Bf109E-4 of Herbert Kijewski

Bf109E-4 flown by the staffelkapitän of 5./JG3, Herbert Kijewski, as it looked on September 2, 1940. As was common on 5./JG3 aircraft, this one too had a nickname on the engine cowling. "Erika", the name of Kijewskis wife.

Bf109F-2 of Stab JG1

This Bf109F-2 has a very unusual paint scheme for a Bf109F serving in the west. Thanks to the knowledge of Franck Benoiton and Sinisa Sestanovic it is safe to assume that this aircraft was flown by the Geschwaderstab of JG1 at Jever in June 1941. Another photo of the Geschwader stab Bf109F's shows similar camouflage schemes but with yellow noses and the Geschwaderstab emblem applied.

54 Squadron Spitfire

One of the Spitfires featured in a series of photographs for Life Magazine propably taken at Hornchurch in the summer of 1941. The Sky tailbands have been applied in line with the tail unit panel line rather than horizontal. A single victory marking in the form of a swastika can be seen below the canopy. On the starboard side the inscripton "The Swan" could be seen below the windscreen.

Fw190A-2 of Max Buchholz

Fw190A-2 flown by Max Buchholz of 5./JG1 at Katwijk 1942 showing his personal sea gull emblem that could also be seen on his Bf109F and Fw190A-5. I've been busy with commision work for a while but hopefully will be able to update a little more frequently once my Fw190 template evolves.

Bf109E-4 of Walter Oesau - 1559 Part 2

 

In January 1941 Walter Oesau replaced Wilhelm Balthasar as Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG3 and also took over the Bf109E-4 W.Nr 1559. In the first photos of Oesau and his "Green 1" it's evident that at some point, a cap has been added to the spinner and the fuselage has had yet another repaint. This time a more neat spray of possibly RLM 70 is covering the entire sides and upper fuselage. The flaking yellow paint is still evident as is the pennant on the aerial mast.

 

In the last known photographs of 1559, the upper part of the engine cowling has been replaced by one without any yellow paint, just leaving the lower part in yellow and still showing the lower part of the old "White 1" marking carried since the spring or early summer of 1940. 

Bf109E-4 of Wilhelm Balthasar - 1559 part 1

White 1 of Wilhelm Balthasar, a Bf109E-4 with the W.Nr 1559, served the Luftwaffe for a long period and went through many changes. The profile above shows the aircraft at the end of the Battle of France while Balthasar served as Staffelkapitän of 1./JG1. Although the aircraft looks very clean, some details points to a recent repaint. 

The next profiles show the aicraft looking very similar but a bit more weathered. The white rudder and wing tips were only used in the first week of September 1940. At that time, Balthasar had just began his service as Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG3. Strangely, the markings from Balthasars time with 1./JG1 was still retained. (1./JG1 had since then been redesignated as 7./JG27)

 

At the end of September 1559 had gone through several changes including a new III./JG3 emblem, heavily mottled sides that appeared to have been brush painted on around the emblems and a yellow nose and rudder. It appears that the yellow paint adhered very poorly to the brush painted areas where the diagonal part of the yellow cowling can be seen to be flaking very badly. 

 

Later in 1940 a green "1" and horizontal bar was added to the markings. It is unclear when this was done but seems likely to have been done before Balthasar handed over the command of III./JG3 and 1559 to Walter Oesau. 

Spitfire Mk I of 66 Squadron

The subject of my first Spitfire Mk I is the aircraft flown by 66 Squadron CO Rupert Leigh. The red spinner, the Squadron Leaders badge below the wind screen and the light serial number all adds interest to this machine. The main reason for me to take an interest in this aircraft was the story about the Canadian pilot P/O Hugh William Reilley who tragically was killed at the controls of R6800 on October 17, 1940. The interesting story about Hugh William Reilley can be read by clicking here

As this is my first Spitfire Mk I I'm sure there'll be an error or two on the template. If a reader spots something, don't hesitate to let me know. I'll be very grateful for any feedback. 

