Am building the Trumpeter Bf109E-3 from the Battle of Britain period. I have seen no photos showing the planes carrying belly tanks. I would prefer to leave the tank off and use it for a Late War aircraft, but am looking to know how common it was.

I might well be wrong, but I don't think the 109's were using belly tanks during the summer of 1940 over the UK.
If they had have been, then the outcome may have been rather different.
Hope this helps,
Nige

I'm away from home at the moment so can only access notes on my HD. These suggest that the first version of the Bf109 to have the fuel line fitted to use a drop tank on the centreline rack was the E-7, first produced around October(?) 1940.It seems the early jettisonable wooden tank was extremely unreliable and unpopular. I've not seen a single BOB image of a Bf109 carrying a drop tank,infact they don't seem to appear regularly until much later in 1942 on the Bf109F/G and Fw190A-4.
Steve
Just found another note on Luftwaffe fighter establishment as of 31/8/40. It excludes JG77 for some reason.
375 E-1s,125 E-3s,339 E-4s and 32 E-7s. Sorry I can't give a source for this...it's just a note I made from somewhere! Anyway not a lot of drop tanks even possible.

No,

you're not going to see an E3/E4 with drop tanks (unless it was a field retrofit somewhere after the fact.)

Its one of several factors in fact that contributed to the German failures during the Summer air campaign over England in 1940. The Bf109 was operating at the extreme limit of its range when escorting bombers over England which meant it only had a few minutes of sortie time which it could use to engage the RAF before it had to turn tail and head home.

The E7 is virtually the same as the E4. The biggest change was the addition of an ETC rack under the fuse to carry bombs and external fuel tanks.

Cheers,
Fred

Thanks, everyone, that was what I thought. I will build it without the tank.

Thanks for the thread guys,i`m about to start my vintage Hasegawa 109E (boxed i association with Hales !)so i now know to leave the tank off.

CHEERS !!

Hi Fred, I wasn't aware that the E-7 had the relevant "plumbing" to allow a drop tank tank to be utilised on the rack. My (at present) limited info suggests this was first a standard fittment on the E-9. I could be mistaken ,it wouldn't be the first time lol.
Either way the BOB advice stands.
Cheers
Steve