During World War 2 Spain purchased fifteen ME109Fs second hand from Luftwaffe stocks and were in the process of developing licenced production of the Me109G-2 when the conflict ended.

The Spanish-built late variants with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine are commonly referred to as Buchons and are familiar as movie stars in the late 1960s film “Battle of Britain” and as warbirds on the air show circuit today. There is an earlier version that is less well known, a series of less than sixty aircraft built for the early post war Spanish Air Force.

Components for some 25 airframes were initially shipped from German sources to be fitted with a locally-licensed Hispano Suiza HS-12Z-89 engine of 1300hp and the type was designated the HA-1112JL by the manufacturer, Hispano Aviacion. An improved version of the engine the HS-12Z-17 yielded a production run of some 38 aircraft designated HA-112K.1L, starting in 1951. These were the precursor to a production run of nearly 200 of the much better-known HA-1112M1l 2Buchon” with Rolls Royce Merlin engines which began production in 1956. The Hispano Suiza-engined aircraft were then referred to as Tripalas, to distinguish their fit of 3-blade propellers from the 4-blade units of the later Buchons.

The kit comes in a neat small pizza-type box which was no trouble to the mail man and landed on my door mat in good shape.

The instructions are brief to the point of being abrupt. Assembly instructions consist of one small sheet of paper printed in greyscale with five exploded views of the components. No dimensions are given but the conversion parts seem to be designed to blend into the donor kit with only a single saw cut required to the lower centre section of the wing. The manufacturer is quite specific that the donor kit should be Hasegawa’s 1/32 ‘109G-2.

A similarly small colour information sheet gives a choice of two Spanish Air force aircraft on the decal sheet and two repainted in Luftwaffe markings for a German movie made in 1956. The decals look to be sharply printed and of good density. The instructions suggest that all five options should be painted overall in “Barrack Grey”, a light grey/green colour but no paint shade references are given. Further research indicates that the Spanish AF aircraft were probably finished in “Peugeot Blue” overall. No airframe stencilling is provided.

This is essentially a firewall-forward conversion. No parts are provided for the uniquely Spanish wing configuration so the distinctive leading-edge cannon and under wing rocket rails will have to be sourced elsewhere. There are a few photos on the net showing aircraft 94*27 at a training unit without wing fences or cannon, although the 3-views in this kit contradict this.

The bagged resin parts are crisply cast in medium grey and look to be of good quality, free from bubbles and with crisp, restrained panel lines. There are substantial mould pouring blacks that will need to be cut away and the finely cast propeller blades are sensibly cast in a protective frame and separately bagged to protect them during shipping

A small coloured etched fret provides a replacement instrument panel but no interior colour information is given.