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Bf-109G6 winter camo help


Nick Milham

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I am modeling a Bf-109G6 of IV/JG51 in all-white winter camo and am stuck on 2 points:(1) I cannot find any photos that show upper wing crosses or lack thereof. I can find F-types but no G6's. (2) One photo appears to show the forward surfaces of the prop blades in white. Cannot figure out whether this is accurate or merely a sun reflection. Why would anyone paint the blades white as they are all but invisible when turning.  TIA for any help!

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I don't know that much about German winter camouflage, but I do know that the Soviets sometimes painted their propeller blades white. The white was not just to camouflage the aeroplane in the air, but also on the ground, and having black propeller blades could somewhat defeat the purpose of the white camouflage (although the Soviets often covered the entire engine, including the propellers, on the ground with white tarpaulins).

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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You're asking for details about temporary paint jobs applied roughly in the field, I think you can piece together the information from any pictures you find of similar aircraft and secondary sources like other people's models and use the "prove me wrong" approach. You probably won't be far off. Probably the most believable way I've seen the upper wing crosses done is with white painted roughly up to their edges, leaving a thin rough-edged area of the original camo underneath around the cross, and no additional white inside the cross.

 

Like this:

 

http://www.hyperscale.com/galleries/2002/bf109g14_1.htm

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FWIW here is a G-6 in winter camouflage, you can see the upper wing colors and the leading edge wave through the white overspray, also the prop blades seem to be very well oversprayed. it would seem from what is seen here that the wing crosses would be very subdued if seen at all. HTH, Pat D

 

 

lIQojqUV.jpg

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Thank you, gents, it does help. Vlad, I agree this is the most logical supposition. In photos of JG54 F-series planes, they look to carry repainted black crosses on their wings. But that was when black wing crosses were RLM standard. As you know, G's typically had white outlines only, perhaps filled with dark gray. So not overspraying them makes sense. 

 

Pat D, your photo is extraordinary. It looks like it was taken just as the ground crew is applying the camo! And there are no wing markings to be seen. And behold! White prop blades!

 

It's a close call but I think I might go with no crosses.

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Hallo!

 

Not my model but consider also this. Soviets did not use national markings on wing upper sides.

 

German aircraft with crosses overpainted on wing top would have been flying with enemy "markings". Not saying it did not happen, but would not have been very logical.

 

Cheers,

Kari

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Kari,

Your point about Russians flying with no wing markings is persuasive. After a night to sleep on it, I'm reversing course! Flying German planes with no wing markings would have been risky indeed. And I also had it is possible Pat D's photo was taken as the white applied but before markings were added. That argues for freshly painted markings as opposed to following the frequent practice as Vlad described of simply not covering existing marks. Finally, I did find a pic of a G6 from this unit with black wingcrosses in about this time period -- so black it is.

 

Thanks again to all for helping out.

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