Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 3

Painting thoughts for a Finnish Me 109
I've had a look at quite a few pictures of 'Finnish Me 109s' - well, at least people's impressions of what they looked like. There seems to be quite varied and diverse opinion on the matter, especially when it comes to the colours.

I *think* the basic colour of Finnish Me 109s - as they were delivered from the Germans in standard camo patterns - was the RLM 74/75/76 (grey green, green violet and light blue).

Here's a drawing I did to illustrate 'a' (generic) Finnish Me 109 pattern from 1944...

Where the discrepancies - and my confusion - seem to come about is where the Finns may have over-sprayed the original Luftwaffe crosses and where these new, vivid, colours became faded. So some modellers depict these colours as far more subtle greys and less hard edged than my first drawing. Like this...

Anyway, if like me you like acrylic spray paints, the good news is that the Tamiya AS range of sprays makes this scheme easy to paint as they have:

> AS-3 Gray Green (Luftwaffe) Acrylic Spray Paint (RLM-74 Graugrun)

> AS-4 Gray Violet (Luftwaffe) Acrylic Spray Paint (RLM-75 Grauviolett)

> AS-5 Light Blue (Luftwaffe) Acrylic Spray Paint (RLM-76 Lichtblau)

...So, this is my starting point.

But here is how one modeller - S. Bathy - has toned these vivid pristine colours down to give a more war weary look to his Finnish Me 109...

Whether the Finns actually toned down the German colours themselves I am not sure - but in the reference book I have - Osprey's 'Finnish Aces of WW2' - many of the Finn's 1944 Messerschmitts are depicted in this more faded grey scheme (like my second drawing).

Anyone any opinions?

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