A spanish "Zacuto" (BF 109 f4)

After the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) Franco's army bought several Bf 109 F4s from Germany. The Spanish pilots knew them well from their use in Spain (versions A and B) and especially from their collaboration on the Russian Front in support of Hitler. Here they called them Zacuto

We could say that laces are "complex"...

Likewise, fitting the engine into the fuselage has cost me a lot... I suppose it must be that I am a very bad modeler but I really have had to cut the engine spars and make a thousand fits...

With the fuselage primed I see that there are still problems with some fittings. More sandpaper and putty

When painting, always, I start with the lightest color and move towards the darkest.

We begin the painting phase. I have previously airbrushed it in black and given it lights and nuances in sand and white.

I paint, oil and soil the landing gear and reserve it for final assembly.

I try to place the decals but some of them partially break. I have managed to put them back together but there are some defects that I try to correct with paint.

With an airbrush, masks and a lot of patience I painted some marks that did not appear on the decals. Little by little I am placing the stencils

The final result is not bad at all...

I have worked on the fumes in the exhausts with oils and pigments. I am not very satisfied with the final result, but it has been an interesting learning experience.

In the absence of a final coat of matte varnish and placing the canopy, I am going to close this project. I really didn't like the 1/48 Zvezda model at all. I think the fit is not good, the plastic is flimsy and the engineering of the connection between the engine and the fuselage is very complicated... That, together with my lack of experience and my low quality as a model maker, means that the work is not very good. ...but it has been an interesting project to learn