Dragon Messerschmitt Me-110 E-2/Trop. 1:32

[Shar2]

Messerschmitt Me-110 E-2/Trop

1:32 Dragon/Cyberhobby

History
The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often (erroneously) called Me 110, was a twin-engine heavy fighter (Zerstörer—German for "Destroyer") developed in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and used by the Luftwaffe and others during World War II. Hermann Göring was a proponent of the Bf 110. It was armed with two 20 mm cannons, four 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns, and one 7.92 mm MG 15 machine gun or twin MG 81Zs for defence. Development work on an improved type to replace the Bf 110, the Messerschmitt Me 210 began before the war started, but its teething troubles resulted in the Bf 110 soldiering on until the end of the war in various roles, alongside its replacements, the Me 210 and the Me 410.

The Bf 110 served with considerable success in the early campaigns, the Polish, Norwegian and Battle of France. The Bf 110's lack of agility in the air was its primary weakness. This flaw was exposed during the Battle of Britain, when some Bf 110-equipped units were withdrawn from the battle after very heavy losses and redeployed as night fighters, a role to which the aircraft was well suited. The Bf 110 enjoyed a successful period following the Battle of Britain as an air superiority fighter and strike aircraft in other theatres.

During the Balkans Campaign, North African Campaign and on the Eastern Front, it rendered valuable ground support to the German Army as a potent fighter-bomber (Jagdbomber or Jabo). Later in the war, it was developed into a formidable night fighter, becoming the major night-fighting aircraft of the Luftwaffe. Most of the German night fighter aces flew the Bf 110 at some point during their combat careers, and the top night fighter ace of all time, Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, flew it exclusively and claimed 121 victories in 164 combat missions.

The production of the Bf 110 was put on a low priority in 1941 in expectation of its replacement by the Me 210. During this time, two versions of the Bf 110 were developed, the E and F models. The E was designed as a fighter bomber (Zerstörer Jabo), able to carry four 50 kg ETC-50 racks under the wing, along with the centerline bomb rack. The first E, the Bf 110 E-1 was originally powered by the DB 601B engine, but shifted to the DB 601P as they became available in quantity. A total of 856 Bf 110E models were built between August 1940 and January 1942. The E models also had upgraded armour and some fuselage upgrades to support the added weight. The aircraft wasn’t universally liked by the pilots as they reported it to be slow and unresponsive.

The Model
This kit is a variation on the earlier versions that Dragon has released since 2008, but this time it’s in their Cyberhobby range. The large, sturdy box has a nice depiction of an aircraft in a desert colour scheme on the front. Inside there are nineteen sprues of medium grey styrene, two of clear and two small sheets of etched brass. According to the parts diagrams there are a lot of unused parts destined for the spares box. The parts are all very nicely moulded with fine panel lines and raised panels where required, with no sign of flash, but there are a lot of moulding pips throughout the sprues. The earlier kits are recognised as being very well detailed and this is no exception, there are a lot of small parts that help build up a very nice cockpit and the two DB 601 engines and yet it doesn’t look to be a complicated build which is something I don’t normally say about Dragon kits. The instruction sheet is quite large allowing the diagrams to be bigger and thus clearer to read. There are still a few areas you need to be wary of, so read carefully before starting the build.

