**** DONE: GB36 - 1/48th Bf109G-6/R6 - Axis Manufactured aircraft of WWII

[Airframes]

Username: Airframes
First name: Terry
Category: Judge - non competing
Scale: 1/48th
Manufacturer: Academy
Model Type: Messerschmitt Bf109G-6/R6
Addons : Some scratch-built bits, decals from the spares files.


Bf109G-6/R6, Gruppe Stab, I/JG27, Fels am Wagram, 1944.

As soon as I finish the '109E, I'll make a start on this one, probably by Monday.
This will depict the aircraft flown by Major Ludwig Franzisket, Gruppenkommandeur of I/JG27, in early to mid 1944, when the unit was on Reichs defence duties while based at Fels am Wagram.
Details and pics to follow in the next post.

 

[Airframes]

A couple of well-known pics of this aircraft, show the colour scheme as RLM 74/75/76, with a mottle on the fuselage sides, and the green Reichs defence tail band. The rudder was still white, a left-over from service in the MTO, and the aircraft bore the Gruppenkommandeur 'winkel', which appears to be solid black (no white outline), with a 'solid' central section.
Some profiles, and models, portray the aircraft with a yellow lower cowling, although I haven't seen this mentioned in caption descriptions, and after studying the photos, the tones suggest that the lower cowling panel was the same colour as the rest of the undersides, RLM 76.
I would welcome opinions on this.
Also, the front section of the spinner appears to possibly be a slightly different tone, but this might just be the effect of lighting and prop blur. I'm guessing the spinner was black, possibly part matt, part semi-matt, as seen in photos of some other 'G' models. Again, opinions are welcome.
Pics of some other aircraft from this unit, show a light-coloured segment, probably white, on the spinners of some, but not all, aircraft, but this does not seem to be present on Franzisket's machine.

Something I would like opinions and / or advice on, is the gun breech blister on the starboard side - would this be the 'standard', early, plain blister, or would it have the extra bulge at the lower, forward edge, which I believe covered an auxiliary pump ?
The kit includes both styles and, from memory, I seem to recall that the second type of blister was associated with cabin pressurisation ?

The model will be built mainly 'OOB', but I will be adding a little extra detail to the cockpit, even though the canopy will be closed, and I'll also add brake lines and antenna wires etc.
Markings will be from the kit decals and the spare decals files, although I will probably have to reverse mask and paint the solid winkels, along with the green tail band.

Pics of the subject aircraft below, along with two differing profile samples.

 

[Wurger]

Here a couple of shots of different Bf 109G-6/R6 of the JG27 at that time... may come in handy...

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Wojtek.
I actually have all of those pics, but not in such quality.
Note in the last pic, the nearest aircraft has the extra bulge on the gun breech 'buhle', but the aircraft behind does not.
I have a feeling that this extra bulge is also related to the small intake on the port side, below the windscreen, but I can't seem to find the book that I'm sure the information is contained in - one of the problems of having so many books, spread around the house, and on the computer !!

 

[Wurger]

IMHO you are right Terry. I have to check my references. In mean time, there is a shot of the kite of a nice quality. I have enlarged the spinner area. IMHO the spinner was of black entirely.

 

[Wurger]

Terry, according to my references the small intakes below the windscreen didn't have anything in common with the extra small bulge at the starboard MG breech 'buhle'. The bulge with a small scoop there was added to fix the cooling problem of the Gustav series and appeared with the Trop version of the G-5 and later G-6. The small scoop was to provide the additional cooling for the generator and the small bulged cover there was to accomodate the larger oil pump.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks my friend.
Still not sure about that spinner - I thinks it's possibly just different 'textures' of black, or possibly schwarzgrun.
Thanks for the info about the intake and buhle - that corresponds to what I thought I remembered, if that makes sense ?!!
As this aircraft was in use after the Gruppe left the MTO, then there's a chance it did have the larger oil pump, and therefore the extra bulge - I'll decide which part to use when I get to that stage, and there's a chance some further info might be found by then too.

Meanwhile, here's a few sprue shots, and some of the detail. A bit 'soft' in parts, but good enough overall. I have a feeling there are probably some simplifications and inaccuracies in the kit, as many of the same parts are used across the range of Academy / Hobbycraft '109s, but, to me, it looks like a 'G' and, if it builds OK, and doesn't look to inaccurate, then it'll be good enough for the cabinet.
My apologies for the quality of the pics - they were taken in available light, with one of my little compact digital cameras (flash was too harsh with this camera), as I have a small problem with the USB cable for my Nikon DSLRs - I think the plug or wire to the plug is damaged, as it only works intermittently, but there's a new cable on the way.
I forgot to thank Evan (A4K), who sent me this kit some time ago - so thanks Evan !

