1:32 Bf 109G-14 one-sided express fit and self adhesive mask for SWS Zoukei - Mura

A unified machine from the summer of 1944

The G-14 designation came about at the moment German production tried to put an end to the number of small deviations between the individual series. A short-term increase in power by the injection of a mixture of water and methanol, which gave the pilot a noticeable gain below a thousand meters, became the standard, and the glazing with no cross frame over the head came into wider use. Even so not all examples were the same; various plants combined old and new parts according to what they had in stock.

Cut shapes instead of tape

Anyone who has ever masked a curved cockpit from a roll knows how much time is eaten up by cutting a corner that has to sit the same on both sides. Precut parts do away with this part: you lay them on, press them down and go to spray. The set covers the outer side, so the procedure is simple but not thoughtless. Degrease the area, do not touch the adhesive side with your fingers and, while taking it off, pull the film back over itself at a sharp angle, not perpendicularly upward.

Printing, or spraying?

The choice is not a question of comfort but of the result. A layer of paint under the edge of a frame has depth and reflects the light just as the metal around it does, whereas a printed film lies on the glass like a foreign body and against the light that gives it away. Small technical texts on the fuselage or a multicolored national insignia, by contrast, you will not get with a mask, and there a printed sheet steps in. The two techniques therefore do not exclude each other; they only divide the work. One more small thing is worth mentioning: exactly cut shapes also keep an eye on the width of the frame, so the finished glazing does not come across as needlessly massive, as happens with cutting by hand.