Lybia, 1942
On a roughly hewn desert airstrip, a Bf-109 E-7 Trop attached to 8/ZG1 undergoes routine maintenence before another flight in support of Rommel's Afrika Korps attempting to break through to Egypt.
Having followed the Beacon Models project since day one I was very excited to get the kit onto the bench and the first impressions were very good.
From the glossy and clear instructions to the high quality parts breakdown and easy assembly, these kits are easily comparable to the best loved Sweet, Platz and Eduard, but with the added benefit of having richly detailed cockpits too, which Eduard and Sweet in particular typically lacked at all
The kit boxing only comes with one scheme for each aircraft at present, but in the plastic there is a great selection of options including different bomb loads and even the E-1 wings for the Emil.
I decided to make my first Emil into a Tropical example using some decals from the Armory kit.
The Armory kits came out a couple of years back and, although well detailed, suffer from a lot of fit issues - however they do include a huge array of decals, open canopy parts and photoetch, which I will be pilfering for my Beacon builds.
Assembly was so simple that both planes were on their legs within a couple of hours, even allowing for cockpit painting and research. A little seam line filler was all that was required.
I used the new AK 3G paint series set on this build - discovering that their 'early RLM79' borders on day-glo yellow.
I'm no expert, but this looked more likely - made up of a blend of the early and late RLM79s to make a nice sandy yellow.
I decided to try the three part posable canopy provided in the Armory kits as the Beacon model is just a single piece. Although width and depth are the same, the Armory canopy is about 1mm shorter, leaving a fractional gap. This won't be very noticeable on the open canopy, but would preclude using one of their closed canopy parts.
Inside the canopy, the bulletproof screen was fitted using an etched piece from the Armory kit.
On to the vignette and a Ray Rimes Minatures 3d printed Renault truck provided the vehicle support. Produced specifically for German military use, these were used extensively in North Africa.
The figures are resin from Heroes Models and are the first shirtless figures I have come across in this scale - essential for dioramas from North Africa through to the Far East.
With a small set of accessories and tools, the scene came together on one of my standard 10cm canvas bases.
The Beacon Models 109 was a joy to build - it is a rare treat to get a new non-short-run injection kit in this scale. With some more decal options to exploit all the lovely kit parts and a posable canopy (hopefully someone will release a vacform) then it will be definitive.