History

The Bf 110D, based on the preceding C model, was a Zerstorer specially designed for long-range missions. It came about at the time of the Norwegian campaign, where the need for a long-range anti-shipping aircraft became apparent. The Bf 110D was the first attempt at creating a long-range shipping patrol aircraft, and its key characteristic was the addition of a huge 1,200-liter external belly tank.

The kit

As with most Weekend edition kits from Eduard the kit comes without the thrills of the Profipack versions, so no resin, phot-oetch and only one set of markings. The only downside is the lack of kabuki masks for the canopy. But don't let the lack of these parts put you off as the basic kit is pretty good by itself, and sometimes a box full of PE and resin parts don't always do it for me, as it can get too drawn out for a build that I just want too throw together just for the sheer fun of building, and that's the beauty of these Weekend editions. The cover picture on the box is a painting of a Bf 110D (what else would there be lol) from the underside showing the belly tank, which always reminds me of a croaking frog lol.

Inside the box, surprise surprise, is packed with plastic parts. The seven grey sprues are packed in two bags of twos and one bag of three, with the clear sprue packed separately. A small decal sheet and the intruction booklet make up the rest of the contents.

The plastic parts of the kit are what you find in the Profipack versions which you can find HERE and HERE, so there is little point going over most of the same ground that has already been covered by the two superb reviews by Tim and Magnus.

One of the first things you notice is the amount of parts in this kit, but that is a slight false impression as 64 of the 171 parts are not used. These include two longer fuselage halves and various ordnance. Ejector pin marks by the look of it are out of the way and wont be seen once the model is built. Exterior detail, the kit is very good with fine engraved panel lines, extremely subtle rivet marks and access hatches. Control surfaces have a tight fabric detail. The nose section of the aircraft is all separate parts.This has been done so no hacking and sanding the nose for the inclusion of the Brassin nose guns which can be bought separately.

Interior detail is very good, with a busy looking cockpit. Side wall detail is very good and once painted will add to the overall look of the cockpit. No harness's are supplied for the seats. The rest of the cockpit is filled with various panels and lots of spare ammunition drums. If you don't fancy painting each and every dial on the instrument panels, (which I can't do very well as the old eyesight is going) then Eduard supply two panels, one embossed and one blank which you can add decals which come supplied.

There is not much detail for the wheel wells but the wheel indentation is well done. The undercarriage legs are made up of 5 parts each and have a nice bit of detail on them and look to be very robust. The wheels have a tread pattern engraved on them, and have a little detail on the hubs.

As noted by Tim in his review the canopy is made up of several parts, with the option of displaying the pilots hatches open, and this does look like the hardest part of the build. The parts are clear and blemish free.

Instructions and decals

The instructions are printed on a folded A4 paper, and feature black and white line drawings of the build sequence. Internal colours are shown throughout. The build sequence looks to be easy and straightforward.

Only one aircraft is depicted with markings for W.Nr. 3148, 2./ZG 76, Norway, spring 1940.

The paint guide for the one aircraft are not colour, but shades of grey, but its easy to work out. The colour scheme is RLM65 undersides with RLM 70/71 splinter camo uppers. The paint numbers are for the Mr Color range of paints. The decals are very well printed and are semigloss, with very little carrier film. No stencils are supplied are supplied with this boxing (huge sigh of relief on my part lol).

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