1:72 Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4

Emils over the English Channel

The E-4 version was that form of the Messerschmitt with which the Luftwaffe lived through the summer of 1940. Against the older E-3 it was given a more angular canopy with a sturdier frame and MG FF/M cannons able to fire mine shells. Pilots called it the Emil, and in combat over England its fuel ran out before it could help its bombers.

The four variants on this sheet are put together from genuinely well-known names. The white 13 belonged to Walter Oesau of the 3rd Staffel of JG 51 of August 1940. Another machine was flown by Franz von Werra of the staff of II./JG 3 from Samer in France, a pilot who after being shot down and captured was the only German to fight his way back from Canadian captivity to Europe. The remaining two variants belong to Helmut Wick of Richthofen's JG 2, once as a yellow 2 of August 1940 at Beaumont-le-Roger, and again as the machine of the Gruppe commander of October of the same year, that is a few weeks before his death over the Isle of Wight.

The package also holds a mask for the glazing of the canopy. The frames of the Emil are narrow and very intricate, so a mask saves more work than with the later versions.

Before applying them it is worth clear-coating the model with a glossy layer; a matte surface under a decal almost always shows through as a matte blotch around the motif.

In 1940 the German units applied yellow or white areas to the engine covers and rudders for quick recognition in the air. The extent of these areas is best thought through before the numbers go onto the fuselage, because they overlap one another.