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Fans of Luftwaffe 1:72 have been

eagerly anticipating this release from
Eduard. Starting with the Friedrich, Eduard
are planning to kit all the mid-late 109
variants in this scale (the Emil being based
on Eduard’s 1:32 kit but boxed initially by
Special Hobby). Taking inspiration from their
2022 release of the Avia S-199 in this scale,
the kit boasts some innovative engineering
features, chief among them being the
landing gear attachments which are sturdy
and guarantee the correct rake and splay.
This is the initial “Dual Combo” boxing, 2 kits
are provided with separate sprues for an F-2
and an F-4, square and rounded wheel wells
are options amongst other small details; its
worthy of note one of each can only be built,
not 2 of the same sub type.

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 Wings
Yes, you read correctly, wings, not the cockpit; I know,
controversial! Before gluing bits together it’s worth doing some
painting. I used the Brassin wheel bay set as it is cheap and
provides an elevated level of detail; they’re not strictly necessary
however it looks great (as do the kit parts by the way, they’re
hollow too). Primed and painted with GSI Creos RLM 02, the parts
were given an oil wash and coat of VMS satin varnish.
Underneath the separate gear parts, the upper wing was painted
black to provide increased depth and take best advantage of the
hollow gear bay parts.

The one piece lower part had MRP RLM 65 painted around the
gear openings, shell ejector shuts and internal radiator parts all to
avoid a tricky masking job later. Once dry. The parts were glued
and set aside so work could start on the cockpit.
Replacement Brassin gear bays were used on
this model; the detail is more refined but the
kit parts are hollow so will be good enough for
most modellers.

Painting and weathering

the parts before
construction is
recommended, not the
black which will enhance
the hollow effect of the
gear bay parts.

decided to pre-paint the RLM

65 around the gear bays, shell
ejector chutes and radiators to
ease masking later.

VMS Metal Prep 4K is amazing stuff, it

ensures the paint will adhere with no
Although I liked the detail provided, I couldn’t help but add
problems.
some extra wiring to busy things up.

MRP RLM 66
was applied
and then
lightened with
white to apply
highlights and
The cockpit sub-assemblies add interest
from the box. and depth.

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 Cockpit
The cockpit is nicely detailed however I
decided to add a little bit of wiring to busy
things up. In order to make painting easier I
only glued one end of the wire, I struggle
with accurate brush work! Optional etched
brass parts were used and before painting,
VMS Metal Prep 4K was brushed on, this
wonderous concoction ensures paint
adhesion, it’s brilliant stuff. The base coat
was MRP RLM 66 and when dry the colour
photo etch was glued in place. Detail
painting with a fine brush and Ammo
acrylics resulted in a fairly colourful little sub
assembly. A black wash from the Ammo
PLW line made the detail pop before some
light chipping and scuffing was recreated
with a silver pencil. With the wires glued in
place, the whole lot was given a satin
varnish to dull everything down and bring it
together, it could then be set aside whilst
the fuselage was built.

Fuselage and airframe

Before the fuselage halves can be glued together,
there are a number of parts that need to be Scribing the longitudinal
attached. First the gun troughs; these are tricky to panel lines, remember the
109 was built in 2 halves
clean up and need a little gentle sanding to
so this needs to be done.
improve the fit but once in they look great. The tail
wheel mount is next and is a great addition Once scribed, the panel
meaning that this fragile bit can be added right at lines were gently sanded
to remove the high spots.
the end of the project, unlike their 1:48 kits. The
order of adding the fin is very specific, the fin gets
attached to one fuselage half first before the halves
are then joined, this may not seem like the best
way however it works very well and there are no
gaps.

When cleaned out

I find that if I use a weld action type glue, when I with a stiff brush,
come to scribe the longitudinal panel line the liquid cement was
plastic may be still soft, even after a while therefore applied sparingly to
melt away any dust
this time I used Ammo black super glue. It worked
or rough spots.
a treat! Once the panel lines were restored, the
rivets were corrected with a Galaxy rivet wheel.
After all that, the cockpit can be pushed in from
underneath and glued into place.

More innovative engineering, the flaps are

scored on the inside allowing them to be
bent to the correct angle.

When cleaned out with a stiff brush, liquid

cement was applied sparingly to melt away
any dust or rough spots.

With the seam work finished,

the rivets were reinstated with a
Galaxy rivet wheel.

