Eduard BIG SIN Bf 109G-10/U4 Essential (for the Eduard kit) — 1:48 Scale
By late 2019, Eduard had completed its trilogy of 1:48 scale kits encompassing all the subvariants of the Bf 109G-10 (and you can find our reviews of them all at Detail & Scale’s website HERE). In typical Eduard fashion, a series of superdetail sets have been produced for the kit. In this offering Eduard has packaged their wheel, exhaust stacks, pitot tubes, and cockpit sets in a BIG SIN set offering this combination at a lower price to the customer than if they were to buy these items individually.
# 648158 – Bf 109G-10 Wheels Late: the kit wheels are nice, but Eduard provides simply gorgeous cast resin main wheels and tail wheels for the Eduard kit. The detail is impressive, from the outboard wheel hubs and separate inboard brake assemblies, manufacturer’s imprimatur on the tire sidewalls, the tread pattern, and the realistic and scale-appropriate slight bulge to the bottom of the tire. The casting is flawless. There’s also a pre-cut masking set in here for the wheel hubs to facilitate quick, easy, and precise masking.
# 648247 – Bf 109G Exhaust Stacks: regular readers here will know that your reviewer is not a fan of flat-faced exhaust stacks that are commonly seen in injection-molded piston engine aircraft kits. This Eduard set provides a pair of cast resin exhaust stacks that are designed to drop right into the kit. They have nicely recessed exhaust stack faces that, especially with a touch of an acrylic or oil wash, will provide a great illusion of depth and shadow. This set also comes with a small photoetched metal fret that provides the parts for the exhaust stack frame.
# 648332 – Bf 109F/G Pitot Tubes: this set provides an incredibly fine and delicate cast resin pitot tube to replace the kit part for the air data sensor that extends out from the aircraft’s far left wingtip. Three pitot tubes are provided, in case you need a spare or have other Bf 109 projects in the wings.
# 648479 – Bf 109F-10/U4 Cockpit: this Brassin set is a complete replacement for the kit cockpit, and its combination of cast resin parts, photoetched metal details, clear acetate parts, and a decal sheet represents a rather exceptional step-up in detail.
The Brassin Bf 109G-10/U4 cockpit consists of 19 cast resin parts, 25 pre-painted photoetched metal parts on one fret, 25 unpainted photoetched metal parts on a second fret, a clear piece of acetate containing three clear parts pertaining to the gunsight glass, and a decal sheet. The quality of casting and the rich detail of these parts makes this among the best 1:48 scale Brassin cockpit detail sets that Eduard has produced to date.
The cockpit is completely represented here, from the cockpit tub, gorgeously cast sidewalls, pilot’s bucket seat, stick, rudders, trim wheels, gunsight, instrument panel, and canopy details. The pre-painted photoetched metal details look great, especially the shoulder harnesses and lap belts. The pre-painted instrument panel PE parts are very impressive in this scale, though they do tend to be more “idealized” dial face details than accurate representations of the real thing.
If PE parts aren’t your forte, an alternate resin instrument panel is provided with full relief detail to be used with the decal instrument faces. It’s hard to say which option will provide a better look. There are also tiny PE parts for various knobs and control handles…and I mean they’re SMALL. Handle with care as these parts will be easy to lose.
Any one of these Eduard products will add some great features, complexity, and truly impressive detail to your 1:48 scale Eduard Bf 109G-10/U4. Combined in this BIG SIN set, they will collectively add some incredible details to an already gorgeous kit and at savings when compared to buying them individually.
We extend our sincere thanks to Eduard for the review sample. You can visit them on the web at http://www.eduard.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EduardCompany/
Haagen Klaus
Scale Modeling News & Reviews Editor
Detail & Scale