1:32 Bf-109E3

The frame shows from the inside too

The E-3 version belonged to the first production batches of the Emil and was in action even before the Battle of Britain. Its cockpit was made up of a densely framed canopy of flat panes, because curved plexiglass was hard to make at the time. Glazing divided like this is rewarding in a large scale, but at the same time unforgiving.

Why two sets of films

In 1:32 scale the canopy is several centimeters long and the clear part is so large and so transparent that through it you can easily see the inner side of the opposite frame. If masking were done only from the outside, the frame would stay translucent from the inside and the cockpit would look, seen from above, like an open cage. That is why the set holds two sets of films with the same division, one for the outer and the other for the inner surface.

The procedure is straightforward. The inner side is masked and sprayed first, usually in the interior shade, before the part is seated in the fuselage. The outer side comes along with the camouflage. Between the two steps the clear part has to stay completely untouched, because a fingerprint on plexiglass cannot be removed from under the finish in any other way than by taking the finished cockpit apart.

The small thing that decides

Film attracts dust and a static charge, especially in a dry winter room. Before you set to work, wipe the bench down with a damp cloth and let it dry. A speck of dust caught under the edge of a mask lifts the film by a hundredth of a millimeter, and that is amply enough for the edge of a marking to blur.

Part of the delivery

• Two sets of masks with the same division of the frames
• Three markings for spraying
• Neither paints nor a model of the aircraft are enclosed