History:  The Messerschmitt Me109 was one of classic fighter planes of W.W.II, with more than 30,000 units of various models built before and during the war. The prototypes flew as early as 1935, and the first models entered service in 1937.

The "F" model first saw service in the Spring of 1941 and marked the evolution of the design to its more aerodynamic form, with an improved cowling, rounded wing tips and cantilever tail plane. These aerodynamic advancements however, came at the expense of armament, which was generally considered too weak, and eventually led to the cancellation of the model after about 2200 units. The F-2 model was armed with two 7.92mm machine guns and a 15mm cannon, and was powered by a 12 cylinder inverted vee Daimler-Benz DB601 engine that produced 1200hp.

The Kit:  This build uses the Hasegawa kit and incorporates a resin DB601 engine from the Cavalier company. The Hasegawa kit features the standard high quality parts, decals, directions, and accuracy you come to expect from this manufacture, and the assembly is strait ahead with an average difficulty.

The Cavalier resin engine is a nice casting, but some fit problems arose when trying to install it. Brass locating pins were used to align and attach the engine pieces and also mount the engine. Besides installing the engine, no other modifications or aftermarket parts were used.

The kit was painted with Model Master and Aeromaster paints, and the decals used were a combination of Aeromaster and the very nice kit provided decals. Finally, the panel lines were highlighted with pencil and the exhaust stains were replicated with pastels.

References:   The reference used was a Polish publication called Militaria on the Bf109F.