Galland's BF 109 Rudder Color

Mario,

I'm not that familiar with planes colors, but when I look at the colors at
http://www.acesrising.hpg.ig.com.br/galland.html I would say that the lower half was painted lichtblau only in september 1940. But then again I'm no expert.

Rutger

I have the exact same unbuilt kit, and the decal instructions are quite faint, but if you look closely you can see that the yellow rudder section is the same as on the boxtop art - only top portion of rudder is yellow and the kill markings are on the lichtblau background (looks like they ommitted the blue to clearly show where the decal is placed). I looked further into my books and found 2 colour plates of this exact plane with the rudder all yellow except for the blue behind the markings, like this sample artwork illustrates:

Thanks guys!

There is a black & white photo of Adolf Galland's E-4 rudder on page 41 of the Squadron/Signal Messerschmitt Bf 109 In Action, Part 1. This clearly shows that the upper and lower portions were yellow and the center section, behind the 40 kill markings, as being light blue.

Just an item of additional interest --- Galland was a heavy cigar smoker and he had his ground crew install a cigar lighter somewhere in the cockpit of this aircraft. Galland claimed to have the only cigar lighter equipped 109 in the Luftwaffe.

Pete

Thanks pete