history

The Emil was one of the most important fighters during the Second World War. Together with his older brothers - A., B., C. and D. he ruled the skies over Poland, Norway, Low Countries, France, Yugoslav, Greece. He even strived for Great Britain, but because he was too short he could barely reach it. Anyway, Great Britain didn't fall in love with him so he went east looking for more luck... The story of Bf-109E

the review

To detail up our models of the "Emils", Techmod has released a set of decals with the different stencils and technical inscriptions seen on the original machines. The decal sheet has the size of 13x18cm. Almost each stencil is provided in few different variants depending on the letters sizes, fonts used, colours or spacing between letters etc. It's up to the modeller to decide which version of the particular decal have to be used so you have to study your references of the original plane carefully. For the 109-fanatics it may not be enough but I think that the other modellers will be satisfied with the number of options to choose from. The set is designed to be used on two models providing a full range of decals for each of them. With a bit of luck a careful choice of the original planes you want to replicate you can fully decal even more than two kits with this set.
Some decals are dedicated only to the Tamiya or Hasegawa models. They differ a bit from each other in the size and shape with the purpose to fit the lines originally engraved on the model. They are marked on the decal sheet with the big red "T" for Tamiya and "H" for Hasegawa.

Instructions

Instruction sheet has the A4 format and is printed in colour. Of course it's double-sided. Thanks to the large and plain drawings there is no problem to find the right place for the particular decal, however it is still advised to study the instruction and the decal sheet carefully before getting to the job. Techmod has provided the listings of the typical stencil configurations for the four Emil variants: E-1/E-3, E-4 and E-7. This shall be quite useful if your particular plane is not very well documented or you lack the references.
I have noticed that Techmod has mixed up the numbers of the decals 20a and 20c in the instruction sheet and the decal. See what you apply on the kit.

The decals

The decals carrier film is very thin and subtle. It is printed reasonably close to the inscriptions, although I'm afraid that it will stick out a bit on the trim tabs. Inscriptions are legible but some with the effort to the eyes. Only the smallest placards for the propeller blades and landing gear (5 decals in total) are not readable. I did not notice any misalignment in the print.

Using the decals

Editor's note - This set of decals was given to Michal's friend Aleksander Górski, who agreed that his thoughts and pictures can be added to the review
I am delighted with the difference between old and new Techmod decals. The decals are very thin, without any misalignment's, they require to bee dipped into water for just short time and lie on the smooth surface without any trouble. I used just Micro Set (more as a habit than real need) and it is absolutely enough to fit the decal to the panel lines. After removing the excess of the fluid they look very natural, the carrier film is almost invisible. A little problem are the longer stripes of decals which like to roll while moving from the paper to the model but without big trouble I managed to straighten them although it was a bit stressful in the first moment. The only problem which I had to encounter is a little unclear instruction. I managed to figure out which decals are for which version (very nice written on the third page) and for which model (Hasegawa or Tamiya). There are some decals which I didn't know how to use (26a/b, 28a/b) – these decals are not mentioned in the instruction so I don't know what to do with them. Similar problem is with the decals 11 and 12 but i hope to find it on the reference photos.

From the Hasegawa kit I used balkenkreuz, swastikas, big red numbers and small white ones, red dots on the fuselage, shoes-emblems and red stripes on the wings. All others are from Techmod set. On the pictures you can find following decals:
- producer logotypes on the propeller blades
- stencils "Frostshutzmittel"on the coolants – they are printed with a spelling mistake, it should be "Frostschutzmittel"
- outlines in green, red and black of the holes on the fuselage
- outline of the step and handle used for getting into the plane
- numbers of the fuselage sections (from 1 to 8)
- marking of the first-aid kit (a bit crooked)
- yellow triangle 87 under the fuel filler
- orange triangle under the cockpit (with two dots) on the port side with the placard
- stencils "Zu" with the red stripes on the engine nacelles
- stencils "Nicht betreten" along and outside the red lines on the upper sides of the wings – the difference is easy to notice
- additional stencils at the hole for lifting the fuselage
- stencils at the rudder
- markings of the 24Volt socket and some "gerate" – white and red circle on the starboard side of the fuselage
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To sum up I'm on the big YES for using the Techmod decals in the future, especially in comparison with their old decals.

Aleksander Górski.

Conclusion

I think it can be a very popular set for the Luftwaffe enthusiasts as the model producers do not provide as wide choice of stencils on their decals as Techmod does with this set. This set may be a good addition to the good Tamiya or Hasegawa kit.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on Aeroscale.