1:32 Bf 109G-10

The last Messerschmitts and their foreign users

The G-10 version was produced from the autumn of 1944 at the Erla and Wiener Neustadt plants as an attempt to bring order into the production confusion of the last year. It received the stronger DB 605D engine, a higher weapon fairing and smoother outlines at the rear. It flew with units in the east and over Germany, but it is more interesting where else it can be met outside the Luftwaffe: in Hungarian, Croatian and later in postwar Czechoslovak and Romanian colors.

Each of those users marked the aircraft in its own way. Hungarian machines carried a white cross in a square on the wings, Croatian ones a chequer, and captured Soviet examples quickly overpainted stars. The difference between the fronts was visible inside the Luftwaffe as well: the eastern theater meant yellow undersides of the wingtips and a yellow band around the fuselage, whereas white was used over the Mediterranean.

The set offers glazing masks for the outer as well as the inner side, three masks for the national insignia and a pair of metal muzzles for the MG 131 machine guns, which on this type project from the engine cowling ahead of the cockpit. The item is cut for the Hasegawa kit.

A tip on paint: spray thinly through the film and in several coats. A heavy application likes to peel away outside the masked area as well when the mask is lifted off.

The late Gustavs also suit comparison displays: a G-6 and a G-10 standing side by side show how the weapon fairing, the shape of the fin and the layout of the cooling air intakes changed within a year and a half. The masks of the two versions only seem to fit the same kind of glazing; the frames differ.