 

[Airframes]

I forgot to mention - I saw another profile, which showed a werke nummer, this being displayed as 20618 as far as I could make out (the image was rather poor quality), with just the numerals, no 'W.Nr.' printed in front of the number, which I realise was fairly common.
I've had a bit of a search through my references, but haven't yet found anything to confirm this, or otherwise. If anyone has any further info, I'd be grateful.

 

[Wurger]

Regarding the spinner. Humm.. the schwarzgrun could be. So you can be really right. But whether it was the black or the blackgreen the paint was applied overall. The difference in the :texture: there has is caused by the spinner curvature , the glare and the prop. The rotating prop is "responsible" for the matt strip at the back of the spinner. The glare for the mid area and the curvature for the appearance of the front part. Please note that the "borderline" between the front and the mid area is exactly located at the place where is the panel line was. The same effect you may find in the fourth pic of the post #3 of the Bf 109G-6 with the black spinner. I should have a couple of such examples more but there is no need to post them because I'm sure you know them all.

 

[Wurger]

One shot more...

 

[Crimea_River]

My 2 cents:

G-6's didn't typically have the small additional bulge and scoop on the starboard side. These were associated with the pressurized G-5 and ater variants and accommodated the compressor and it's cooling needs. There is a link with the cockpit vents as these would obviously not have been used in a pressurized environment so the vents would have been removed or blocked. Brett Green in his book "Augsburg's Last Eagles" suggests that surplus engine cowls built for the limited number of G-5's may have found their way into G-6 production lines so that it would be possible to see G-6s with these bulges. It would seem that in all probability, your aircraft would not have had them, though it could not be ruled out.

Spinner: I'm with Wojtek in thinking it's all black rather than a 2-tone unit.

WNr 20618 is plausible as it would represent one of 800 aircraft in the WNF 20000 to 20800 production block. Some more googling may confirm the actual number.

I built two Italeri/Hobbycraft G-6's (Academy moulds):

**** DONE: 1/48 Bf109G-6 "Yellow 17" - Night War of WWII

**** DONE: 1/48 Bf 109G-4/R6 "Yellow 11" of 13.(Slow)/JG 52 Eastern Front GB

My main beef is with the tail planes as they appear to have insufficient rake when compared with the Hasegawa kit and scale plans. I fixed this on my Gerhard Stamp model as seen in the below before and after pics by using the Hasegawa tailplanes:

I also tend to like my 109's with the flaps deployed as this seems to be typical of most parked aircraft of this type. Of course, this requires some work when using this kit but its optional anyway.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy, useful info on both the aircraft and the kit parts. And now I remember which book I was looking for - I have 'Augsburg's Last Eagles' on the HD, but forgot about it, as it isn't filed under 'Messerschmitt' !!!
I'd spotted the tail-plane problem, but I'll probably just leave it as is, as I want to get a relatively quick build - but that said, I know what's going to happen when I get to that part ...................

 

[Crimea_River]

I know THAT feeling.

 

[turbo]

Looks good Terry. That spinner doesn't look full black, my guess would be Schwartzgrun too, which was reasonably common for G6s.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Kirby, I tend to agree, and I'll do it in Schwarzgrun I think, and also try, if possible, to replicate the apparent slight tonal difference between the spinner end cap and main spinner body.
Now the next question - is that fuselage cross black, or grey ??

 

[turbo]

Has to be grey, compare it to the black chevron next door. Again, not uncommon for G6s.

 

[Wurger]

Here two next scanned pics of the kite.... please make a focus on the spinner tones. The cross isn't black with no doubt.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks again, Kirby and Wojtek, I suspected it was probably grey, but I'll admit I hadn't looked closely before asking the question.
I have some old Microscale grey crosses in the files, if they'll still be usable after around 40 years !!
The 'Emil' is almost finished, so i'll probably make a start on the cockpit of this one tonight.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Denniss]

Please don't label it as G-6/R6 but G-6 with R6; a G-6/R6 did not exist. R6 was a modification for bad weather flying first known in the G-10.