1:32 Bf 109G-6

Colored bands around the rear instead of concealment

In the last two years of the war the Bf 109s gained an element that fought with the camouflage: a wide colored band ran around the rear part of the fuselage and its shade and number said which fighter unit the machine belonged to. It was a practical decision, because hundreds of aircraft operated over home territory at once and a controller at a ground station needed to know who he was seeing. In the eastern areas yellow fuselage undersides and yellow wingtips served a similar role. A paradox thus arose: the gray camouflage was meant to hide the machine, while a band across the rear gave it away in an instant. For a modeler, though, that is the best possible combination, because an otherwise unremarkable finish gains a single sharp accent.

Composition

Film in two versions according to the side of the part belongs to the glazing, then three masks for the national insignia are enclosed and a pair of metal barrels for the machine guns placed above the engine.

Why 1:32 in particular

Large scales reward patience. The cockpit has so many frames that they become the main ornament of the model, and a barrel with a thin wall looks like a piece of machinery, not like a plastic spike. The drawback is that every deviation in the width of a frame hits the eye, so pre-cut film here is not a luxury but a necessity.

Recommendation

The colored band is sprayed over the finished camouflage and its edge has to be straight around the whole circumference of the fuselage, which is best solved with a thin strip of tape wound round and complemented by wider covering. Cover the rest of the model, otherwise it will pick up the shade. The masks correspond to the Hasegawa kit in 1:32 scale and the model itself is ordered separately.