1:32 Bf 110C

A heavy fighter with two engines

Under its original specification the Messerschmitt Bf 110C was to escort bomber formations deep over enemy territory. Two engines gave it range and heavy nose armament, but also a weight with which it could not hold its own against single-engine opponents in a turning fight. Over England in 1940 the type paid for that with heavy losses. Elsewhere, though, it served well, mainly as a fast attack and reconnaissance machine, and from its airframe there later grew a successful night fighter branch.

A hard edge as a production specification

The upper surfaces of German machines of this period were covered by two dark greens applied in a precisely prescribed angular pattern, while the underside stayed light blue. The boundary between the fields is as sharp as a scissor cut, because it was not sprayed freehand but according to a template on the production line, so it looked the same on every airframe. The angular shape has its sense: straight edges break up the outline of a machine standing on the ground and the eye evaluates it more easily as the shadow of a building than as an aircraft. Here the camouflage differs fundamentally from western practice, where the fields were sprayed into a soft transition. That is exactly why the model is painted with masking; otherwise that characteristic hard line disappears.

The set in practice

A pair of glazing masks is supplied, for the outer as well as the inner side, and two insignia masks. The glazed section is unusually long on this type and carries dozens of frames, so masking it by hand takes more time than the painting itself. Precisely die-cut film also holds the same tape width even where a frame bends into a curve.