Eduard Bf 109F-2 1/48

[Second Air Force]

Time for me to get a start on this one--first Eduard F I've worked on. It looks like a nice kit, but don't tell anyone that I'm going to build this as a Weekend Edition version and save all the PE bits and decals for a future project.

[No.1]

You will enjoy without doubt

[Second Air Force]

Yes, it's really a relaxing project!!! Since I'm on vacation this week I got a start last night and got the fuselage all assembled. This morning, over coffee, the wing was finished and just now the major parts are joined. Probably I'll mask the canopy and spray some paint tonight or over morning coffee tomorrow.

So far only one addition to the kit has been made--I added the reinforcing strips on the rear fuselage that were installed on the earliest F models. I have only one photo of the tail of the airplane I'm building and the pilot is standing right where the strips would be...…..but the airplane is an early F so I took a chance and added the doublers.

[Second Air Force]

Top camouflage painted. This airplane was unusual as it had the same color scheme as the last Emils on the Channel Coast, 71/02/65.

[No.1]

I like this early schemes

[Second Air Force]

I like this scheme also, though it doesn't seem a lot of Fs got painted this way. Regardless, the 65 is now applied and the fun part is next--the mottling!

[draken35]

Great!

[Second Air Force]

Thanks, mate!

You may have wondered why the nose wasn't painted earlier.....

[No.1]

I also paint yellow in this order, after all previous paints, like on real plane

[Second Air Force]

I have always painted stripes on fuselage and wingtips yellow first, it's just the way I've always done it. On this one the only way to mask off the fuselage was to paint the cowling last. Now that I'm doing it this way, I might change to your way on all the stripes!

[modellius]

Looks very nice mate !

[draken35]

[Second Air Force]

Another Messerschmitt for my shelf.

So, after spending a good amount of time researching the particular airplane I was happy with the scheme for an early F2. Only when I was putting the wing insignia in place did I realize that Eduard molded the upper wing skins for an F4. Early F2s had one-piece upper wing skins and these were later changed to multiple panels. Zvezda got this feature right on their F2 and the Zvezda F4 has the multi-panel style. Other than that the kit was a pleasure to build. I'll take some of my "normal" outdoor photos when the sun comes out again...

[No.1]

Perfect find about wing panels and glad Zevzda did it good at least, they have detailed analyze this captured machine and no doubt about the accuracy.

[Second Air Force]

It is certainly not going to keep me from building other Eduard Bf109s! If I had noticed the seams in the upper wings earlier I would have just switched to an F4. However, I must say that later F2s may have had the beefed up wings with seams, I just don't know. I did read years ago that early Fs had problems with the wing structure after hard pull-outs and that the later airplanes got stronger wing structure with the extra panel seams.