Italeri 1/72 Bf-110C-3/4 Zerstorer

ITALERI 1:72 MESSERSCHMITT BF 110C-3/4 ZERSTORER
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: John Lacey (elric1965@yahoo.com.au)

Italeri’s Bf-110 series are a welcome addition to the company’s product line as they replace the poor Airfix –110C and finally promise a buildable –110G. Does anyone remember the Revell ‘Nachtjager’?…. eeeeuuuuuuu….

Instructions are standard Italeri fare with multilingual Aircraft History, Warnings and Paint List, followed by a Parts Map, ten construction steps and finally, two single-page Painting Guides for the Zerstorers supplied. Interestingly, the instructions point to detail painting not only within the cockpit and engine cowlings, but to the wheel wells of the main landing gear. A nice touch.

The sprues themselves are typical Italeri, finely detailed recessed panel lines with raised detail over many areas of the kit. Other points of note are separate barrels for the four nose-mounted machine guns and some detail to the lower wing radiators.

Options include a poseable forward canopy, four small underwing racks with SC50 bombs and separate sway braces and a centreline rack with two SC250 bombs.

Interestingly, the instructions point to some detail parts attached to the centreline of the fuselage (step 9), these including antennae, boarding steps and, curiously, a small teardrop-shaped item which if memory serves me was an external oil reservoir on the long-range –110D-3 models. This doesn’t appear on the Painting Guide, Box Top or reverse Box Art. A check of the sprues shows this item to be missing. Perhaps Italeri are considering releasing the –110D as another kit?

Clear parts are typical Italeri, detailed and none too thick with the aforementioned cockpit option.

Decals are standard Italeri and painting options are once again with ‘modern’ type colours such as ‘Light Ghost Grey’. This is a pet peeve of mine as newcomers to the hobby, or those not familiar with wartime Luftwaffe colour schemes could find replicating these very difficult. These are translated as ‘European Green’ to Dunkelgrun RLM 74, ‘Field Green’ to Scwharzgrun RLM 75 and ‘Light Ghost Grey’ to Leichte Grau RLM 76.

The first option is a C-3 of 6. Staffel, ZG 76 in standard RLM74/75 splinter uppers & sides with RLM76 lowers, this option also includes a white nose & spinners. The other is for a C-4 of 3. Staffel, ZG 26 also in RLM74/75/76 without white markings but with a ‘sharkmouth’ nose. This is curious, as ZG 26 were known as the ‘Horst Wessel’ Geschwader, whereas ZG 76 were the ‘Haifisch’ or shark Geschwader. To add to the confusion, the instructions do not state which version is to use the bomb-load and racks supplied. Once again, the C-4 in it’s C-4/B guise would be the right choice and I have reference material showing C-4/B’s in the service of ZG 26, but therein lies the rub, as these aircraft are not ‘sharkmouth’ equipped. Unfortunately, none of my references give indication as to either units’ codes, this would be a way of deciphering the whole mess. My guess would be that the C-3 version is a standard early war Zerstorer of ZG 76 complete with ‘sharkmouth’ and the other a C-4/B fighter-bomber of ZG 26 with white nose & spinners.

Having said all of this, the three that I purchased on sale are destined to become early war nightfighters using a number of aftermarket sheets.

In conclusion, the kit is well produced from a sprue point of view and the supplied decals are accurate for the versions the model can produce. It is only let down by the inconsistencies regarding the painting & marking options and the vagueness of the stores supplied.

Related Reviews:-

Italeri 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf-110G-/R-3

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