1:32 Bf 109 G-2 / G-4 (for Revell Kits)

The early Gustavs and their glazing

The G-2 version brought the DB 605A engine into the Messerschmitt line in 1942, and with it a jump in performance that lasted the machine until the end of the war. The cowling was still smooth, a pair of 7.92 mm machine guns ran over the engine and a 20 mm cannon fired through the propeller hub. The G-4 modification looked almost the same from outside; the distinguishing difference was the FuG 16Z radio set, wider main wheels and with them a slight bulge on the upper surface of the wing. Fighter formations flew these machines over the Eastern Front and over the Mediterranean, and it was precisely on them that the highest tallies of aerial victories ever recorded were built up.

The cut shapes follow the division of the canopy and the outline of the tires on the large Revell model. The frames therefore do not have to be traced with adhesive tape and cut by eye, which on glazing made up of three pieces tells both on the time and on the result.

A finished airframe measures almost twenty-eight centimeters at this size, and a frame barely a millimeter wide is a full-fledged element on it. An inaccuracy that would pass unnoticed on a small model hits the eye here.

Working with the film: the individual pieces are lifted with the point of a scalpel, laid on a clean, grease-free surface, and the edges pressed down with a wooden toothpick so that paint does not run under them. The shade of the frames is sprayed first and the upper camouflage only after it has dried.

The reward is a sharp edge between the glass and the frame along the whole length of the cockpit, which on a model of this size is apparent even from a meter away. Neither paints nor the kit are included in the delivery.