1:32 Bf-109F-0/F-1 air intake - early for hasegawa

The Friedrich with cleaned-up shapes

The F series meant a fundamental aerodynamic reworking for the Messerschmitt: rounded wingtips, the struts of the tailplane done away with and a redesigned engine cowling. The pre-production F-0 machines and the first production F-1s still had a short, simply shaped intake to the supercharger, which on the later forms was lengthened and set further out from the side of the cowling. The difference is marked when seen from the side and decides whether a model matches the winter of 1940 and the spring of 1941 or the later fighting over the Channel and the Mediterranean.

A small part with a large effect

The accessory is cast in one piece, with no parting seam and with an open mouth, so the drilling and sanding out that an injection-molded part usually calls for is avoided. It is separated from the backing with a single cut and lines up directly on the side of the engine cowling.

Tweezers and a tray with a raised edge come in useful during the work, so that the small piece is not lost. Painting tends to be simple: the outside gets the same shade as the metal around it, the edge of the mouth is darkened and a shadow or a hint of a mesh screen is suggested inside. It is exactly this shadow that gives a model in a large scale the sense of depth that a solid casting can never create.

The set will also please modelers who are building a later Friedrich and want to compare the two forms of the intake side by side. The difference between the early and the late cowling is one of the details by which the type can be reliably identified in photographs.

In a display case it is worth considering standing the machine so that light falls on the cowling from the side; only then does it become clear how little this small intake scoop projects and how it nevertheless changes the whole line of the front end.