1:48 Bf 109E-4

An angular cockpit and a mine shell in the wing

The E-4 sub-version received a reworked canopy with flat surfaces and heavier framing, behind which an armor plate hid behind the pilot's head. The wing cannons fired modified ammunition whose thin-walled shell carried more explosive than the usual round of the same caliber. It was with these machines that units flew over southern England in the autumn of 1940, and many of them carried cowlings and rudders oversprayed in yellow.

What is inside

The envelope carries film for the outer and the reverse face of the glazing, two masks for the fuselage insignia, a decal sheet and four metal weapons: the pair above the engine and the pair in the wings. The basis of the shapes was supplied by the Tamiya kit.

The hardest moment of the build

Seating the wing cannons. It is not only a matter of drilling two holes, but of getting both tubes to project the same distance and to point forward in parallel. The wing has dihedral, so what is straight seen from above can be clearly crooked from the front. It pays to bring the model up to eye level, look at it from the front and correct the position while the glue is still soft. A second trap lurks under the angular canopy: there are many frames and the film intended for the inner side has to be applied starting from the smallest piece, otherwise there will be no room left to reach the last piece with tweezers.

A small consolation at the end

The flat surfaces of an angular cockpit hold the film better than a curve does. The Emil is more laborious to mask, but without wrinkling at the edge. And because the frames are wide, it forgives a small inaccuracy in placing better than the narrow rails of the later machines, where every shift is noticeable at once.