Jump to content

AIMS 1/32 Bf 110 F and G


Pastor John

Recommended Posts

I've always wondered about the radar set up on Helmut Lent's aircraft (<<G9+AF). This is how it's presented in all the profiles I've seen but I've seen a photo of this aircraft and it's captioned as having been taken in the summer of 1943. But SN2 didn't become available until the spring of 1944. The photo I know does not show the radar but if it was indeed taken in the summer of 1943 then it should have FuG202. Unless the photo was captioned incorrectly of course. Or is there another photo of this aircraft (that I don't know of) that does show this layout?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will also offer sets without decals so that if you already have my decal sheet 32D011 'Monotone Me's and want to make your G-4 with the earlier FuG 202 then I can do that for you making everything even cheaper for you. Cost will be everything with this due to cost of Dragon kit. I sadly got burnt a few days ago when the Dragon 110 I got from ebay for £140,00 including the postage was caught up in Hungarian customs who charged me an additional 40% value of the kit! I could have cried! Anyway I will never know why Dragon did not produce an F and G but in the meantime I hope what I offer will be good enough.

 

Before anyone asks the rear section of the canopy will be vacform both to keeps the costs down and because the Dragon clear plastic is supper thin - reproducing that in clear resin will be problematic and result is snapping most masters attempting to be polished up. The vac part will be the easiest vac you have ever cut out in your life due to the shape - you can easily put in the holes for Schrage Musik as well as open up the entry hatch, PE frame will include the hinge guide for this.

 

Best wishes

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I defintely want to build that Romanian 110 F. Please let me know if you need any help with the artwork for the Romanian insignia. When Teodor Morosanu and Dan Melinte wrote the MMP book on Romanian fighters, I created the Romanian insignia and markings used in the book colour profiles. Eduard got the Romanian crosses wrong in their 1/48 "110 F" kit (artwork posted by Florin in post #12 above). 

Radu 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can see my artwork at the end of page 2 - the decals are done but thanks for your offer of help. Are you saying that the artwork posted on page 1 with the sharp corners to the Romanian cross is correct or incorrect?

Edited by Pastor John
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can see my artwork at the end of page 2 - the decals are done but thanks for your offer of help. Are you saying that the artwork posted on page 1 with the sharp corners to the Romanian cross is correct or incorrect?

 

The "pointy tip" crosses used by Eduard, as shown in that profile on page 1, are wrong. You used the correct "blunt tip" crosses in your artwork. 

Radu 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Radu - I thought that was what I could see on the photo but thanks so much for confirming.

 

BTW here is the text that accompanied my Lent profile when I did my 1/72 and 1/48 decals.....

 

IV./NJG 1's Gruppenkommandeur Helmut Lent's Bf 110 G-4 seen at their base at Leeuwarden in the Spring of 1943.
Aircraft has the RLM 74/75 upper splinter pattern, the rest being in RLM 76. Sides are cover in small dots of RLM 
74 & 75 with more feathered application of just RLM 75 on the tail fin. Stabilizer carries a very colourful scoreboard
decorated with Lent's day and night victories up to his 59th night victory on the 14th May 1943. Luftwaffe Im Focus
vol.17 p.28 & vol.19 p.3. Lent flew this machine to Stade on 1st August 1943 when he became NJG 3's next 
Geschwaderkommodore. Up to this time it would have carried some kind of radar? As the September 1943 photo of 
his re-marked machine clearly shows the black right lower wing tactical marking it seems obvious to conclude that
                                                                             this was also a feature whilst it was G9+AF.
 
so if the early version of SN220 along with the single FuG 202 for better short range readings did not appear at unit level till after 1st August 1943 then indeed I am sure my profile is wrong and Lent must have had the normal FuG 2202 for the time. If however early versions were available to top pilots like Lent during the time he used this aircraft in these markings then that's great. i will provide both types of radar anyway just in case. I wonder if it might say in his flight log about the radar used and that is why profile artists always depict it like this?
 
This is on the internet....
By late 1943, the Luftwaffe was starting to deploy the greatly improved FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2, operating on a lower frequency of 90 MHz (lower end of the US VHF FM broadcast band) which was far less affected by electronic jamming, but this required the much larger Hirschgeweih (stag's antlers) antennas, with only eight dipole elements, looking like a much-enlarged version of what occupied the forward end of each one of the earlier quadruple Matratzemasts. This aerial setup also produced tremendous drag and slowed the operating aircraft by up to 50 km/h (30 mph). The first SN-2 set had a problem with a huge minimum range of 500 meters, initially requiring the retention of a supplementary B/C or C-1 set with its full set of four Matratze masts, but the alarming drag that full sets of both types of antennas caused, from both radars being installed, later changed the requirement to only a "one-quarter" subset of the earlier Matratze array at the end of a single mast, centrally mounted on the nose of the aircraft when the BC or C-1 UHF radar remained installed. Improvements in early 1944 led to newer SN-2 versions with lower minimum range, which allowed the older UHF radar system to be removed entirely. In July 1944, the newest version of the SN-2 radar fell into Allied hands when a fully equipped Ju 88 G-1, of 7 Staffel/NJG 2, flew the wrong way on a landing beacon and landed in England by accident, with the crew not realising the mistake until it was too late to destroy the radar or IFF gear. This led to successful jamming of several frequency bands of the FuG 220 (I to III, 72, 81 and 90 MHz), and a partial adoption of the use of the low-to-mid VHF band FuG 216 and 217 Neptun radar â€” which used eight shorter-length dipoles in the same "stag's antlers" layout for its frequency ranges than the SN-2 did — but several other bands that the SN-2 used were still operational. After the Allied jammings the FuG 220 antenna setup was optimized for the still-operational bands, the 90-degree vertical dipole setup was changed to a 45-degree diagonal setup.
 
If this Chronology is correct how 'late 1943' is late? from this it is entirely feasible that Lent would have had the latest radar setup before it was removed on 1st August
Edited by Pastor John
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Thanks Radu - I thought that was what I could see on the photo but thanks so much for confirming.

The other thing to keep in mind is the blue of the Romanian insignia is a "Royal Blue" similar to the blue of the Fench flag. For some reason, decal manufacturers make the blue either too light or too dark. Colour descriptions and codes are on Wikipedia.

Radu

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...