Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4

The model depicts an aircraft flown by Fw. Hans Döbrich (Fw. or Feldwebel is roughly comparable to Master Sergeant). Döbrich later rose to the rank of Oberleutnant (2nd Leutenant) and ended the war with 65 kills. He was awarded the Knight's Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) in September 1943. All of Döbrich's kills, except for one IL-2, were fighter aircraft [4].

JG 5 (Jagdgeschwader or Fighter Squadron), nicknamed "Eismeer" (German name for the Arctic Ocean), was in 1942 mainly stationed at Finnish air bases of Petsamo and Alakurtti, in north-eastern Lapland; both of these are now in the territory annexed by Soviet Union at the end of the war. Both bases were strategically located close to Murmansk, the Russian port where all the convoys from North America were arriving.

I have built two Petsamo-based Bf 109s of JG 5 before, the aircraft of Hermann Segatz and Günther Scholtz (both E-7 variants). I suppose I will still have to build at least Horst Carganico's aircraft (not sure which variant yet) to complete my "Eismeer" collection.

This model brings my "Grand Messerschmitt project #2" to its conclusion. The total number of 109s in my collection is now 16 (that includes an Me 209 and a Buchón).

Construction Notes

General construction notes of FineMolds' Bf 109s are covered here. Enhancements include Master Model's brass gun barrels and pitot tube, Eduard's photo-etch seatbelts, and Barracuda Studios' 3D-printed aileron mass balances (this time I only needed three four of them - OK, so my only complaint is that because they are made of resin, they are rather brittle and break off easily).

I painted the model with Mr. Color lacquers: RLM 65 (#115) for underside, RLM 75 (#37), RLM 79 (#119) and RLM 70 (#18) for the topside camouflage. The original aircraft had lots of patch paint, mostly done in RLM 75 and RLM 02 (Mr. Color #60). The yellow "Eastern Front" markings were painted with Tamiya flat yellow (XF-2). The light blue area on the lower cowling (they avoided painting over the warning text) and the new access hatch for the master compass were painted by cutting paper masks and holding them tight over the surface. I did this to avoid masking tape lifting the decals that were already in place (the compass hatch covers part of the tactical number so that had to happen after decal application). Larger areas of patched paint were freehanded with an airbrush.

Decals for the model came from the kit (crosses and stencils), SuperScale (swastikas), and Kagero (individual markings). Kagero's decals were included with their book on JG 5 color schemes [3].

References Used

General Bf 109 reference material I have covered before. Döbrich's aircraft is well documented. Below is a list of reference sources I used specifically for this aircraft: [1] is an easily available good introduction to Luftwaffe's operations in the far north, [2, 4] are excellent resources with lots of details about JG 5 and other units operating in northern Norway and Finnish Lapland, and [3] has some carefully researched color profiles of some of the Bf 109s operating in that theater (plus an excellent decal sheet in 1/72nd, 1/48th, and 1/32nd scale).

1. Arctic Bf 109 and Bf 110 Aces (Weal); Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 124; Osprey 2016
2. Luftwaffe Fighters and Fighter-Bombers over the Far North - Units, Camouflage, Markings 1940-1945 (Brekken & Åkra); Classic 2008
3. Luftwaffe over the Far North - part 1 (Góralczyk & Wróbel); Mini Topcolors 28; Kagero 2011
4. Ritterkreuzträger Oberleutnant Hans Döbrich - Mit dem Jagdgeshwader 5 "Eismeer" auf der Jagd über Tundra und Eismeer (Röll); Flechsig Verlag 2014