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"Britain’s position is hopeless. The war is won by us. A reversal in the prospects of success is impossible." -- Generaloberst Franz Halder, diary entry for 22 July 1940 Oh, it has its triumphs, but look at its countless defeats, missed blows, and repeat attempts! -- Wislawa Szymborska, "On Death, Without Exaggeration" "My experience over Dunkirk had taught me that when attacked the best counter was to go into a right turn. In this manoeuvre, the Spitfire was infinitely superior to the Messerschmitt, and so long as one remained in the turn, the enemy pilot could not bring his guns to bear. And this I did, as the German pilot flashed past, turning as he did so to get behind me. But it was I who finished astern of him. The rest was easy." -- Flight Lieutenant Al Deere, 54 Squadron As you may know, I have something of an interest in the Battle of Britain, and so I thought for my next build I would try something simple and easy and make it only slightly more complex. It's widely-acknowledged that the ICM 1/72 109E is eerily -- some uncharitable souls might say suspiciously -- similar to the 1/72 Tamiya 109E, but for fuselage halves of the correct length. How similar is it reputed to be? The kit parts have been said to be interchangeable. I decided to test this theory. The fuselage halves sure seem to fit the wings well! I painted the interior Colourcoats RLM02 with RLM66 detail bits (and like an idiot, managed to spill almost all of my brand-new pot of RLM66, which is almost impossible to do with Colourcoats tins unless you're an idiot, and guilty as charged😞 Some speculative test-fitting suggests the Tamiya cockpit interior will fit without difficulty in the ICM fuselage. I'm using Xtradecals from their Battle of Britain 70th sheet (because both Tamiya and ICM decals are crap) to build Bf109E-3 "Yellow 15" of 3./JG52, flown by Unteroffizier Karl Wolff, which crash-landed in Calais on 30 August 1940. Wolff survived, only to be shot down and captured on 30 September 1940, a day of particularly heavy Bf109 losses for the Luftwaffe. The aircraft in question was photographed quite a bit, and as we can see, it received heavy field-applied mottling along the sides of the fuselage, in addition to having a white snout.