Today I added a post to an aging thread regarding the use of a duck-egg blue on Bf 109s during the Battle of Britian:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,42070.msg538857.html#newMy post hints at a suggestion I'll make here. The "duck-egg blue" thread reminded me of an article by Paul Lucas, "Enigmatic Emils," in the September 2004 edition of Model Aircraft magazine. The article consists of a detailed discussion of discoveries Mr. Lucas had made while examining wrecks, and bits of wreckage, of Bf 109s held by private estates in the UK. Which is to say, relics which, unlike those in public museums, had never been repainted. Among his discoveries was the fact that camouflage schemes applied in the factory were often completely over-painted, in very different schemes, by front-line mechanics. Some Bf 109s, for example, had been re-painted in splinter schemes of RLM 61 Brown and RLM 66 Black-Gray, which may explain the sightings of so many "black" Messerschmitts. Other units, including von Werra's (Stab II./JG 3) used non-standard shades of blue and gray. And at least one unit, LG 2, used something resembling RLM 66 and another gray, similar to RLM 75, over a color which may have come from captured stocks of RAF "Sky," or had been created by stretching diminishing stocks of RLM 65 or 76 by mixing in yellow and white.
The article is accompanied by several excellent color diagrams. Unfortunately, back-issues of this edition of Model Aircraft are hard to find and, owing to copyright concerns, I can't post any of the diagrams here. If there is a skinner out there interested in re-creating any of these non-standard schemes, please give me a PM.
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Topic: "Enigmatic Emils" (Read 1010 times)
