The underwing gondolas were designed for the Bf-109 to replace some of the firepower lost when the F/G models were designed. The problem with the pods was that they adversely affected the handling of the aircraft. Still the addition of two 20mm cannons was desirable especially when dealing with enemy bombers.

The Eduard kit comes with two gondolas in the kit. They look nice but they are 2mm too long and don’t fit on the wing of the model. Well I’m glad to tell you that this is not the case with the Brassin ones. They fit the wing of the model perfectly.

The parts come in a vacuform package as is typical of most of the Brassin range. The instructions are easy enough to understand and follow. There are 12 resin parts and a fret of photo etch. It is up to you if you want to have one, two or none of the cannon pods opened up. I chose to have the left one open so that I could see how they fit. This did require me to saw open one of the pods. It wasn’t difficult but a cut line on the inside would have made it easier. As it is there was no problem.

The hardest point of the whole conversion was to keep the guns aligned. There are no positive locating points for the pods themselves. I aligned mine with the wing leading edge and the panel line just in front of the flap on the fifth rivet. Another area that requires caution is the access panel for the guns. One of the photo etch parts is a scribing template. The instructions are a little vague as to where to position it but a quick check of references showed where to scribe it.

I elected to leave my guns and the open portion of gondola off the model until I was done with the decals and weathering as part of the final construction.

Everything fit perfectly as I’ve come to expect from Eduard and the Brassin range. How the kit pod became so long is beyond me but the Brassin gondolas fit the kit perfectly. If you want to have gondolas then you need this set. The hard part will be deciding how many gondolas to have opened. This set is indicative of the quality of the Brassin range. I’ll be using them again.

Highly recommended

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