Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/R6
| Kit: | FineMolds, 1/72; model finished on 2024-11-24. |
|---|---|
| Aircraft: | W.Nr. 165278, "450", 2/HLeLv 24, Finnish Air Force, Lappeenranta AB (Finland), June 1944. |
The model depicts the aircraft that subsequently became "MT-450" in the Finnish Air Force, but here still in her Luftwaffe transfer markings, having just been flown from Wiener Neustadt in Austria to Lappeenranta in Finland, and awaiting Finnish markings to be painted on. Once in service, this aircraft was flown by Sergeant Tapio Järvi, an ace of 25½ victories. The aircraft arrived in Finland on June 22nd, and was destroyed on the ground when Lappenranta was attacked on July 2nd. In the meantime, Sergeant Järvi managed to shoot down seven Šturmoviks! In total, HLeLv 24 used this aircraft to score 10 kills.
The Finnish Air Force had several underwing 20 mm cannon -equipped aircraft (the R6 variant), but from most of those the guns were soon removed as Finnish pilots felt that the marginal advantage the additional firepower provided was offset by reduced maneuverability.
Construction Notes
Starting point was the FineMolds kit which I have built many times before. In the cockpit I again added Eduard photo-etch seatbelts and a fuel line from Evergreen stock. The kit I had did not come with the Erla canopy, so I scavenged one from the spares box; it is not from a FineMolds kit but works fine. I cut the kit canopy behind the windshield so now the front part is from the kit, the rear part from somewhere else. I took the R6 cannon pods from a FineMolds G-2 kit I am also building, and fashioned the cannon barrels from Albion Alloys' aluminum tube (with a steel rod inserted inside for strength).
While I really like the FineMolds kit, I have now built this so many times that I am starting to see the little irritating "features" it has:
- One has to be careful with how the wing fits in the ventral fuselage behind the trailing edge. Putty is often needed.
- Care must be taken to fit the fuselage halves together, the locator pins aren't completely precise.
- Wheel wells are easily left with a gap between the walls and the "ceiling" unless you reall squeeze the wings halves together really hard. If you need to fix the gaps later, a little bit of Mr. Surfacer brushed in will help.
- Make sure the canopy is precisely aligned. The kit offers no help here.
This time I decided to leave the cowling open, and added detail to the engine mostly using Evergreen styrene rods and stretched sprue. I drilled open the supercharger intake, sanded the cowling much thinner, and added some structure on the inside. The strut holding the cowling up is a thin steel rod.
Looks like a repeat of the Grand Messerschmitt project of 2022
From the left, an F-4, a G-2, and a G-6/R6.
Initial fuselage mottle pattern.
Camouflage more or less complete.
Markings painted, next up: decals.
Most of the decals applied.
Painting and Markings
I did not find any pictures of this aircraft in Finnish markings, probably because of its short (11-day) service career, but there is one good picture [3, p.96] of it in the old Luftwaffe markings, taken upon arrival to Finland.
The model was painted much like my many previous Bf 109s; paint selection is described in this blog post. Different this time was that I have now switched to using the absolutely fantastic Alclad Klear Kote Semi Matte for the final finish (sorry Testors, you had a good 30-year run with my models, but times are changing).
For markings, I mostly used my own decals. Balkenkreutze were first painted with white, and then (for fuselage and wing underside) a black decal was applied. Small stenciling came from the kit's decal sheet, and the tail swastika was from an old SuperScale sheet. The number "450", probably written in chalk on the original aircraft to indicate that this was supposed to become "MT-450" once it received Finnish markings, is a decal painted in white using the Ghost White Toner.
References Used
What I said about Bf 109 reference material during my first Grand Messerschmitt Project still applies, and is not repeated here. Since then I have aquired one more books, including [1]; the list below has the sources I specifically needed for this model.
- Mersu - Messerschmitt Bf 109 G Suomen ilmavoimissa (Stenman); Koala-kustannus 2019
- Messerschmitt Bf 109G/K Augsburg Eagle; Model Art Special 290; Model Art Co.Ltd.
- Suomen ilmavoimien hävittäjät - Historia, maalaukset ja merkinnät 1939-1945 (Stenman & Hołda); Koala-kustannus 2015
