Me-109 E Adolf Galland - Dragos Repaint - 1/33
 

Although this kit was already built in the forum, I didn't find it in 1/33 scale. So here's a review.

• Messerschmitt Bf-109 E
• Scale 1/33
• Disign: Marek
• Repaint: Dragos
• Bought in: ecardmodels
• Difficulty: Easy
• Printing: Laser
• Paper: Cardstock 120 gr, matte

http://ecardmodels.com/oscthumb.php?...69507f67176df1


The kit comes with 7 pages> one for the cover, 4 with model diagrams, one with General. Galland bio, a page with 2 building diagrams and a description of the Me-109 planes. The ZIP file that you get when you buy the kit includes 2 PDF files of the same kit, but one doesn't have the swastika. The building diagrams are simple, and there are some details not well depicted. I cut out the rudder and ailerons. The airframe is butt-to-butt, and there is no strips to attach each fuselage cylinder with the next one, but the kit has very good fit.

I didn't find information on this particular aircraft. I found others for Adolf Galland, but not this in particular, so I think he used this one early in 1940, as later that year he used an "Emil" almost totally white, and after that the Mickey Mouse pic was added. Besides, the rudder shows 16 victories only.

PROS: Very nice design. Good proportion. Good details, even there are too little of them.

CONS: When I put the fairings in each wing, the lower part of the image of the Hippogriff is cut. Poor details on the cockpit interior (I added some from a Zarkov's kit).


http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...220_171219.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...221_220842.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...221_222214.jpg

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_182450.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_184024.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_190113.jpg

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_190722.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_194629.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_194637.jpg

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...228_215407.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...229_210801.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...229_211355.jpg

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...2-full_2-6.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...2-full_2-5.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...2-full_2-4.jpg

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...2-full_2-3.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...2-full_2-2.jpg http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...2-full_2-1.jpg

sharp Emil!

Wyvern

Looks good Gerardo, which is your favorite Me 109 you've built would you say?:cool:

Excellent job! That is a beautiful model of one of my favorite aircraft.

Jeff

FANTSTIC!.....Rich

Looks like a great build, however, is the nose piece behind the propellor hub placed upside down?

Beautiful build!

Ummm--well, it's probably not specifically Galland's aircraft!

It looks like this scheme is based on an E4 flown by Oblt. Gerhard Schopfel, 9.JG 26, and the yellow tail blaze places it as stationed in France during the Battle of Britain--tho' the wing and stab tips should also be yellow.

Obst. Galland was heading up JG 26 at this time, and would display the Geschwadkommodore's arrow-and-bars markings on his aircraft. He was using the Mickey image as his marking right through, as I recall.

The white aircraft you mention is likely a "winter camo" rather than a personal choice. Without digging, I forget where Galland went until the "Galland Circus" JV 44, with the "Zoot Suit" Doras.

While I understand the discomfort around the swastika, I'm sort of amused by it--we're not displaying an affiliation, we're displaying history. There's a great example of the NON-use that should be better-known:

Seems JG 53's Kmdr von Cramon-Taubadel had married a sufficiently-Jewish woman, and Fatty Goering punished him by ordering the entire unit's "Pik 'As" insignia painted over with a big red stripe.

A month or so later, Hpt. Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke inherited command of III. JG 53 when Harro Harder went missing. No fan of the Nazis himself (officers couldn't be Party members) and smarting from Goering's slap, he retaliated by ordering his Gruppe's aircraft's tails painted over to hide the swastika.

So, at the height of the Battle of Britain, we see 109s flying around with a very-obvious grey diamond on their tails.

When the squadron scored its 500th kill later that year, the order was quietly forgotten, and both markings reappeared.

'Duster

I've been pretty unsettled since I posted this earlier: I'm not well-known here, nor do I know the others involved. I intended my comments to be "scholarly" in a hobbyist/enthusiast way, not to tear down another's work. I ask Dragos to comment on my assessment of the docs used in this model, if I'm missing something important to the specific aircraft or its deployment. This model shows some nice work, and it deserves to stand as historically viable in any way that it is such.

'Duster

Good question, but no, the early 109s were all lumpy--the two machine guns dictate the height of the cowl's top, and that funny hump hides the oil tank & cooler's piping. Willy Messerschmitt believed in wrapping as little skin around the guts of the plane as possible, to minimize parasitic drag; it wasn't until the F series that he was persuaded otherwise, and then we get that honking great spinner and a smooth[er] nose overall.

'Duster