Previously I'd mentioned that the Dragon Bf 109E kit I'm building was missing some prominent 'bumps' at the wing root. I'm pleased to say I've now found them, they were in the kit marked as parts A12 and A13. However, according to the kit instructions they are to be cemented onto the inside surface of A19 which basically forms the cockpit floor. The kit instructions are wrong, these 'bumps' should be cemented onto the wing root and there is a little rectangular 'key' on the wing root and underside of 'bump' part to allow for correct placement.
I've been making notes as I go of any errors I find in the kit and so far these have only been of a minor nature.
The bomb selector panel, part F30 should be discarded as none of the aircraft depicted in the kit decals was equipped with bombs. It's interesting to note that this part with all its little knobs and switches has been molded as the mirror image of the actual panel. I hadn't noticed this until one of my local Luftwaffe aficionados I know pointed it out to me.
Overall the cockpit is pretty good with a nice level of detail. The kit instructions suggest that the main instrument panel is either RLM 02 or 66, take you pick. For all of the aircraft depicted by the kit, the correct colour is almost certainly the same as used in the rest of the cockpit, RLM 02 with black instruments.
The nose machine gun detail is very nice but unfortunately it gets int he way of the cowling fitting correctly over the nose. The solution is either don't put the cowling on or hack the ammunition chutes with a hobby knife so the cowling will fit. If Tamiya had made this kit they would no doubt have made it so the engine cowling would actually fit over all the gun detail parts.
The panels on the port side of the fuselage aft of the cockpit relating to the installation of GM-1 (Göring Mischung 1) equipment are missing. This equipment injected nitrous oxide into the engine to boost high altitude performance. Of the five aircraft depicted in the decal sheet with the kit only Gallands aircraft had this special equipment and this probably explains why it was not included in the kit. I would have liked to see these panels included in the kit with a note that if you don't want to build Gallands aircraft you nee to fill the panels with putty and sand flush.
While comparing the kit to the main reference photos of this aircraft (see blog) I noticed that the hand grip on the upper, port side of the fuselage, immediately aft of the cockpit is the wrong shape and in the wrong position; it should be further up the fuselage. I also noticed that a horizontal panel immediately aft of the cockpit is missing.
The prominent supercharger inlet on the port side of the cowling is a bit inaccurate in shape. I'm not sure how to fix it without having to do some significant reworking of the cowling panels so I opted to leave it as is. Its not a major problem and most would like me accept its good enough.
The cockpit canopy framing is slightly inaccurate as it shows a 'quarter window' on both port and starboard when in fact it is only on the port side. As it's not very noticeable I'm going to leave it and not go to the effort of trying to sand and then polish it off.
There is a recess in the fuselage behind the tailwheel has been blanked off on Galland's aircraft but on the kit we have a gaping opening. I'm thinking of filling this with filler and also shortening the tailwheel arm to it matches the core reference photos.
Moving onto the decals, these are fine and bed down nicely onto the model. There is however some accuracy issues with respect to Galland's aircraft. Although Dragon went to the trouble of getting outside help (see front page of kit instructions), it's obvious that the primary reference photos I'm using to build Galland's aircraft were not available to them.
AI's 'Galland' Mini Q013204 provides a more accurate depiction of the personal markings than do the kit decals. I used the kit decals for the national markings and all the little stencils. Initially I also used the kits decals for Galland's Geschwaderkommodore 'arrow' marking but I've since removed them and added my own (included in AI's Q013204). The kit's decal version is 'ok' but given I'd already made some concessions to accuracy by not adding missing panels lines I thought it best to make the effort and replace them with AI decals.
AI's 'Galland' Mini Q013204 decal provides a more accurate rendition of Galland's 'Mickey Mouse' inspired personal emblem, swastika's, various kill markings versions displayed on the rudder (the rudder was repainted with kills markings on a number of occasions) and a new Geschwaderkommodore emblem.
The c&m of Galland's W Nr 5819 has been something of an enigma prior to the discovery of the core reference photos referred to earlier. The problem is that the photographic record shows many inconsistencies and variations in the c&m from one photo to the next. In my view the reason for this apparent inconsistency is that Galland had two and perhaps three 109E's available for his use that were all painted as his personal aircraft, all wearing the 'mouse' and Geschwaderkommodore emblems. It's even possible that there were two 109E's marked with the werk number '5819'. Obviously only one was the 'real' 5819, the other simply had its werk number altered.
If you study the available photos of what is identified as '5819' you can see there are enough differences in c&m to provide strong evidence of multiple aircraft with the same markings all flown by Galland.
More build photos later.
