Monday, October 31, 2011

Bf109G-10 of Heinz Ewald

This WNF-built Bf109G-10 was flown by Heinz Ewald of II./JG52 in February 1945. Pictures, decals and a profile are provided by Kagero for this aircraft and Hasegawa has boxings of this aircraft as well. Both Kagero and Hasegawa depicts this aircraft in late-war colors and a camoflage that looks close to the pattern used on late Bf109K-4's.

The internet is full of pictures of models depicting this scheme that is unfortunately incorrect. I was sceptical of that scheme from the start and when I started learning about Wrk.Nr ranges and how camoflage patterns could be used to understand from which factory a Bf109 came from I just knew something was wrong. WNF never used the kind of pattern that Kagero and Hasegawa suggests.

Finally when I found pictures of this aircraft, nothing in them contradicted a standard WNF camo as depicted in my profile. Sure, the fuselageside might have had some extra mottling but nothing like the solid, low demarcation scheme shown in the instructions from Hasegawa and Kagero.

A big shame since it's quite an attractive idea, I believe that my version is far closer to the truth - which still might be a bit off!

The numerals provided by Hasegawa and Kagero are too large, they should be in the same size as all other II./JG52 aircraft wore in the spring of 1945 and seen for example on the aircraft found at Neubiberg at the wars end.

One final thing to notice is that the landinggear doors had been removed to prevent snow and mud from getting caught up between the doors and the leg.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Anders,
    Nice work as usual. What about the W.Nr. you put on fin; is it a true one? In that case the plane is a G-10/U4 (well normaly).
    2/ You wrote II./JG 52 when Ewald flew White 3 in 7./JG 52 following the Kracker list. Since JG 52 never had a IV group, means III./JG 52! But with a II° group bar?! ANy available picture (scans) of that plane? You know my mail Anders.

    Cheers. Franck.

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  2. Hi Franck, I'm not sure about which staffel Ewald served with while flying "White 3" but he certainly served with II./JG52 at the time. The Wrk.Nr is from Kagero but I don't know about further sources.

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  3. What the RLM for this version? 75/85 over 76?
    Thanks
    Paulo

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    Replies
    1. Sorry for the late reply. It's the camouflage that's been traditionally referred to as 75 and 83 over 76 indeed. So the short answer is yes. The long answer is complicated as recent research has upended previous theories about the late war colours. Most model paint manufacturers haven't caught up with the research so for modelling purposes 75/83 is fine... ☺

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