1:32 Bf 109E-4/7

The seventh Emil with a tank under the belly

The seventh variant of the Emil received a rack under the fuselage. A drop tank could be hung on it, which at last extended the aircraft's reach, or a bomb for quick attacks on ground targets. With this equipment the machine reached areas where it would not have managed with the original tank: over the Balkans, over Crete, over the Libyan coast and in 1941 also to the east.

The front could be read from the marking as from a map. Over the Mediterranean the machines were given a white band around the fuselage and white wingtips; in the east yellow was used for the same thing. African aircraft also carried a sand finish with irregular green mottles and an intake filter which the crews stuck together from whatever was at hand. The cross on the fuselage stayed the same, but its surroundings gave the theater away at once.

Inside lie film for the outside and the inside of the cockpit canopy, two insignia masks and four metal parts belonging to the aircraft's armament. The item is prepared for the Eduard kit.

On the drop tank: if you hang one on the model, check the shape of the rack against a photograph of the particular machine. Early examples had a different profile from those of 1941.

The double designation E-4 and E-7 on one item has a practical reason: both versions share the glazing and the placement of the weapons, so one set of masks covers both. The difference lies under the fuselage and in small details which masking does not concern at all, so one package will serve two builds one after the other.