Looking for a 109 skinner....

[VonMessa]

I'll see if I can tackle this one.

[Megalodon]

BFf109G-2 Trop Yellow "6"



 

[Krusty]

Not all that helpful without color. There's a number of tri-color trops. Some use 2 shades of green over sand, or 1 green, 2 brown, etc. None I've ever seen appeared like the artwork profile in the original post.

[kilo2]

Not all that helpful without color. There's a number of tri-color trops. Some use 2 shades of green over sand, or 1 green, 2 brown, etc. None I've ever seen appeared like the artwork profile in the original post.

Well if you haven't seen it, it must not have existed.

[STXAce8]

This is a great site, not sure it is tottaly realistic. http://www.markstyling.com/bf109gs7.htm
Spraying krusty repelent now. 

[STXAce8]

Lt.Wilhelm Scheiba, Sicily, first part of October 1942.



Closest i could get.

[STXAce8]

bump

[Krusty]

Kilo, you really might like backing up your squadmate, and that's lovely, but you don't need snide comments like that. We've been fielding such faux-profile requests for some 10 years now in here without your help. The best solution is to try to get people to do a bit more research and checking rather than relying on a single artwork profile. There are a number of simply wrong/fake/false profiles and yes many are published in books. You just see it and say "Wow, that's cool!" but the real answer is deeper than most want to go.

I'd say 90% just post a profile and then disappear when the response is "it isn't real"

The rest dig a little deeper and learn more.

Aces, that profile looks a lot more like what you'd find, but I'm not soo sure about it's accuracy. It's loosely based on the camo you'd find, but the green splotch size ratio seems off. I'd say it's in the realm of plausible, but there are a couple different ways it could look with that color combination.

You will note it looks nothing like the original (doubtful) profile:



Plus, wish skins resquests you really don't have to bump it. Maybe once in a while, if it's fallen off of everybody's radar, but IMO and from comments I've read from other skinners, we have our little lists. Even if we put that plane on our list, no guarantee it'll get done soon. We take note and we save references. Many of us (myself included) like to do some searching on the background and history as well, and that can add more time.


All I can say is I have some references for a 109G2 and possibly a F4 with similar color patterns. I'm sure others do too. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind.

[STXAce8]

Ok krusty, but I do see how the JG77 one is not realistic because I haven't seen another 109 with bare metal showing.

[beau32]

I haven't seen another 109 with bare metal showing.

Bf-109 G-6 "Red 8" with what looks like a bare metal finish. But dont be fooled though as this aircraft has been heavly sanded down to either bare metal or the primer to help increase speed in the hope's of catching mosquitos. This plane was part of JG300 and flown by Kurt Gabler. A intresting aircraft none the less...

[Krusty]

Ace: It isn't meant to be metal in the profile. It's light blue, the underside color.

Beau, I believe that aircraft in question is shown to have been painted. It was simply stripped down of all the excess camo and painted a single color to save on weight. You can see it's not metal because the elevators are fabric covered and look like they are the same shade of "bare metal" -- when you know they are not. That means they and the fuselage are painted. Most likely in a pale blue or something gloss (to reduce drag?) hence why it looks shiny.

EDIT: Or maybe even painted in some kind of silver?

[Fencer51]

IIRC the JG300 was indeed stripped down to bare metal to aid in intercepting Mossies.

[Guppy35]

A reminder of why it's always important to check at half priced books.  I'm not really a LW guy but got the two volume JG300 history for nothing.  I've used it so many times for AH its paid for itself and then some



I'm thinking it's sanded down to the metal.  That the insignia on the wings is gone, seems a good hint

[Slash27]

Nice Dan. I kind of like it, even though it's a 109

[Krusty]

I'm not so sure on that point Guppy. I seem to recall a long time back, before the 109s were redone, this skin was brought up (rather, the research about it). Since I cannot search for that I recalled one of the references way back was none other than Falkeins. Either that or I happened to look it up on my own at the same time to see what I could find. I looked it up. Here is the link to that specific article:

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/04/kurt-gablers-jg300-bf-109g-6-natural.html

Judging by the number of models posted on hyperscale and elsewhere, Kurt Gabler's Bf109G-6/R3 - a picture of which serves as my header photo - is a bit of a hit with modellers. Usually described as having a 'unique bare metal' finish Gabler's "Red 8" of 8./JG300 is invariably depicted as an uncamouflaged metal machine, aside from a white tail and wingtips, red fuselage band, spinner spiral and decorated rudder.

First off jg300.de got it hopelessly wrong when it came to this machine, as the webmaster so often gets its wrong when dealing with photos obtained third or fourth hand. In case you're wondering what I'm talking about the jg300.de site captions these images as being of 'black 8' assigned to Rudi Winter - heaven only knows why ! Winter was KIA in action in August 1944 with just a handful of vics to his credit. (2 I think..).

Gabler had some 17 victories as per the rudder scoreboard on this machine and his logbook returned in only 23 combat sorties. A couple of pages from Gabler's logbook were reproduced in Volume II of the JG300 history (Lorant/Goyat) precisely to counter the nonsense that the webmaster of jg300.de was putting on his pages. I assume he hasn't updated those pages as he doesn't speak/read English. Incidentally Gabler was WIA during the Arnhem operation, late September 1944 as Staffelkapitän 11./JG300 and sidelined for the rest of the war. Rudi Winter was KIA in action much earlier than that and with only a couple of vics. Rudi Winter was a non-entity, Kurt Gabler Staffelkapitän..

As for the supposedly 'bare-metal' finish on Kurt Gabler's 'red 8', let us just say that extensive areas of the airframe have been sanded back either to the natural metal or the primer. However 'bare metal' is probably not the right phrase to describe this finish - this was a standard camouflaged machine with a 'stripped-down' (sanded) finish for an extra turn of speed - there are still large areas of paint over the airframe ! Exactly how much is difficult to say looking at the photos - certainly the wing roots and even the leading edges of the (starboard) wing appear to have paint on them. Gabler never actually stated that his machine had been stripped back to the metal, nor do the authors of the JG300 book - I believe that this was merely an assumption from the profile artist (Tullis) based on the photos - still a great 'subject' for a decal sheet and it certainly makes for a striking looking model! For what its worth, there is another interpretation altogether in the French edition of the JG 300 book illustrated by Claes Sundin which shows the aircraft in a primer-type finish, far from the shiny, glittering metal that most modellers love to portray this aircraft in. (See link below) Note the close-up of the tail and rudder in the photo above - if that is 'metalic' then it has a rather dull 'alloy' look to it - it doesn't appear to be 'shiny' metal. A handful of machines like this with a 'sanded-down' finish were deployed by JG 300 principally in an effort to try and catch RAF Mosquitoes, a type that the Jagdwaffe found almost impossible to shoot down. Gabler got one in June 1944, a downing he describes in the book...