I have a method that ensures that they fit perfectly. If you look into the wheel well mounting point, you’ll notice there is a small circular raised portion in there. I use a pin vise to poke a starting hole and then drilled out the raised portion. Not enough to go through to the top wing just enough to make it flush. Then when you add the landing gear they sit perfectly.

My aircraft of choice is the boxtop artwork one from KG(J)-6. With the model masked up with Tamiya tape and then wiped down with Testor’s Plastic Prep and given a coat of Alclad Primer. Any offending areas were cleaned up again and re-primed. Then the model was sprayed with Alclad Aluminum on the bottom side of the wings. This was left to dry and then masked off where appropriate. I wanted to try using vinyl masks for the crosses. I painted the appropriate areas with Alclad White Primer. Frank Crenshaw designed some German crosses for me. I had to ‘shrink’ the ones on the upper wings as the Mtt/Regensburg aircraft had slightly smaller crosses on their wings, but the vinyl masks were added and the the ‘arms’ of the crosses were placed properly.

I wanted to try Mission Model paints so the rest of the airplane was pre-shaded with Mission Models RLM 66. I painted the RLM 76 over the bottom of the wings and the fuselage sides. RLM 75 was next to be added. I had some issues doing the mottling for the camouflage but I eventually got it to where I liked it. I used some vinyl masks for the tail designed by Nigel Poole cut out on my Silhouette cutter. Then the Mission Models RLM 74 was sprayed. Again I had issues with the mottling so I went back and added some with Mr. Paint RLM 74. I waited overnight and then masked off the area for the RVD band. The whole RVD band was then sprayed in Mission Models RLM 23. When it was dried overnight I masked over it with Tamiya tape and then sprayed the Black checkers. Once happy with the results I removed the masks and the paint pulled up all over the RVD band. I was not happy. I sanded it down and reprimed with Alclad primer this time and went through the whole process again. I finally got it correct and then removed the masks from the tail and low and behold it pealed up as well. I’m not a fan of acrylic primers. After much swearing. I went back and repainted with Mr. Paint. After looking at my reference book, I noticed that the tail and rudder were a different shade of RLM 75 and probably RLM 83. So I remasked around them and repainted them a third time with Gunze RLM 75 lightened and Tamiya Dark Green for the 83. The results are quite nice. I was finally happy with the results.

It was all sealed with Tamiya Clear thinned with Gunze Leveling Thinner. The Eduard decals were applied according to the JaPo book on KG(J)6 aircraft. Not all the stencils were applied and strangely, to me anyhow, were the position of the fuselage station numbers. They were noticeably higher. When dried they were all sealed with another coat of Tamiya clear. Then the whole model was painted Alclad Flat in preparation for the weathering to come.

The first thing I did was paint the red and black checker. Then I laid down Alclad Aluminum to the bellly. This was masked off with Tamiya tape and Mr. Paint RLM -76 was laid down on the bottom and sides of the model. Mr. Paint RLM 75 was painted and mottling added to the fuselage followed by Mr. Paint RLM 74. A coat of Tamiya Clear thinned with Gunze Leveling Thinner in preparation for decals.

The Eduard decals are really nice. They are very thin and require a lot of water to maneuver around but they work perfectly. Once they dried, I sprayed the entire model with Alclad Flat.

I start the weathering process by adding Burnt Umber artist oils thinned with artist oils. Not only do I add it to the panel lines, but I also add some ‘dots’ here and there. Because I apply this over a flat the oils leach into the surrounding panel areas. It adds dirt to the panels. I also add some of the thicker mixture near the exhausts which is really dirty. This is followed up with a dot filter fading added by using Titanium Buff and White artist oils. This is then blended and streaked with a clean brush damp with turpenoid.

Some silver ink pad, a sponge and pencil are used to replicate the chipping on the wing walk area and some other random areas. Then some dirt was built up on the top and the bottom areas of the wing with Tamiya Buff, heavily thinned.

While I had the Tamiya Buff loaded in the airbrush, I outlined where I wanted the exhaust staing to be and along the circumference of the wheels. The area aft of the wheels was built up slightly to begin the mudding process. The exhaust staining was built up with Mig Pigments. I started with Desert Sand, then added some volume with Russian Earth and finally with Black Smoke. German engines ran on terrible gas which was very sooty and produced a noticeable staining in even a little amount of usage.

The next part of the weathering was the mud on the belly. I started at with AK Mud splatter with a little paint brush and use a toothpick to ‘flick’ the mud on the belly. Then some Mig pigments, namely Dry Mud and Wet Mud, were added to the Barracudacast wheels and the belly. Everything was sealed with a thin coat of flat to preserve the pigments. Finally a little bit more scratching was added on wing root and the weathering was done.

Removing the canopy masks proved their worth. They were perfect. All the small parts were added. Things like antennas, pitot tube end portion, and finally the prop. I used a Molotov chrome and then the lights were painted with clear green and red. And with that the model was completed.

This is the first G-10 variant that I’ve built. It looks good to me. I really enjoyed the build. Is it perfect? No. Eduard has that strange V under the wing to fuselage join with the detail being soft in this area. The exhausts are a little toothy but not objectionably so. Same thing with the landing gear, they are the earlier type but only the most die-hard 109 fan would recognize it. The Brassin gear is the proper type, if you want to spend the extra money. That said, I love the kit. Overall it looks the part. It builds up beautifully and looks great to me. There are some areas that need attention, like the V, but it is all basic modeling skills. I’ve got three more G-10s on the bench that is how much I enjoyed this kit. These late war fighters are fun because of the difference in color schemes and the units using them. Bring on the rest of the G-10 series and the K-4. I can’t wait.

Highly recommended.

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

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