Well, déjà vu? You bet! It's a baby version of a Me-209V-1 I did in 1/48^th scale a while ago. I frankly have had enough of the larger scale resin kits, especially the price and so-so quality. The Huma kit had been around for centuries, well, almost. But it was Humas' earlier entry and it shows heavy panel lines. The surface detail looks akin to a Matchbox kit. I received the latest, issue, which comes in a decorative box, and the new RLM 02 Grey colored plastic, otherwise it's identical to the 1980 version. A small thick one-piece canopy, one sprue of parts, and a decal sheet rounds out the contents. The kit actually builds the Record setting version and the long wing fighter adaptation. But after comparing the wing for the long wing version against scale drawings, they are way off in accuracy. Best we stick with making the all RLM 24 Blue version.

First off is the interior, make a floor and sidewall stringers cause you can actually see through the coke bottle canopy. A couple of black boxes stuck on the walls to make it look busy and the seat sanded to a proper shape. Some masking tape seatbelts are applied, a bit of India ink and water to shade the interior items and that’s all she wrote. The instrument panel came as a decal, not very convincing, so a Me-109 donor was used.

Most of the parts fit well enough, beware of the upper cowl piece, it requires putty to fair it in. After finishing that bit, the overall appearance started taking on the correct shape. The landing gear and doors are next on the agenda. Seeing that the small scale allows for some fudging, the kit parts are used, but for a showstopper I'd recommend a bit more detail, say perhaps the gear from the Hasagawa Me-109E. 

The actual record breaking plane was unpainted natural metal overall. It was only afterwards, for the 'Historic" pictures of Wiley shaking the hand of a jubilant pilot was the airframe painted Messerschmitt Blue (RLM 24). Since the natural metal is a bear to replicate in any scale, I opted for the Blue overall, it's also one of my favorite colors.