Bf109E-4 Stab III./JG53

The first known photograph of this aircraft was taken some time in the summer of 1940. Visible on the photo is the small Ace of Spades emblem as well as a Gruppenkommandeurs markings and two victory bars on the tail. That victory tally does not match any of the III gruppe commanders in 1940. The best match would be that of acting Gruppenkommandeur Rolf-Peter Pingel who although having several earlier victories to his credit, scored two victories during his time with III./JG53 in June 1940. 

 

The second known photo shows the same aircraft with some additional mottle and or dirt as well as the red ring around the engine cowling. This photo is often claimed to show the aircraf of Harro Harder which is very possible given the red ring marking that was applied in August. As Harder obviously didn't fly this aircraft the day he was shot down, it's possible, but far from certain, that it was also flown by his replacement, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke. 

A third photo shows this aircraft again in November, now having had the small triangle painted out to create the markings of a Gruppe Adjutant, who at the time was Erich Schmidt. More interesting is the yellow I.D. colors, the reapplied and enlarged Ace of Spades emblem and not least, the painted out swastika, a feature of III./JG53 aircraft at the time. 

All in all, as if the paintshcemes and markings aren't interesting enough, it seems as if this aircraft was flown by at least three, if not four, of the Luftwaffe aces of the Battle of Britain!

Spitfire XII of 41 Squadron

A rare Spitfire XII that was delivered to 41 squadron on September 29th, 1943. It served with 41 Squadron until June 9:th, 1944 when it was hit by Flak over Carentan. The pilot, F.O. J G H Refshange, was wounded and bellylanded MB794 which was never recovered. 

Normally, Spitfire XII's in the MBxxx serial range was equipped with a retractable tail wheel but for some reason, MB794 had the regular fixed version as seen on Spitfire XII's in the ENxxx serial range.

Bf109G-6 at Wunsdorf

A very colorful Bf109G-6 found at Wunsdorf by Canadian troops at the end of WWII. The camoflage scheme seems to consist of a base of late war colors taken down the sides of the fuselage, on top of which a light color has been mottled. In the profile I've opted for RLM 02 for the mottles. This color seems to give the most correct contrast with the darker colors. What's interesting is that there seems to be a dapple of darker spots at the lower part of the fuselage that are darker than both main colors of the camouflage. 

More than one aircraft has been found in this scheme so it's certainly not a one off. The question is whether it might have been an enhanced version of the austerity scheme seen on Erla built Bf109G-10's or something else completely. The WNr's of these aircraft shows that they were all old aircraft that had had a major overhaul at a repar facility which might be the origin of all the aicraft in this intriguing scheme. Similar spots were found on the noses of some Fw190D-9's and on the sides of a few Me262's though so there might have been a more elaborate plan with the use of this scheme. 

No "Christmassy" profile from me this year either, but a Merry Christmas to all nevertheless!

Bf109E-1/B of Andreas Walburger

Flown by Andreas Walburger of 5./JG27 this aircraft was forced down after being attacked by Spitfires during an escort mission to London on September 15th 1940. The aircraft had an ETC 500 bomb rack but no bombs were carried as the mission was an escort mission. The spinner was reported to be half white and half red and traces of the original Stammkennzeichen was found on the fuselage.

Bf109E-1 of Mathias Massmann

This 109 was attacked by Spitfires over Sussex 75 years ago to the day and made a successful belly landing on British soil. After the wide spread use of white I.D. markings on fighters during the first week of September, yellow noses was suddenly the norm for most if not all fighter units engaged in the Battle of Britain. What differed widely though was the demarcation of the yellow color, one of the more creative versions is seen in this profile and was common with III./JG3.

Bf109E-4 of Carl-Hans Röders

From September 2nd to September 6th of 1940 many 109's that crashed in England were reported to have had the wing tips and rudders painted white. Additionally some aircraft had white tail tips while others had a white spinner as well. Then, on September 7th, the white was gone and yellow noses was suddenly the norm through out all the fighter units. So far the white markings of the first week of September has not been tied to particular operation, Luftflotte or other development during the Battle so the exact reasons for the short switch to white is not known. A few isolated cases of white engine cowlings were reported during the same week but they are few and were likely not intended to become the norm. 

