Midsummer 'Mersu'

[reini]

Bf 109G-6, air race at Utti air force base in Finland, July 1950.

Special air race painting in this post war Bf 109. Messerchmitt Bf 109 was known as 'Mersu' in Finland (short from Messerchmitt) and four of such special schemes were painted for the midsummer air race held at Utti air force base in 1950. The planes circled around the base so the decorations were painted only on the left side. Planes were lettered from A to D and in different colours. This is the 'B' - MT-508 yellow 5, flown by Arvo Arima.

 

Kit: Eduard 1/48 Mersu: Bf 109G in Finland (11114)

Paints: Vallejo

Weathering: Ammo & Abteilung

 

 

 

 

[Andy H]

That's a bit special. Great work!

[Clashcityrocker]

Very nicely done.

 

Nigel

[AaCee26]

I'm waiting when someone builds a more radical model of the MT-508 - without the race livery 😅

 

Cheers,

 

AaCee

[Armorrich]

Wow...thats really interesting!!! Great looking ME...

 

Cheers...Rich 

[kelly9mm]

Excellent work, I like the painting scheme 😉 

[Robertone139]

Wow! Are those decals or did you hand paint the checkers?

[reini]

7 minutes ago, Robertone139 said:

Wow! Are those decals or did you hand paint the checkers?

 

They are decals 🙂

[John Masters]

Lovely.  Highest quality as always!

[Zigomar]

Striking deco is n't it? Well done Reini.

[SebTartar]

Excellent job here, too!

That is one striking and colourful scheme for sure.

 

Out of curiosity, what was the purpose of these races?

Were these in-service aircrafts and were the races some sort of challenge of piloting skills? Was it an alternative to horse racing?

[reini]

55 minutes ago, SebTartar said:

Excellent job here, too!

That is one striking and colourful scheme for sure.

 

Out of curiosity, what was the purpose of these races?

Were these in-service aircrafts and were the races some sort of challenge of piloting skills? Was it an alternative to horse racing?

 

I think it was just entertainment for the midsummer celebrations. It has been a long (but now dead) tradition of organizing air show event & festival during the midsummer - maybe mostly for pilots but for general audience too.  

 

Aircrafts in these races were in-service aircraft, VERY war worn 109's that were way beyond their 'best before' date in the early 1950's. This event was held 23.6.1950 but I think there were couple other similar events before or after that. The paintjob was for this event only. It was just race around the airfield in a circle track - not sure about exact details. But they did do some aerobatics in these planes too.

[georgeusa]

Excellent 109 and in quite interesting colors.  Just very well done.  Thanks for sharing.