The build begins with the cockpit assembly and the construction of the pilots seat which is made up of the seat and tow supports, with the left hand support featuring the seat adjustment handle moulded in place. The etched seat belts are then fitted and adjusted to shape. The main instrument panel is fitted with the gun-sight and small selector box and attached to the main cockpit floor, along with the rudder pedals, joystick, throttle quadrant to the left and side console the right. To the rear of the floor there is a large spent cartridge bin for the rear machine gun. The rear bulkhead is fitted with the spare ammunition drums for the rear machine gun, whilst the central framework is fitted with the radio panels and spare 20mm ammunition drums. There is a panel that fits in a trough just behind the pilots seat, this is the mounting panel for the 20mm cannon, two of which are fitted on the underside, whilst the ammunition drums, air bottles, radio operators seat and associated frame are fitted to the topside. These subassemblies are then fitted to their respective positions on the cockpit floor, followed by the side walls. The upper cockpit frame is then assembled from the main shoulder height frame, upper frame over the radio section, auxiliary instruments over the radios and the rear machine gun at its mounting plate. The completed framework is then fitted to the cockpit assembly and the whole cockpit glued into one half of the fuselage which can then be closed up. Meanwhile the nose gun mounting is assembled and the two machine guns fitted along with their ammunition belt runs before being slid into the single piece nose cone. This seems to be a bit of a waste as none of this detail will be seen unless the access panels in the nose section are carefully removed. The numerous sections of the cockpit greenhouse are then attached and the opening parts posed as per the modellers wishes, followed by the rear cockpit/fuselage fairing. With the fuselage closed up, the single piece centre wing spars complete with extra cannon bay detail is attached and covered with the fuselage centre panel, thus again covering all the detail previously fitted. Whilst the fuselage is upside down the PE DF aerial and styrene HF aerials are glued into position.

The build moves onto the two DB 601 engines. These begin with the assembly of the main block which comes in two halves onto which the cylinder head and two cam covers are attached. Onto this main block the ignition harness, engine bearers, turbocharger assembly, oil tank and pipework are fitted. The undercarriage is the assembled, with the main units made up of the oleo, scissor link, retraction jack and support framework. The main tires are in two halves to which the separate inner and outer hubs, also in two parts are fitted. Smaller sub assemblies are now built up, these includes the two radiator cores to their respective housings, the upper cowling is fitted with the oil cooler intake, the exhaust stacks and their fairings are assembled and the main undercarriage bays are assembled from the firewall and roof sections, and completed with a selection of pipework and fittings. The exhaust stacks are then attached to the engine assemblies which are then fitted to the firewalls and the main undercarriage fitted to their bays. Before the radiator housing can be fitted to the lower cowling a large section must be cut out. The separate upper cowlings can be fitted, or left off to show off the engines.

The instructions move onto the wings and the assembly of the underwing radiators which are made up of five parts then attached to the lower wing panels. The main wing bays are detailed with internal frames after which the wheel bay doors are attached. The engine/undercarriage sub-assemblies are fitted to the lower wings followed by the upper wing sections, wing tips, leading edge intake scoops and landing lights. The propellers are assembled by fitting the three separate blades to the hub, which is then attached to the backplate and finished off with the spinner. Finally the modeller has a choice of whether to fit the two drop tanks or two pairs of bombs and their respective racks. The completed wings are then slid onto wing spars on the fuselage and glued into place. The final section is the assembly of the tailplane with the two halves of the vertical fins joined together then attached to the horizontal tailplane which comes as a single piece upper and two lower sections. In the centre of the lower section the tailwheel bay is attached then fitted with the tailwheel, made up of two wheel halves and single piece oleo, then the bay is completed with the addition of the bay doors. The completed tailplane is then attached to the rear of the fuselage thus completing the build.

Decals
There are two sheets of decals one large and one small addendum style sheet. The small sheet just has a selection of single code letter to be used on the three schemes provided. The main sheet comes with a full set of stencils for one aircraft, with the Swastikas made up of two sections for obvious reasons and markings for the following options:-

• Bf-110 of 8./ZG.26 based in North Africa during 1942
• Bf-110 of 7./ZG.26 based in Italy during 1941
• Bf-110 of 7./ZG.26 based in Libya during 1942

The colour scheme of RLM 79 over RLM 78 is the same for all three aircraft with the only differences being the colours of their I.D. stripes. The decals are printed by Cartograf and are well up to their usual standards, with good colour density, in register and with fine carrier film.

Conclusion
I’ve not had the chance to view one of these large Dragon Bf-110s before, but they are really quite impressive and will build into quite a large model. There is a lot of detail included, but what puzzles me is that much of it is covered and there is no option to have the access panels open to show it all off, which seems a bit pointless. That said with a bit of modelling, some care and a sharp knife, the panels could be cut away and some interior detail added to them. Highly recommended

Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for