Airfix Messerchmitt Bf 109E-3, Romanian Royal Air Force

[Mitch K]

Another Airfix Bf 109E. This one is going to be an example from Escadrilla 57 of Grupul 7 Vänätoare (Fighter Group) of the Romanian Royal Air Force (Aeronautica Regala Romana).  As an E-3, the kit needs a different canopy to the one in the kit, so I sourced a Rob Taurus vac-form to serve. A while back, I built an AZ 109G in the marking of the ARR. Both of these are/will be the mounts of the legendary Ioan De Cesare, carrying the name "Hai Fetiţo" or "Cmon Little Girl!". Fetiţo was a racehorse filly (De Cesare was an inveterate horse racing enthusiast).

 

I've built five or six of these before now, and I really like the kit. This one suffers from quite a lot of flash, which is unfortunate. I don't think the tooling is that old, so I hope this is a one off and that it doesn't herald problems! 

 

The cockpit is pretty good out of the box. I think the moulded straps are OK, certainly with the canopy closed. I added a trim wheel from punched plastic card but otherwise this is stock.

 

 

 

You can refine the oil cooler by scraping the edges thinner, and adding the combined reinforcing strut/condensation drain.

 

 

Likewise the wing radiators:

 

 

The Rob Taurus canopy is split into the three parts - windshield, canopy and rear section. Ideal if you want the canopy open!

 

  

 

The best way to deal with these seems to be slightly different to most vac-forms: rather than placing a pencil line around the sheet, scoring and popping out the part, small, sharp scissors appear to be the tool of choice.

 

 

Having removed the bulk of the sheet, the parts are refined with very careful cuts.

 

 

[Mitch K]

One thing the kit definitely can be improved by is to replace the supplied cockpit head armour. The moulded part scales out to about three inches thick, so would serve as the armoured belt on a light cruiser...

 

Ten thou is actually a bit too thick to be absolutely in scale, but as five thou plastic card seems to have become the stuff of legend, it'll have to do!

 

[Mitch K]

Primer and yellow done, time for some masking!

[Mitch K]

The painting is complete, and I've shot a coat of Klear ready for the decals.

[Mitch K]

Decals on. They're very thin, and the white is a bit fugitive. It's eroded at a few spots and I'll have to just touch it in with a brush once I've got everything dried out and coated with Klear.

[Andwil]

Very nice, the Romanian machines are nice and colourful, a welcome change in a collection of otherwise drab aircraft.  I must do one or more myself.

 

AW

[Mitch K]

After two coats of Klear, I decided to do a bit of dust/fading. What rapidly became clear was the the decals were falling to bits! I'm not totally sure what has happened, but it's pretty bad. I have a nasty feeling that a re-pop of the same set of decals won't help, so I've bought an alternative set of the same markings from a different source. I'll re-do the Klear and put the new ones over the top.