1:48 Luftwaffe Balkenkreuze Late No.1

A late Balkenkreuz sprayed through a template

Toward the end of the war the German fuselage cross was simplified. In many cases all that was left of the solid black shape with a white border was an outline made up of narrow bars, which could be sprayed quickly and without much preparation on a makeshift airfield. This is exactly the form of the marking that the set covers, so it suits machines from the last months of the fighting.

Why spray instead of using a decal

A sprayed marking has no carrier film, so no glossy outline and no silvering appear on a matte finish where the film would cover the texture of the skin. The marking can also be rubbed back, dusted over or partly painted out, as if the ground crew had covered it with a fresh coat. On models with a pronounced riveted texture this is the only way to get the drawing truly into the surface.

Application procedure

The surface must be smooth and dry. Lay the template on, press the edges down carefully with a fingernail or a wooden stick and spray at a right angle, in several very thin coats. A heavy coat tends to bleed under the edge. Peel the film off while the paint is still fresh, pulling it back at an angle rather than straight up.

What to keep in mind

The crosses on the wings and on the fuselage of the same machine could differ in size and in form, because field workshops often added them. Before you reach for the airbrush, it pays to find a photograph of the particular aircraft and compare the width of the arms of the cross with the length of the fuselage. It is also worth noting that in the last year of the war markings appeared in a single color only, depending on the shade of the surface underneath and on what happened to be at hand.