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.

I started by painting my spinner and back plates Tamiya white and letting that dry a couple of days. Then I added the Kabuki tape and ‘rolled’ the mask around until I was happy with the design. Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect as the real things weren’t, many were hand painted, but try to get them to be symmetrical and evenly spaced. If you do it even remotely close the end of the mask should fair into the baseplate perfectly. Then it was just a matter of overspraying the proper color. In my cases it was RLM 24 and RLM 25, but normally it was black. Simply remove the masks and viola. Perfect spirals with no decal film.

This is the easiest way to mask your spirals and accomplish it in literally seconds. If you are careful, you can use the masks multiple times. I absolutely loved using them and even more important is that the results speak for themselves. They are beautiful and real simple to do. The time to mask both spinners with the masks was less than five minutes total time. Normally that was an hour job for one spinner. It took that long to get them evenly spaced and similar sized spirals. Thank God that is no longer an issue. This is another great product from Eduard. I’ve already ordered two more sets as I tend to build a 109 or two. I’ll be able to reuse both of the masks that I used on my models. These are an awesome use of a mask and I can’t say enough good things about them.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Eduard and IPMS/USA for the review copy. You can obtain your example direct from Eduard at www.eduard.com or your local hobby shop or online retailer.