Many WWII German airplanes had a hypnotizing, spiral pattern on the propeller cap (see the photo that I found at FSM). How do you paint it? I don’t think I can draw it freehand. And I don’t see how masking would work for the pattern on such a surved surface. Any idea?
Well, there’s always decals (either the kit supplied or aftermarket), using a ton of Microsol. When I do this I always cut away the clear film from the spiral with a swivel exacto, then lay on the decal. It helps to look at refs and draw with a pencil where the decal should go as it wraps around the spinner. Eduard also makes all sorts of spinner spiral masks that work good. You can also mask them your self with thin strips of Tamiya tape.
Some of mine using masks:
Using decals:
Once I’ve painted the spinner white, then masked it using uhu-tac and sprayed black. The result was satisfying to me. Here’s that model, academy’s 1/72nd fw-190 heinz bär:
Sometimes it takes several attempts to get the tape to lay down right, but if you use thin strips you can usually get the right look. This one was done with green masking tape. Not perfect, but it was cleaner than a wrinkled-up decal 
As others have said above, masking isn’t as hard as it looks. Also, if you’ve ever seen (or can see online) what the decal versions look like, laying that out on a piece of masking tape is pretty easy if you’ve got a small French curve. [Anybody besides me use those anymore?].
I didn’t know Eduard sold a pre-made mask. That’ll be the easiest solution.
Eduard makes just about everything. You’ll find the masks at Spruebros. The spinner spiral masks come in a set with a few different shapes and there is a set for 109s, 190As, and then Doras.
I handpaint mine with acrylic paint and a fine liner brush. I never looks perfect but, far better and easier than the decals.
I’m sure they were all hand-drawn and hand-painted on the 1:1 examples anyway.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
Ahh…My favorite part of Luftwaffe fighters. The mad demented spiral. Truthfully, for these, I’ve always used a good aftermarket decal, such as Eagle Cal or Aeromaster, with liberal amounts of Micro Sol. I’ve never had a problem with these using this method. Be careful with kit supplied spirals though. Their either thick and less forgiving or wrinkle up under strong setting solutions.
Joe
Chrisk-k: I use pre-cut masks and they come out great every time. I just paint the spinner white, mask and then spray the black over it and simply unmask. The results are always good. I have two good examples. The first is a 48th scale Hasegawa Bf109 G-10 (which the model fell a little short of what I wanted but the spinner was great) and my 1/24 Trumpeter Bf109.
