Bf109 E Engine set

CMK's 1:32 scale Bf109 E Engine set comes in a small but sturdy cardboard box. Inside there are two bags full of cream colored resin pieces, one instruction booklet and a small decal sheet. It is destined to the new Eduard serie of kits:
- Bf 109 E-1 (kit n°3001 - review here)
- Bf 109 E-3 (kit n°3003 - review here)
- Bf 109 E-4 (kit n°3003 - review here)

The resin parts are mostly original kit parts which have been modified or enhanced. In the case of the engine cowlings, this means that the surface detail will be on par with the rest of the kit. However, it is to note that the cowlings haven't been designed to fit over the engine like Tamiya did with their Spitfire, but are only provided for display purposes. This means that you can paint them and put them aside the finished model if you want.

The quality of the casting is very good overall. I have found a couple of air bubbles in my sample but this is really not something to worry about as they will be easy to eliminate. However, some pouring blocks are rather large and removing some of the parts from them won't be an easy task. Especially the thin engine cowlings and smaller detail parts will require extreme care.

A comparison between the original plastics parts and their respective resin replacements (see accompanying photos) show how much better the CMK parts are. The engine is now complete (on the original Eduard plastic part the bottom isn't represented) and features plenty of additional details that were missing. The cowlings now have interior frames and the upper gun bay has also been improved. Sure, it would be possible to add detail from scratch to the original Eduard parts, but to obtain a similar level of quality than the CMK set, a lot of time and skill would be required.

The construction notice is made of an A4 sheet of paper folded so to constitute an A5 sized four pages booklet. Included are a Part Layout Diagram, a four step assembly sequence and a color table. The instructions are easy to follow and construction shouldn't be too difficult I think.

A small decal sheet is provided with 60 stencil numbers. These can constitute the engine's serial which was usually applied on the Daimler Benz powerplant. Such indentification numbers can be seen on many wartime photos showing a Bf109 E being serviced. This is a nice touch from CMK.

Conclusion

If you want to display the engine of your 1:32 scale Eduard Bf109 E model, you have two options: improve the level of detail by yourself or buy the CMK resin detail set. In the first case you will save some money and in the other case some time. It's up to you to choose the way you want to go...

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