9./JG2 used RLM 26 brown numerals or some similar deep orange color although a bright yellow was used in the emblem. In the colorphoto of Röders' aircraft the white wing tips are clearly visible so although the date of the photo is not known, it would have been taken during the first week of September 1940.

Bf109E-4 of Wilhelm Fronhöfer

This is the Bf109E-4 flown by Wilhelm Fronhöfer of 9./JG26 in which he made a wheels up landing in England on August 31st, 1940. Interestingly it lacks any yellow I.D. markings although III./JG26 was among the units that had used yellow wingtips and tailtips since early or mid August. III./JG26 aircraft had even been recorded with a full yellow nose only days before. Yet on August 31 aircraft from both III/JG26 and I./JG3 that came down in England lacked any yellow I.D. markings. Perhaps in preparation for what came a couple of days later when many fighter units on the channel front suddenly switched to white I.D. markings instead of yellow. 

More on that in my next post!

Bf109E-1 of Ernst Arnold

75 years ago today, on August 30th, 1940, Ernst Arnolds aircraft was damaged when he was attacked by Spitfires. He managed to put it down in Kent in more or less one piece. His aircraft was the first that was recorded by intelligence as having a yellow nose were there's also photographs to back up the claim.  

The first records of a yellow nosed Bf109 coming down in England came a few days earlier, on August 28th when a Bf109E of III./JG26 was recorded as having a yellow nose from the spinner to the windscreen. On August 29th, Bernhard Lampskemper of 2./JG3 crashed his aircraft, Black 8, that was also recorded as having a yellow nose but also yellow wing tips. None of these aircraft have been photographed though, so one can only speculate on how far the yellow was taken back. There was a photo in the Jagdwaffe series claiming to show Lampskempers aircraft but that seems wrong. Looking at that photo and checking the details in the few mottles visible it's possible to find this aircraft among others in photos taken during the autumn or winter of 1940.

Adding further to the mystery and confusion of the introduction of yellow noses, on August 31st, aircraft from both I./JG3 and III./JG26 crashed in England and were photographed as well but neither reports nor photos shows any traces of yellow noses or the earlier yellow wing tip markings. On the same day though, I./JG77 having arrived at the channel only days before, lost several aircraft over England that was reported as having both yellow noses and yellow wing tips.

Bf109E-4 Walter Blume

My first Bf109E profile shows the aircraft of Walter Blume as it looked in August 1940. The rudder shows four victory markings. Blume had claimed his fourth victory on July 25:th but the yellow wing tips and wedge on the rudder were starting to see use in the first half of August 1940. On this day, August 15:th, 75 years ago, Blume claimed his fifth victory, a Spitfire, east of Dover. This pinpoints the date of the photo to the first two weeks of August 1940.

Apart from the early form of yellow I.D. markings, what makes Blumes aircraft interesting is that color photos shows his aircraft to be painted in non standard camouflage colors. The lighter color on the spine is clearly much greyer than the RLM 02 engine bearers shown in the photos. The darker colour could be a dark grey or a faded RLM 70. There are many indicators that III./JG26 experimented with grey colors during the summer of 1940. One being the crash report on Werner Bartels Bf109E-1 and another being a color photo of a 9./JG26 aircraft clearly showing a grey camouflage as well. Finally there's Gallands claim that the tests done by JG26 in the summer of 1940 led to the use of RLM 74/75 for fighters. 

Hopefully I'll be able to add more "On this day, 75 years ago" posts during the autumn.   

Franz Wienhausen White 21 part 1

Numerous publications are showing photographs of a Bf109 marked White 21 and belonging to Franz Wienhusen, the Gruppenkommandeur of IV./JG 4. In captions the aircraft has always been identified as being the Bf109G-10 with the W.Nr 130 282 that Wienhusen flew on the day of his death. One look at the camouflage pattern is enough to see that the aircraft pictured is an Erla built aircraft carrying the typical spotted mottle used by that factory. An additional photo in Mombeeks "Storming the bombers" shows that the White 21 seen in photos is most likely a regular Erla built Bf109G-14. As a second part of this article I'll be posting a 130 xxx range Bf109G-10 to show the differences.

