Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2

This aircraft was the first one in a batch delivered to Finland to replace earlier Bf 109s that had been destroyed, arriving in August 1943. Deliveries of G-2s continued throughout the first half of 1944. The first G-6 arrived in March 1944 [1].

Some of the aircraft in the first batch of replacement G-2s were painted RLM 74 overall. There are several pictures [1, pp.122-125; 2, p.53; 3, p.113] of this particular aircraft taken in November 1943 and January 1944 (note that in some later photos, taken in the summer of 1944, the aircraft had a tactical number, reduced yellow area in the nose, and yellow propeller blade tips). Finnish 109s flew sporting various camouflage schemes: Standard German RLM 74/75/76 scheme, standard Finnish black & olive green scheme, mixtures of the two, all olive green (post-war) scheme, and then this RLM 74 scheme. I have now built at least one model of every variety.

Construction Notes

General construction notes of FineMolds' Bf 109Gs are covered here. All the usual enhancements: Master Model brass gun barrels and pitot tube, Eduard photo-etch seatbelts; this time I did not need Barracuda Studios' 3D-printed aileron mass balances because I somehow succeeded in getting the kit parts in place without losing them (always good to have those handy as a backup, though). About this particular model I should also mention that I screwed up the antenna feed wire (I used monofilament mending thread this time) by drilling a hole that was too big, and had to strip decals from the fuselage, fill the hole, sand, re-paint, etc.

I painted the model with Mr. Color RLM 74 (#36) and RLM 76 (#117). The yellow markings are Tamiya flat yellow (XF-3; I have several jars I am working through, and eventually will switch to using Mr. Color). Since the entire top side of this aircraft is just one color, I mixed a couple of slightly different variants and used them randomly just to make the surface look a bit more interesting and "alive".

The white circles were painted using a new technique that makes it easier to accurately place the masks: I designed masks that easily fit the major "landmarks" of the airframe (corner of the canopy, end of the aileron, etc.). I used a Cricut cutter to cut the masks from masking tape. See the images below. Swastikas and the tail number are decals I produced myself, the stenciling came from the kit's decal sheet. Note that Finnish G-2s had 72 cm circles on the top side and 100 cm circles on the underside, whereas G-6s had 100 cm circles on boths sides of the wings. You can download the swastika decals here (both 100 cm and 72 cm versions).

For the exhaust stains I used Mr. Color flat black thinned with at least 5 parts thinner to 1 part of paint, and airbrushed it at lowest pressure the airbrush worked. After that the entire model was finished first with Alclad Klear Kote Gloss followed by Klear Kote Semi Matte.

Masks, downloadable here.

Example of mask placement (the 100 cm circle shown here).

Test cuts (from paper) of the insignia masks. Clockwise, from left: Underside of wing, fuselage, topside of wing (100 cm), topside of wing (72 cm).

Circles painted.

Underside circles are important even if you use decals with the white circle, as the demarcation between yellow and light blue will shine through.

Finnish swastika decal applied.

References Used

I have covered general Bf 109 reference material before and won't repeat that here. Below is a list of sources I specifically needed for this model.

1. Mersu - Messerschmitt Bf 109 G Suomen ilmavoimissa (Stenman); Koala-kustannus 2019
2. Messerschmitt Bf 109G (Keskinen et al); Suomen Ilmavoimien historia 6; Tietoteos 1976
3. Suomen ilmavoimien hävittäjät - Historia, maalaukset ja merkinnät 1939-1945 (Stenman & Hołda); Koala-kustannus 2015