1:48 Bf 110C

A Zerstorer whose range was to make up for agility

The Messerschmitt Bf 110 entered service as a heavy escort fighter: two engines for range over enemy territory, a crew of two for better awareness and firepower concentrated in the nose. The C version of 1939 received DB 601 power units and shortened wingtips. Over Poland it proved itself, over southern England it came up against single-seat opponents and had to find other work, as a fighter-bomber and later as a night hunter.

Twenty bars above the crew's heads

The glazing here is not a canopy in the usual sense but a glazed corridor running from the windscreen almost to the trailing edge of the wing. It consists of four entirely different assemblies: a flat front panel, a side-hinged part above the pilot, a fixed center section and, at the rear, the radio operator's station with a movable segment for a machine gun. There are over twenty bars and they run across in every direction; longitudinal strips cross transverse arches as well as diagonal braces. Hand-cut tape on such an area takes a whole evening and a single lifted corner can be seen through the glass.

Box contents

• glazing masks in two forms, for the outer and for the inner face of the parts
• two sheets of masks for spraying the national crosses
• supplementary decals

With a two-seat cockpit, masking the reverse face makes tangible sense. Through the glazing both seats, the bulkhead and the machine-gun mount are visible, so a frame painted only on the outer face gives itself away at once. The film is lifted with tweezers and leaves no matte coating on the pane.