V-P tries to Finnish some Gustavs (3*G-2)

[vppelt68]

These two boxes contain five of Hasegawa's decent-ish to build but shapewise seriously inaccurate, ridiculously undernourished Messerschmitt kits. The front fuselage lacks 2-3 mm in height, and I can't fix it. The world is full of inaccurate kits, though, and nobody has yet created the perfect one, so despite writing what I just did, I'm happy with these anyway

I plan to backdate three of these to G-2:s and build two as G-6. The dash twos will be Mersus MT-201, -221 and -241. Boring, right? Well, maybe not.

MT-201 was the lowest numbered Messerschmitt in our air force, delivered in May 1943. It was also the highest in scoring, with 35,5 victories by several pilots. One of the original aircraft supplied, it was a bread and butter basic G-2 with RLM 74/74/76 camouflage and 1943 type theater markings and insignia (to be clarified later!). It suffered a takeoff accident 15.7.1944, which ended its war duty but the plane was repaired and written off in 1952!

MT-221 was also one of the original aircraft, and the only G-2/trop delivered to Finland, probably by accident. It was damaged in landing accident in June 1943 and repaired by April 1944, when it had received the warpaint of black/green camouflage over RLM 65. It had wheel bulges in its wings. It's luck ran out 25.6.1944 when it went MIA with its pilot for about month, before being found crashed without any visible causes. 8 victories.

MT-241 was one of the last replacement G-2:s, delivered in the last day of February 1944. It had the bulged wings and apparently the 1944 type theater markings and insignia (again, I'll get back to this...).  Edit: Damaged in combat 2.7.1944, which ended its war; repaired and eventually written off in 1953! 11 victories.

 

I admit there aren't pics of these planes taken together, or in their late June 1944 appearance, so I'll decorate them "according to how they might have, or should have, looked like".

 

I have no idea, what their tactical call numbers were, so I won't apply any!

 

Between 19. and 25.6.1944 these three planes were assigned to 2. flight of Fightersquadron 24, Finnish Air Force (2./Hävittäjälentolaivue 24 or 2./HLeLv 24 for short). According to Lappeenranta airfield log book, there were several sorties where these three planes were flown in the same four plane swarm. They were, literally, brothers in arms. Tbc...

V-P

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great choices V-P

 

I see the insignia has been edited on the box are the decals OK in the box  ?

 

I need to finish some of mine before starting another build, which I seem to say before every new GB !

 

Best of luck with these.

 

Cheers Pat 

 

[vppelt68]

Oh, btw this is me and Me (us?). That´s G-6/R6 MT-452 w/o its wing cannons in Finnish Aviation Museum. They had a 70 years of MT:s in Finland special display in 2013. More about the -452 in References, soon.

 

 

I´m recycling some pics taken for the Nordic GB builds. So, here´s the Hasegawa Finnish Combo box art and sprue (bags):

 

 

 

As Pat @JOCKNEY was worried about the negative look of Finnish national insignia on the box cover, I´m glad to tell the actual decal sheet looks very positive!

 

 

As you can see, the correct but not politically correct insignia is printed on the edge of the sheet, easy to clip off and remove in certain markets. I built the -476 (and -443) last year. Now I haven´t decided yet which G-6:s to build but the -461 is a very likely candidate. It was a war surviving G-6/R6 with wing cannons intact, and credited with 18 victories.

 

(Another EDIT, as I don´t like to flood with new posts all the time). I found my G-6 to G-2 conversion plan from the Chat thread:

 

1. change to retractable early tail wheel (from AZ model spares)
2. carve the tail wheel well to fuselage halves
3. add a Revi C/12D gunsight (from AZ Model spares)
4. remove the wheel well bulges from upper wing panels - MT-201 only
5. "forget to add" the fuselage mg bulges
6. shorten/remove completely the starboard fuselage mg barrel *)
7. shorten the port fuselage mg barrel *)
8. change to smaller, early spoked main wheels (from AZ model spares)
9. fill in the shell ejection chutes behind the oil cooler exit
10. use the shorter, all metal rudder and fin option of the kit
11. use the early canopy with all-metal head armour option of the kit
12. use the taller radio antenna (from AZ model spares)
13. "forget to add" DR antenna loop and remove the housing bulge from the spine

 

*) instead of steps 6 and 7, I may modify the Hasegawa front fuselage top section to accept G-2 cowling top parts (from AZ model spares)

...

