Messerchmitt Bf 109 E-3

[Guest]

Hey all,

I just yesterday purchased Tamiya's kit of Adolf Galland's Bf 109 which he flew while serving in France at JG26. The kit is 1:48th scale and I am up to the part of painting the fuselage. I followed Tamiya's paint mixture chart of 1 part XF-23 (light blue) and two parts XF-2 (flat white). This is for the paint on the lower fuselage and under the wings etc. but I think it still looks too blue. I have looked on Google images for color photographs of restored 109's and they are mostly greyer than the color i mixed. Anyone have any ideas? I'll post pics soon.

Cheers,

Lachlan

[stona]

Hi Lachlan

I do like a Luftwaffe colour scheme! Ignoring the late war colour minefield as we're talking an E there are only two realistic underside colour options. Through out the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain the standard fighter scheme was RLM 70 and RLM 02 over RLM 65. During the Battle of France units started lowering the demarcation line of the upper colours with mottling or stippling on the fuselage sides. In 1941 (sorry exact date not to hand)the scheme became RLM74/75 over RLM76,the so called two tone grey scheme.

The earlier RLM 65 colour is quite blue whereas the later RLM 76 appears greyer. They both have a blue hue to them. You should be able to find colour chips for these colours on t'interweb but remember there are all sorts of problems viewing them on a screen/monitor. They won't look the same on any two machines!

I hope I haven't confounded you further!

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Steve,

Thanks for the help buddy, its been pretty confusing hahaha. Yeah tamiya calls the mix RLM 02 in the instructions but all early 109E pics I found look so much different to the color I have. Still not sure weather to whack another coat over it- I will post pics soon but cant tonight! And yeah the kit is dated at 1940 from France so it definitely should be RLM 02.

Thanks for the help with this though...its the first time I've airbrushed and mixed paints etc so hopefully it all comes good. I'm still quite excited about the kit!

Lachlan

[Guest]

Hi LachlanI do like a Luftwaffe colour scheme! Ignoring the late war colour minefield as we're talking an E there are only two realistic underside colour options. Through out the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain the standard fighter scheme was RLM 70 and RLM 02 over RLM 65. During the Battle of France units started lowering the demarcation line of the upper colours with mottling or stippling on the fuselage sides. In 1941 (sorry exact date not to hand)the scheme became RLM74/75 over RLM76,the so called two tone grey scheme.

The earlier RLM 65 colour is quite blue whereas the later RLM 76 appears greyer. They both have a blue hue to them. You should be able to find colour chips for these colours on t'interweb but remember there are all sorts of problems viewing them on a screen/monitor. They won't look the same on any two machines!

I hope I haven't confounded you further!

Cheers

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the help buddy, its been pretty confusing hahaha. Yeah tamiya calls the mix RLM 02 in the instructions but all early 109E pics I found look so much different to the color I have. Still not sure weather to whack another coat over it- I will post pics soon but cant tonight! And yeah the kit is dated at 1940 from France so it definitely should be RLM 02.

Thanks for the help with this though...its the first time I've airbrushed and mixed paints etc so hopefully it all comes good. I'm still quite excited about the kit!

Lachlan

[stona]

Lachlan, RLM 65, the underside colour for 1940 , is quite blue. I don't want to add confusion but some experts think there were two versions of this colour , an even earlier one being even bluer. I suspect there may have been inconsistencies in the colours produced and this may have been compounded in the application. This was certainly true on this side of the channel! Don't beat yourself up trying to exactly match a colour chip or sample.

Good luck with the painting.

Steve