1:24 Bf 109K-4

The last production Messerschmitt

The Bf 109K-4 closed a line that had begun in the middle of the thirties and reached the units in the autumn of 1944. It was powered by the DB 605D engine with injection of a methanol and water mixture; at first glance it is given away by the tall wooden vertical tail, the retractable tailwheel and the sliding canopy without bars. Above the engine sat a pair of 13 mm machine guns and their magazines called for prominent bulges in the cowling; a 30 mm cannon then fired through the hollow propeller shaft.

Box contents

There are two films for the cockpit. The first is applied to the outer side of the clear part, the second to the inner, so the frame comes out sharp even when you look into the cockpit. Four sets of national insignia belong with the glass. The version this item belongs to adds turned metal muzzles for the onboard weapons to the films.

A drilled muzzle against a suggested recess

Injected plastic cannot make a real opening. A shallow recess appears in the mold and a parting line runs across the whole part, which you have to sand off and then recreate the lost shape. A turned metal part comes with the hole already drilled and with a wall as thin as it could never be drawn out of polystyrene. In 1:24 the muzzle of a 13 mm weapon works out at barely six tenths of a millimeter, and it is precisely in this size that the difference between a hole and an imitation of a hole shows at once.

What to watch out for

Metal does not hold with ordinary polystyrene cement, which works by dissolving. Use cyanoacrylate or two-part glue and degrease the surface beforehand.