Aires

1/72 - Resin Wheels and Masks For the Bf 109 G-6 and Bf 109 E/F

Stock Number: 7233 Bf 109 G-6 and 7245 Bf 109 E/F

Reviewed By  Gary Telecsan, IPMS# 34779

MSRP: 7233 $7.95 and 7245 $8.95 Website: www.aires.cz These nifty little packages allow not only for an upgrade to the wheels on your 72nd scale Bf 109's, but also for great ease in painting them. The wheels and masks come packaged in a flat plastic bag, the wheels attached to the usual resin pour block and the masks on one sheet. The instructions for use of the masks are well illustrated and even I could follow them, and my wife has told me many times that I can't even follow one of her simple shopping lists. You can download the instructions on the Aires website in pdf format. To give the best review, I removed the G-6 wheels from the blocks before painting, and left the E/F wheels on the blocks. On the whole, I think I prefer painting with the wheels left on the blocks. General As you can see from the pictures, both sets of wheels are well above and beyond the quality contained in the kits. The kit E/F wheels came from a Samolot 109 T-2, which used E-type wheels, and there is no comparison with the resin wheels. The G-6 wheels came from a Hasgawa kit, and again, the resin wheels win hands down. The Aires wheels came free from the blocks easily, before or after painting, and required no clean up apart from the attachment point. All paints were Modelmaster acrylics, sprayed with my Harder-Steenbeck Infinity 12-cylinder over/under cam, superturbocharged airbrush.

E/F Masks The hard part of making a mask is the adhesive. It must be strong enough to adhere to the painted surface without being so strong as to remove the paint. It must also fit. The E/F wheels have prominent spokes on the outer surface, even in 1/72nd scale, which makes them very convex instead of flat, and this is a problem. Aires solved this problem by making the masks for this side rings instead of discs. By this I mean that the each mask has a hole in the center and the instructions call for closing off the highest point of the spokes there with liquid masking solution. I used blue tack as I had some to hand, but it worked like a charm. The picture shows a great paint job, far better than I would have managed by myself. The masks came free easily, with no damage to the underlying paint. Considering the quality of the resin wheels, for which Aires is justly famous, and the incredible ease of masking, I ask myself, why would I ever use kit wheels again? G-6 Masks I expected the same ease of painting with these wheels, and was disappointed. The outside of the G-6 wheel is also dished, although not as severely without the spokes, and the Aires masks do not have the same hole in them to allow for this. I used the masks as instructed, and the flat side of the wheels worked fine. However, even though I sprayed with the lowest setting my trusty Harder-Steenbeck would allow, the masks did not adhere well. I sprayed the first wheel with the mask alone, and got some bleed under, which I think shows in the photo. With the second wheel I tried to hold the mask down with ophthalmic tweezers, and still got bleed under. I think when I buy my next set of masks, I will just make a hole in the middle myself, and this will allow the edges to lay flat and eliminate the bleed under. At any rate, the retouching is minimal and I still have a better painted set of wheels than I would have gotten if left to my own devices. Many thanks to Aires for the incredible resin wheels and the masks, which will certainly make a fine upgrade to two of my kits!