JG51 Bf109G-10 at Fels am Wagram

Recently found photos from Fels Am Wagram in May 1945 shows a number of Bf109G-10's carrying fuselage bands with a white centre flanked by bands in a medium colour. These aircraft also carried the horizontal band of a II Gruppe unit applied on top of the fuselage bands. These markings are close in style to those of Jagdgruppe 300, but aircraft of that unit seems to have carried a small black horizontal band regardless of staffel colour. 

As II./JG51 was disbanded at Fels am Wagram in april, these aircraft may well be the first known examples of the use of the green - white - green fuselage band assigned to JG 51.

An Erla built Bf109G-10 with the shorter tail wheel is also rare. The short wheel seems to have been used on some aircraft late in the production though. A notable example being the only known photographed Erla built Bf109K-4.

Bf109F-2 of Kurt Sochatzy, III./JG3

A Bf109F-2 flown by Kurt Sochatzy, the Staffelkapitän of 7./JG3 in the spring of 1941. The time frame makes it hard to be certain whether the aircraft was finished in the old 02/71 scheme or the newer 74/75 but the contrast between the colors as well as the traces of repainting makes me think 74/75.

AK Interactive AK2001 Luftwaffe Camouflages (Air Series)

A small diversion from my usual posts this one is actually a review of the new Luftwaffe Camouflage colors from AK Interactive. 

As many readers seems to be modelers and this blog deals a lot with the topic of Luftwaffe camouflage it seems logical to take a look at this from a modelers point of view. 

The set "AK2001 Luftwaffe Camouflages 1" contains 8 bottles of acrylic paint that according to the label has been done to take the scale effect into account. The colors included are 02, 65, 66, 70, 71, 74, 75 and 76. 

Accuracy

As the colors are done with scale effect taken into account I won't compare the colors to colorcharts from the likes of Ullmann, Kiroff or Merrick but rather concentrating on how they look together I sprayed each color except RLM 66 onto a square inch of matt photo paper so that I could photograph them side by side. My first impression was that the RLM 65 was looking nice and bright which would make for good contrast with the upper colors. I also noticed that RLM 71 was a bit too bright making it look a little pale in both a 71/02 scheme as well as a 70/71 scheme. RLM 75 is a bit dark and losing all contrast against the RLM 74. 

To solve the problem with RLM 71 I simply mixed it with RLM 70 at a ratio of 50/50 and achieved something that looked a lot better to my eye. The dark RLM 75 could be equally easy solved by adding a bit of RLM 76 to it. The colors can be seen below including my own 50/50 mix of RLM 70 and RLM 71.

Note:There's countless ways for these photos to not display properly on your monitor so they're to be considered a rough guide at the most

Spraying

As I had an Eduard 1/48 Bf109E ready for paint I decided to try these colors on to get a better idea of how they work. I sprayed the RLM 65 thinned with Ultimate Thinner and it worked nicely and covered well despite the bright nature of the paint. During further trials I couldn't get quite a good consistency for detail work when I thinned the paint with Ultimate Thinner. I then tried ammonia based window cleaner which seemed to work great at first but led to trouble with color separation. 

Finally, a quick round of Google showed that Tamiya acrylic thinner should work well with AK Interactive colors. I tried it and it worked great! I thinned the colors heavily and sprayed everything but the main wing splinter pattern freehand. For RLM 71 I used my 50/50 mix and it looked great.

There can still be a few issues with clogging if the needle isn't perfectly clean but overall I think it worked great. The result can be seen below. There's no weathering except for pre-shading. I think it's worth noticing how even the satin sheen of the colors is, even though it's sprayed with various thickness for the pre-shade to work. The RLM 04 is Xtracrylix by the way. 

Conclusion

These colors are really nice and the problems noted can be fixed by using other colors in the set so there's no need to buy other colors to use for mixing. I only hope that AK Interactive will consider selling these colors as individual bottles  as well as in set because I'm quite sure I'll run out of RLM 65 long before the other colors in the set. 

Thanks to AK Interactive for the review sample.