[MDriskill]

This one has been around a long time!

The vintage Monogram "Close-Up 16" (1979) devoted to the 109K depicts this machine as "Blue 7" of 12./JG 27. The camo is a pale shade of 81 and 83, with blue-green (to use JaPo's term for the much-discussed late-war "sky" or "84" color) on the fuselage undersurfaces, with standard 76 beneath the wings. The upper camouflage colors are solid on the cowl down to the line of the exhausts. The fin is solid 83, the rudder 81 with hard-edged 83 spots. The spinner is depicted in black with a white spiral.

As you noted, the JaPo book "Messerschmitt Bf 109K" (1997) has three photos of the aircraft on p. 54, where the captions refer to it as "Blue 7" of 12./JG 27. The color depictions in the profile on the book's back cover are pretty much identical to the old Monogram rendition. The exception is the upper surface color demarcation on the cowl, shown high with blue-green and dense 81/83 mottling on the cowl sides. The spinner is shown in solid 70 sans spiral, which appears to agree with the photos.

JaPo's "Messerschmitt Bf 109K Camouflage and Marking" (2000) does not depict this aircraft, but it does have a very similar machine. "Blue 16" of 12./JG 27 is profiled on p. 32, with a photo on p. 33. This aircraft has a similar upper surface color pattern to "7," but the colors are 75/83 with the exception of the 81 tail with hard 83 spots. The fuselage sides and undersurfaces are shown entirely in standard 76. The spinner is black with a white spiral.

The profile's caption notes the aircraft's camo is "...almost identical with that of the well-known "Red 7" at Praha-Kbely. Therefore we assume it was produced in the 331xxx batch...". The photo caption again mentions the resemblance to "Red 7." So one must conclude the JaPo authors changed their minds about both the basic camouflage colors of this serial batch (discussed at length in the text), and the markings color of aircraft "7" (no further elaboration on this point).

I find JaPo's research methodology extremely impressive. My two cents: if it were my model, I'd go with "Red 7" in 75/83/76; 83 fin; 81/83 rudder; high nose color demarcation; fairly heavy mottling/staining on the sides of the nose and fuselage; 70 spinner without spiral.

Finally a very minor point--JaPo's two books on the 109K are separate titles with very different emphases. They are not a closely linked "volume 1 and 2" in the same sense that their recent monumental Fw 190D books are.

Let us know how the model turns out!