1:24 Messerschmitt Bf 109G-5/G-6 Numbers & Insignia Paint Mask Set for Airfix #A17003

The Gustav at its finest resolution

The Bf 109G-6 was the most numerously built form of the whole series, and its hallmark became the two prominent bulges on the engine cowling, under which the breeches of the machine guns were hidden. They were nicknamed the bumps, and pilots complained about them because they worsened both the view and the aerodynamics. The G-5 version was its pressurized counterpart, meant for high altitudes, and outwardly it differed from the G-6 only in details. Both have been given a large kit, in which every surface becomes a challenge precisely because of how extensive it is.

Crosses are better sprayed

In this enlargement the fuselage cross is over three centimeters across, and a decal of that size is a thankless thing: it has to go over the trailing lines and over the raised panel, and wherever it fails to settle it gives itself away by its sheen. A sprayed marking has none of these problems, because it lies directly in the paint. The content covers the crosses as well as the tactical numerals, that is, exactly the elements that are most visible on a finished model.

Where it most often comes to grief

The film stretches. Large pieces are lifted off the backing by a corner, and under the pull the material gives without anyone noticing. The cross as stuck on then has arms of different lengths and one of them rounded. The mistake cannot be undone, because a piece that has already stretched cannot be lifted off and laid down again. Go about it differently: slide the point of a scalpel under the film, lift it along the whole length of one edge and carry it to the model on the backing, not by a single corner. It also pays to try the process out on an offcut of sprue.