1:48 Bf-109E-4/7 TFace canopy frame paint mask (inside & outside)

The angular framing of the Emil

The Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 is told from the earlier aircraft above all by its cockpit canopy. Flat glazing in a more substantial frame replaced the curved surfaces; it took away a piece of the view, but it was sturdier and simpler to make. The E-7 subversion then received a rack under the fuselage onto which a drop tank or a bomb carrier could be hung; that turned an interceptor into a machine with a reach usable over the Mediterranean and on the Eastern Front. Both subversions flew in the front line from the summer of 1940 onward.

It is precisely the dense frame that is most visible on a finished model and hardest to paint. The enclosed pieces are cut to the shape of the individual glazing panels and are in the package twice: for the outer side of the canopy and for its reverse. The inside of the frame thus gets the light cockpit color, the outside the airframe camouflage, and the edge between them stays sharp without a single brush stroke. The carrier is kabuki paper, which comes off without adhesive residue.

Anyone building the Emil with the canopy slid back will appreciate that each part is masked separately: the windscreen, the sliding center section and the rear fixed arch. Before painting it is worth washing the glass in lukewarm water with a drop of dish soap and letting it air-dry. Grease from the fingers is the most frequent cause of a mask lifting away.

The color scheme on this machine is rewarding too. Aircraft from the summer of 1940 carried engine cowlings and rudders oversprayed in yellow, so the boundary of the shades runs short and sharp right next to the cockpit. That is exactly where it shows whether the framing is separated cleanly or corrected afterward.