History

The second major redesign of the Bf-109 during 1939-40 gave birth to the F series. The "Friedrich" as it was nicknamed, saw a complete redesign of the wings, the cooling system and fuselage aerodynamics, and was powered by the 1,158hp Daimler Benz 601N (F-1, F-2) or the 1,331hp Daimler Benz 601E (F-3, F-4). Considered by many as the high watermark of the Bf 109 development, the F series abandoned the wing cannon and concentrated all armament in the forward fuselage a pair of machine guns above and a single 15 or 20mm cannon behind the engine, the latter firing between the cylinder banks and through the propeller hub and spinner. This configuration was used by all subsequent variants. A handful of Bf 109Fs were used operationally late in the Battle of Britain in 1940, but only become widespread in service in the first half of 1941, replacing the Bf-109E.

The Kit

Sweet's kit contains parts for a pair of Bf 109Fs, and arrives in an end opening box with the parts contained in a plastic sealed bag. A feature of most Sweet kits is the comic style box art, don’t let this put you off as upon opening the box you will see that the kit is far from comic like.

The kit consists of twenty six parts in grey plastic for each aircraft plus four canopies, a choice of standard or tropical filter is provided and armoured or un-armoured canopies along with a centre line drop tank. You’ll notice I said each aircraft and that is because there are two complete kits included in the box. The clear parts are in the same bag as the rest but do not appear to have suffered for it. The parts are nicely moulded and are quite thin where required. Very fine panel lines and rivet detail are not over done. When built the parts fit is an example of how it should be done, no filler is required anywhere.

The cockpit is bare except for a seat but once the canopy has been fitted not much will be visible any way.

The Instructions

These consist of a single double sided glossy A4 sheet with the guide well laid over 5 steps with colour call outs as you go. The instructions are in Japanese with English call outs where required. Also with this kit there are some notes on the back of the box for constructing a Bf-109F-2 for the kit, more of which later. On the reverse side of the sheet are the marking options in full colour

Markings

As stated there are five options of which two are for the F-4 variant and the other three are for the fore mentioned F-2 variant. Colours are listed by name and RLM numbers while the interior colours are listed as name, RLM and Mr Color.

Option 1) Bf-109F-2 7./JG54 Lt. Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, July 1941 Russia
Option 2) Bf-109F-4 9./JG52 Lt. Hermann Graf, May 1942
Option 3) Bf-109F-4 9./JG3 Lt. Victor Bauer, June 1942 Russia
Option 4) Bf-109F-2 Stab./JG3 Lt. Günter von Lützow, October 1941 Russia
Option 5) Bf-109F2 Stab./JG51 Major. Werner Mölders, December 1940 France

A stencil placement guide is also shown.

In Conclusion

A pleasure to build that goes together like a dream and with a choice of five different colourful marking options.

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