History Brief

Operation Barbarossa, the famous German invasion of the Soviet Union, was the most titanic clash of arms in all history. The forces arrayed on each side numbered in the millions. The territory captured stretched from the Polish border to the doorstep of Moscow. Everywhere, the Luftwaffe roared overhead. The losses inflicted by the Bf 109 and its compatriots gave Germany total tactical air superiority and very nearly handed Hitler a victory in Russia.

We’ve had spiral masks before from Cutting Edge using their vinyl masks. They were stiff and difficult to position and frequently peeled up during painting. They were less than ideal. Then a few years ago when Eduard started to use Kabuki tape for their canopy masks I sent a suggestion that they needed to make spiral masks for the Bf-109. Well they finally listened or they thought of it themselves. Either way, what you get on this sheet of masks is four common types of spirals used on the 109.

While not specifically designated for the Eduard Bf-109G-6, these masks should be able to be used on any Bf-109G-K spinner. I just happened to be building two Eduard G-6s so I had the opportunity to use two different spirals. You will have to visualize how the spirals will look when applied as there are no instructions. It is pretty obvious that if they spiral is a long mask that it will be a tight spiral and the smaller/shorter masks, the ‘wider’ the spiral.

The Bf-109G was a versatile aircraft that could be fitted with numerous armament options. One of the most spectacular ones was the mounting of two wing mounted 21cm rockets.

Included in this vacuform package are 16 light grey resin parts that are perfectly formed and a fret of photo etch. Much of the photo etch pieces are allocated as alignment jigs. The resin pieces give you two complete rockets and two warheads. You only ‘need’ the warheads and the PE exhaust nozzles. The two complete rockets would be good additions to a diorama but aren’t absolutely necessary for this set.