Oblt. Schiess "Black 1" Bf 109 G-4 Trop

[Jerry Crandall]

Hi Guys;

Since Revelll has brought out this kit of Oblt. Franz Schiess' "Black 1" Bf 109 G-4 Trop, there has been a lot of controversy, discussion and mis information. In our decal sheet EagleCals #48 I tried to straighten out some of these debated topics and point out some interesting details that are missing in the kit.

 

Color and Markings: When JG 53 came to Tunisia, since there was more vegetation, there a/c that were painted in 78/79 had to be modified with dark green to match the terrain. Some of the a/c were left untouched, some were heavily mottled with dark green, some has circular donut shaped patterns of dark green, some just had portions like the wings, painted with dark green in a splinter pattern. Such is the case with "Black 1" the a/c in questions. We have posted several photos of this a/c to point out the debated upper wing splinter pattern. It is clearly evident in these photos. Some have thought the port wing pattern might have been a shadow, but as you can see in this sequence of photos, that is not the case.

[Jerry Crandall]

Note that rudder in this photo has the upper surface painted yellow and the bottom portion in light blue. Since this rudder was painted over at least once it is impossible to tell if the lower portion is RLM 78 or RLM 76. I would lean toward RLM 78.

 

Photo #2:

This close up allows us to see the splinter pattern at the wing root. There is additional splinter pattern out toward the tip by the middle of the aileron. It is impossible to tell if this a/c had white upper and lower wing tips or not. Some a/c in this unit did and others had no white at all. The armor glass head rest can be seen in this photo also.

[Jerry Crandall]

Photo #3

 

This photo is a close up of the victory bars on the rudder. Schiess at this time had 37 victories with the appropriate national markings above the bar. Unfortunately the kit decals have left this off. I spent hours tracking his victories and applied them to our decals, EagleCals #48, so each bar has the correct national insignia above it.

[Jerry Crandall]

Photo #4

In this overall shot of "Black 1" a portion of the dark green upper wing splinter pattern can be seen right at the bottom of the pilot's boot, on the upper wing.

[Jerry Crandall]

Photo #5 - "Black 1" after it was turned over to another pilot and was destroyed in a ground collision. This view clearly shows the dark green inboard wing splinter pattern.

 

Additional details of this interesting a/c are:

trop filter

umbrella holders in place

tall antenna mast

no DF loop or base

no FuG 25a antenna

late style Panzer glass headrest

under wing 20 mm cannons

ETC rack with drop tank

G-6 tail wheel with fuselage cut out

F style main wheels with G-6 sized tires 660 X 160

small bumps on upper wing

 

I hope this helps to clear up some of the debate and confusion on this interesting a/c.

Happy modeling and Happy New Year,

Cheers,

Jerry

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Many Thanks Jerry! That helps a lot. Now i can start with the painting work.

Happy new year too!

 

Chris Hannover

[Mark P]

Jerry:

 

Great job detailing the upper camouflage on this interesting 109! Too bad Revell didn't pay as much attention to detail! The photos really help!

 

Thanks,

 

Mark Proulx