eBay: one "Schwarze(?) 10", Bf 109 E.

[Clint Mitchell]

To be honest I can't really see an emblem on the cowling. If there was we would be able to see it much more clearly. I mean there's no problems seeing all the other markings. I agree that there is some kind of anomaly occurring on the cowling though. Perhaps the emblem has been painted out and what we are seeing is the slight difference in colour between the fresh RLM04 used to overpaint the emblem and the older RLM04 on the surrounding cowling? I do not think the numeral is black. You can clearly see that the interior of the character shapes is slightly lighter than the edge. I think we are looking at either Rot 10 or Braun 10 with a black outline.

If I was going to take a wild punt at the shape of the anomaly on the cowling I'd say that whatever was there appears triangular and looks rather 3./JG2 'Horrido' shaped to me. The position, size and proportions seem to fit albeit now covered by RLM04. Purely speculation I might add and whether that can be married up with the other details I do not know but that could also just be artifacts created by the pixel grid in that area? Sadly only the original will help in that regard.