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This is my depiction of a Me-109 G-6
as used by the Swiss Air Force in 1944. Although the term Bf is today widely
used in the literature, the term was not used by the Swiss Air Force, who used
the “Me” term, and more usually referred to their particular109’s by
sub-type name e.g., David, Emil and Gustav.
16
Messerchmidt Bf-109 G-6’s were delivered to Switzerland in 1944, as part of a
deal involving the destruction of a highly sensitive Bf 110 night fighter which
had erroneously landed in Dübendorf, near Zürich, in exchange for which the
Swiss were permitted to buy 16 brand new 109’s in order to update their aging
fleet of Davids and Emils.
As the G-6’s were delivered in
standard Luftwaffe camouflage and markings, these were immediately
repainted with Swiss markings, which necessitated that large parts of the
camouflage pattern had to be be “retouched”. As the Swiss did not use
any standard RLM colours, paints were mixed as deemed appropriate.
As this is the first 109 that I have built in over 20 years, I followed
suit, mixing Gunze RAF colours as deemed correct. For the markings I used
a recently released set of short run ALPS decals, released by Topkit,
which are available from www.modelsshop.ch. These are correct for the
early camouflage scheme and not for the later schemes employing the
red/white neutrality markings. A point to note here is that only 6 of the
delivered aircraft were the usual G-6 standard, the remainder had the new
tall tail and Erla hood. All were modified to the standard soon after
delivery, which means you cannot build a candy striped 109 with a short
tail and square canopy.
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Enough
has been said about the Hasegawa kit: it is a joy to build and this project was
essentially finished in a weekend. Indeed, I have placed my order for 2 of the
new G-14’s – have some more nice striped schemes to try out.
Sinuhe
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