The Eduard Bf 109E-4 comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a nice illustration.
Being a Profipack Edition, the kit comes with some worthwhile extras. I especially like the strategy that Eduard uses to package the same aircraft at different price points and giving the modeler the option of buying a kit that has some of the excellent Eduard aftermarket items already included. This kit includes two photo-etched frets. The first fret is pre-colored and is primarily for the cockpit details, including the multi-layer instrument panels and seatbelts. The details on these instrument panels is quite nice but they are also marred by that fabric-like surface texture and the strange purplish color that Eduard assumes for Luftwaffe interiors.
The second fret is uncolored and has more cockpit stuff and also other details like intake meshes.
The clear parts look nice and transparent. Included are two styles of windscreen and mid canopy. the Revi 12C gunsight is also included as a clear part.
There are two decal sheets included. One is the stencil data and the other is for individual aircraft markings. I've had excellent results with Eduard decals in the past and the wide choice of markings (five in this kit) makes the Profipack editions that much more appealing.
Off to the sprues... As with the Spitfire IXc kit that I just built, the molding quality on the 109E-4 is simply excellent. Rivets are present but are beautifully understated.
The one-piece engine cowling is greatly appreciated! Why couldn't they have done this on the Spitfire???
The wings are similarly executed. Beautiful stuff!
This fret holds mostly the external stuff... control surfaces, landing gear, guns. Note the wheel well walls in the upper left corner. One piece per side versus the FIFTEEN that comprised the Spitfire wheel well walls!
The tires deserve a special mention here... even the sidewall lettering is present!
The gun barrels look to have the ends hollowed out, which is a plus, but there is also some flash that intrudes upon the hollowed out ends, which is a negative.
The last sprue holds the drivetrain components (engine, prop, etc) as well as the majority of the cockpit details.
The engine is nicely molded but as I will be building my Emil buttoned up, the engine and the cowl gun details will not be visible.
Eduard gives the modeler the choice of using the photoetched instrument panel or the plastic one. The plastic IP is nicely molded and would look nice with the decal instrument faces.
Eduard provides PDF instructions for all of its products on its website. The instructions for this particular kit can be found at:
http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/8263.pdf