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 The airframe is complete, note the test
of an RLM 71 mix.
Now the main event, the wing to fuselage join. The only thing to
report here is the fit is astonishingly good, the rear join almost
disappearing with just glue although obviously a few swipes of
a sanding sponge were used to eliminate the seam. Having
built the S-199 I remember the instructions told the modeller to
bend the wings down in order to fit them over the protruding
gear attachments moulded to the cockpit floor however
although based on that kit this was not mentioned, and it was
not required here! DO NOT glue the wing root to the flaps,
these are scored on the inside to
enable them to be deployed, in
fact I bent them down first just in
case. Photo etch is provided for
the radiators but it is slightly too
tall, it was sanded to fit. The
covers fit extremely well, much
like everything else on this kit! All
the control surfaces are separate
and these all just pushed into
And finally the model is ready for paint.
Note the lack of supercharger and oil
place however a thin bead of glue
cooler which have been left off to make was brushed on for belt and
masking and painting much easier. braces, slats having a bit more as
the attachment points are small.

The one-piece tail planes are a very tight fit with some force
required to push them home, I considered leaving them off to
avoid masking however was concerned that any paint may
make it too tight, so it was pushed in place now, no glue
required; the rudder was not glued either to facilitate painting
later. All that remained now was to mask and paint the canopy
inside and out and glue the gunsight, windscreen and rear
portion into place.

You’ll see from the photos that the oil cooler and supercharger
were left off. The fit was so good that this would make
masking the yellow nose so much easier.

Gear legs are supplied

with photo etch brake
Painting hoses, obviously that
means they are flat so
The F-model 109s were arguably the most
you could replace them
colourful and diverse of all the types so with wire if preferred.
choosing some schemes was difficult.
Intending to do a winter whitewash for my
Scale Modelling Café YouTube channel I fancied for this one a more
colourful scheme. Ironically, I found a colour photo of a 109 in the early
RLM 70/02/65 pattern with a yellow nose that had a winter whitewash, my
plan was to do this scheme before the whitewash was applied, so
something a little different. Undercoating the
RLM 04 areas with
white.
As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words so rather than
repeat what’s in the captions here I’ll let the pictures do the talking. What I
will say is as the surface detail is so fine I elected not to prime the whole
airframe, just a small amount was used just to check the major seams.

For the RLM 04 I used MRP

Swedish Yellow (ordered by
mistake…!) with a little red to
warm it up.

With the RLM 04 masked off

(note how easy the nose is
without the carburettor intake)
the MRP RLM 65 is applied,
this was faded slightly with a
touch of white, but I didn’t go
too mad with the contrast!

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 GSI Creos RLM 02 is warmer than the MRP equivalent so that was
used as the base, the MRP was used for the highlights and a touch
of white finished the job. I used tac-worms for this model, I think
out would be easier doing it freehand next time and touching up
the overspray with RLM 65.I realised I didn’t have any RLM 71 with
me, therefore I mixed it from MRP RLM 81 and US Olive Drab.

This mixed RLM 71 was faded with more Olive

Drab to break up the colour. It may look over
the top but varnishes and subsequent
weathering will tone things down.

Now for the touch

ups starting with the
RLM 02 areas in the
slats and flaps.

Finally the base coat is complete and can

be sealed with a thin coat of GSI Creos
GX-100 gloss varnish, the best gloss
varnish ever. Fact!

The controversial Eduard decals were used here,

and the carrier film peeled off, a little too early in the
case of the fuselage cross (note it split along the
panel lines), this was touched in with Ammo acrylic,
an easy repair. I think they behaved extremely well
and went down lovely! The numeral was from the
Special Hobby Emil kit, also Eduard decals.

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 My favourite method of weathering
surface detail is with a sludge was,
each colour gets its own tone as
one size doesn’t fit all!
Same for the top. When dry, this is
polished off with kitchen towel.

My absolute favourite stage, the

The final effect,
satin varnish which mutes all the
all very subtle
tones and blends everything
together.

Pigments are used on the gear, this was also Oil dot weathering, I first discovered this technique on The oil dots are blended with
done on the tail of the aeroplane at the very one of Mig Jimenez’ AFV weathering DVDs years ago a slightly moist brush.
end. and adapted it for my aeroplanes. It is important to
think about the tones carefully, it’s not that random.

The difference between the finished Note where the

left wing and the rest of the grime tones are and
aeroplane can be easily seen here. there is some blue to
warm up the under-
surface tone.

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 Some post shading with a grimy
tone adds to the previous layers.

And once blended the effect is

obvious. Nice and grimy without
being over the top.

And the same post shading

on the underside.

Weathering complete, it just

needs final assembly to
finish off the model.

There’s not a lot of things to say other

than this kit is astonishingly good; the
detail is amazing, the engineering
innovative and the fit is one of the best I
have ever had the pleasure of seeing. All
in all it’s a superb model and I can’t wait
for the next in the series which I am
assuming will be the early Gs. 61
 The other kit I finished in a winter
scheme for my YouTube channel,
The Scale Modelling Cafe.

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