What are the colors on this aircaft?

And is there a story behind its odd scheme?

That's a really hard nut to crack. Accordingly, so far it wasn't cracked by anyone (to my knowledge, at least). More or less educated opinions are plently, but proofs little, if any.

Gen. Dénes

Yes, really interesting plane

No answer for me, but as skinner for IL-2FB flight sim, i attempted to imagine a story for him....

My personnal vision was :

first, a typical 74/75 RLM camoflage, perhaps a bird given by german from a german unit ? (number is totally imaginary).......



For one or other reason, imagined a more than partial repaint in german or romanian dark green.....



And, for an unknown and unclear reason for me, added some patches of light blue gray, romanian, or RLM76, perhaps......





Why not, but it was just for me a "style exercicise"......... only based on personnal interpretation of a picture.... no more, no sense, perhaps but.... i liked this plane

So, sorry, no interest at all, but, it is one of my prefered 109.....

I like that interpretation, makes at least as much sense as anything else I've seen for it.

Denes, do you think theres any chance it was dark grey instead of olivgrun, or is that probably the most likely guess?

This post has been edited by Treize on January 20, 2008 01:25 am

There is no story, only pictures and educated guess (like Denes use to say ).
And for your question to be olivgreen or dark grey, my educated opinion is to use dark green instead of dark grey.
I believe UF_Josse color profile match very well the "white 7" (but the Michael cross were not matched )

As someone said one picture worth as 1000 words I attached some relevant pic with 53sq planes (including white7) on Pipera airfield late summer '43. Source D.M collection.











This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on January 20, 2008 10:29 am

Treize, C-no did it for you! More than that you cannot wish for.
Indeed, a picture does worth a 1000 words...

As for the solution... I don't have it. I am an (amateur) historian, not a modeller.
All I can say is to use the shade of the colours we know for sure (like the white rudder) for comparison and logic.

The good thing is that if you will come up with a solution, no one could contradict you.

Gen. Dénes

This is a very complex issue.
First of all, no one actually knows what paints were used by the ARR.
It is known that a pattern of RLM 02 mottle was used on a number of G2 and G4 aircraft. "White 1" in that picture is a good example of that.

However, when it comes to "White 7" and "White 3", the pattern is distinctly different. Of the two, "White 7" is by far the most unusual of all Romanian aircraft.

On pages 36/37, 38, 39 and 40 of the book "Les Messerschmitt Bf109 Roumains" published by Air Mag, there are some photos of "White 7" and "White 3" taking off from a snow covered Otopeni airport in 1944. Logic would dictate that the light coloured patches were in fact a light overspray of white for winter/snow camouflage. However, the only problem with that theory is that the photos posted above by Cantacuzino are taken from a film shot prior to that during the summer of 1943. Both "White 3" and "White 7" show that mottle pattern at that stage, so it is evident that the mottles were not intended for winter camouflage (unless they were a leftover of the previous winter, which is stretching the issue a bit ). Therefore, it is possible that the mottles are RLM02 or maybe underside grey/blue.

To me, this is still a conundrum. The mistery is compunded by the fact that there is no clear information in relation to the paints used by the ARR in the field or in the ASAMs. We do not know whether the ARR had large amounts of RLM, Italian, Russian (captured) paints or whether the paints were sourced locally.

The answer could be provided only by a colour photo, if such a photo will ever be found.

HTH
Radu

Thanks C-no!

I've seen some of those pics before- they look like stills from an old movie? If so, is that film still around, or just the stills?

Those pics, especially the closeups, are just the sort of thing i was looking for. Be better if they were in color (especially the 'Lancing Mickey' insignia), but I'll take anything I can get!

BTW, please, is it somewhere a good accurate Michael cross in color that i can use for more accurate skins in the game ?

Sorry for that Cantacuzino not my idea to insultate or fail respect for someone.... just have no good bmp or TGA for that ..... I respect much romanian people and history.

I have one somewhere on my comp, isolated for skinning, I'll host it and post it on here for you and anyone else who wants to use it.

EDIT now that I said that, I can't find the blasted thing anywhere. I'll keep looking and maybe make a new one (since I'll need it anyway) and share it.

This post has been edited by Treize on January 20, 2008 02:43 pm

Found it- wow, that is much worse quality than I remembered, I'll have to do up a better one.

Thanks, interested if you do a better but i can use this one on skins, with little bit work

Many thanks.

BTW, how many different cross exists ? (seen more simple cross on some planes....)

This post has been edited by UF_Josse on January 20, 2008 03:59 pm

have a better one somewhere, that was one I did in MS Paint like 5 years ago. I have a photo-quality JPG that disappeared from my computer. I can find my normal one, and all the unit insignias I had done up, but my stencil cross is AWOL.

I'm actually rather annoyed right now.

I am trying to post the artwork for a stencil cross, but all I get is a very small thumbnail.

UF_Josse, lease PM me with your email address and I will send it to you.

HTH
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on January 20, 2008 08:25 pm

So, here are new versions with 2 different options.... 1 with RLM02 and 1 with RLM76...

Added new crosses (great thanks to Radu , they are amazing)....





Skin available here : http://lespotesajosse.free.fr/BF109-G2-53Sq-Rom.rar