Looking for info on Bf-109 Yellow 5 of I/JG53

[wwz7777]

Hello,
There is a color photo on Falcon's site that shows a Bf-109G-?, Yellow 5. It appears to have a black RVD band, so it could be I/JG53. Does anyone have any more info on this aircraft? I'd love to model it.

Thanks in advance!

Bill

[Falcon]

Hi Bill...

Here is the link to the photo:
http://www.me109.info/display.php?a=e&fid=730

And here a nice profile from Anders hands:
http://www.me109.info/display.php?a=e&fid=5995

Flc

[Cpt_Farrel]

I'm reworking that profile right now as I'm not happy with the colors. This scheme has always bothered me as both the colors seems to be brownish although the colorbalance in the photo is pretty good. I'm starting to think that the fuselage was painted RLM81/82 and that the photo has faded just enough to make the RLM82 appear a bit drab.

My first idea that it was one of the faded or badly mixed RLM81's for the lighter color don't hold up because then I wouldn't have a clue what the darker color would be.

Surely not 83 which according to paintchips is lighter than that.

The wings seems to be RLM74/75 and I bet the wing udersurfaces was 76 rather than the light greenblue of the fuselage. I'd love to hear more comments about this scheme though!

Cheers! / Anders

[D.B. Andrus]

Hi Anders

The photo appears, at least on my monitor, to have a bit of a magenta cast to it. The sky has a blue/purple shift, much like Fuji Tungsten Balance transparency film used to have. Adjust for this and there will be a bit more green in the shot. Might have 82/83 in there.

I'd do it myself, but I can't copy the image from Falcon's site.

Excellent work on your profile.

Best Regards,
D.B.

[Cpt_Farrel]

Thank you very much for the photoquality input. That's an area that is important in interpreting these old colorshots that I certainly could learn more about.

That could be enough to "make" the lighter color green like RLM82 (Or possibly 83 even) but I still think the darker color would be RLM81. The rudder looks almost purple and adjusting for Magenta might make it brown but not green. Besides, I'm not sure that I believe that the RLM82/83 combination was used at all.

Looking at the colorchips from Jürgen Kiroff the contrast between these colors simply seems to low. (According to David E Brown these chips matches original chips of the latewar colors found in czechia some years ago.)

It's been established beyond doubt that there was a green shade of RLM81 and I think it might be green RLM81 combined with 82 that is the actual source for many schemes that we today interpret as 82/83.

[Cpt_Farrel]

Updated profile using an RLM81/82 scheme for the fuselage. I played around with some additional magenta in the image and got very close to the actual look of the photo.

Mind you, for modelling purposes, most companies RLM82 is to light and sometimes a little cold as well so you might want to mix some own colors.

Cheers! / Anders

[Falcon]

Btw Anders, on my photo it looks like that the plane got the DF-loop antenna behind the canopy. But the loop is not visible, just the basement? It can be damaged or the black background hide the loop.

Best regards,
Flc

[Cpt_Farrel]

I better fix that, can't believe it's not there - something happened to my template there...

[veltro]

As far as it is visible from this enlargement...



...the bakelite base of the d/f loop is there, but the metal antenna is not, probably broken or removed. Also, on the far right, it is quite visible that the starboard "beule" was of the ubiquitous double bulge type (originally a cowl made for the G-5, but often mounted on several G-14s), as the small air intake and the shadow of the smaller bulge prove.

Hope this helps

[Cpt_Farrel]

Thanks Ferdinando! I've updated the profile accordingly - it's the same address so the old link just need a refresh.

Cheers! / Anderes