Colours used on JG54 109F aircraft at start of Barbarossa

[Kjetil Aakra]

Franek, I think your characterisation of this disucssion is a bit rash and exaggerated. Luftwaffe colours have always attracted a lot of people and will continue to do so and while our conclusions can rarely be considered absolutes I do think that there is enough data to consider it a science of sorts.

Regarding this specific qustion we may never know the exact colours and hues used unless someone turns up a really good colour photo. Having said that, we can still infer a lot based on black and white photos, documents and 30 years and more of research into the topic (which has really made immense progress the last 5 years). For instance, we know that by the time of Barbarossa and the manufacture of most these F-2s (January - August 1942), the "grey scheme" (RLM 74/75/76) was being standarised so it is reasonably safe to assume that they carried this as the base colour. What the additional "streaks and blobs" were is of course open to speculation, but it can be narrowed down to a fairly limited range of colours (in my view) and we can arrive at a very likely combination by using common sense and the aforementioned research. Personally I think the streaks were a dark green while the blobs were RLM 02. On a model the exact hues don't really matter that much as there were always variation caused by so many factors that no one can actually say categorically you're wrong.

So to sum up: speculation and guessimates...certainly, but not to the level where it is rediculous as long as you pay attention to research, official documents and know a little about field conditions, the prevailing supply situation and stuff like that. So please, continue this discussion!

Lastly, Franek, your statement

"remember that army is generally dull, goes according to orders and dislikes individualism"

is certainly true, but does not at all apply to Luftwaffe as far as colours, camouflage schemes and application of these are concerned!

Regards,

Kjetil