 

Another EDIT regarding the difference in 1943 and 1944 insignia and theater marking changes:

 

• As delivered, MT:s 201-239 had blue insignia on a white base. Base diameters were 72cm on fuselage and upper wing surface, 100cm on lowers
• On 12.1.1944 the white bases were ordered to be darkened with DN-colour (RLM 65) or any appropriate light blue/grey at hand - not all planes were ever modified, though
• Delivered after that date, MT:s 240-248 had the darkened insignia since entering Finnish service. Wing upper surface insignia size was raised to 100cm.
• All planes had yellow lower wing tips and a 50cm wide yellow rear fuselage band until the ceasefire with the Soviets in September 1944.
• The theater band in the nose was originally 75cm in width, but its width in new aircraft was decreased to 50cm in early 1944. Of the last G-2:s MT-240 appears to have had the wider band and the -242 the narrower. Unfortunately I haven´t seen a pic of the -241 that was between them! The Warpaint-Mersus all appeared to have the narrow nose band.
• 13.6.1944 the nose band was ordered to be only on the lower half of the cowling, along the upper edge of the exhaust opening. Thus all the second wave of G-6:s that were delivered after the Soviet offensive had the lower marking only, and again not all previous aircraft had this changed, at least not immediately.

V-P

 

 

[Col.]

You know this subject well V-P so I'm sure we're in for an informative thread  

[vppelt68]

Spent the first hour backdating Gustavs. The -201 lost its wheel bulges, -201 and -241 its sunshade attachment points and all three got their wing cannon and ETC rack locating dimples, and the compressor housing bulges removed. All three got the retracting tail wheel well carved open and the shell ejection chutes filled. That's a 3-3 tie, isn't it? I added leftover AZmodel rudder pedals to all three cockpits and tested fitting the AZmodel top cowling on one fuselage half. It looks like it's going to be a keeper (otherwise that fuselage would've ended scrapped). I need to finish all those locations by sanding, so far I've only used knives and a saw.

Good to be on the roll! V-P

 

[Col.]

Nice progress V-P

[vppelt68]

All progress is good they say... well that's usually ok with model building, but in the real world, eh 👴?

I have three sets of wings now painted from the insides and assembled, just waiting for the camouflage colours (yep, it's the IKEA way to go again) to be added before I attach them to fuselages. "I did it my way" etc.

 

Here the wings are still in pieces, painted with Revell 361 and 91, and Hu 62. Landing gear legs too.

Here the wings are already assembled - they appear to be the two with wheel bulges, so for Mersus -221 and -241. I've assembled and attached all the horizontal tailplanes and engine intakes too. The fuselages are just dry fitted on wings, and the pic is to show the difference between Hasegawa G-6 (left) and AZmodel G-2 (right) cowling top and gun throughs. What a difference, agreed!?

The main and tail wheels are in the paint shop. In the cockpit I've added the AZmodel rudder pedals, drilled locations for the fuel line and painted the IP and AZmodel gunsights. After adding the IP decals the Revi:s will be added ( the holes for them are already drilled). Oh, the separate prop blades are also attached to the baseplates, and the exhausts are painted too. Lots a little things without pics! Maybe I get the cockpits done by weekend, and get to assemble the fuselages.

V-P

A sunday evening edit, as I don't think this justifies a new post:

 

[vppelt68]

12 days of silence, but still building these slowly.

As you can see, I prefer to attach the pilot's head armor to the fuselage, not the canopy, as I don´t seem to know how to cement them together neatly I go around the obstacle this way. You may notice the difference between Hu 247 ~ RLM 76 and Hu ~ RLM 65 on the wings. On their upper sides, the -201 wing has its wheel bulges sanded away. Landing gear, tailwheels and exhausts are painted and ready to be attached when I see it fit. The fuselages need a bit sanding and the head armors touch ups, before I can continue by adding the canopies and then painting. V-P

[Col.]

Tidy progress V-P  

[John Masters]

Nice V-P.