1/72 Messerschmitt Bf-109H-10

Gallery Article by Rob Haelterman on Dec 12 2012

 

 

The Bf 109H was a still-born project with which the Luftwaffe tried to get a fighter to counter very high-altitude intrusions, presumably by B-29s. These intrusions never materialized and the high-altitude fighter eventually became the Ta152H, which was built in limited numbers.

 

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The kit started life as an MPM Bf 109H, which has as its main redeeming quality that it is the only injection plastic Bf 109H in 1/72 that I know of.  Detail is soft and uneven, the plastic is brittle and rough, and so on.

The fuselage in the MPM kit is based on a Bf 109G-6, with the typical MG bumps on the cowling.  I guessed – had the Bf 109H – ever got into production that the smoother cowlings associated with the DB605D or DB605AS would have been used. For that reason the wings and tail of the MPM kit were used and the fuselage was taken from a Revell Bf 109G-10. This resulted in some cutting, sanding and cursing.  The propeller in the Revell kit is notoriously small, so I replaced it with one from the spare’s box, which required a minor modification to the nose contour, which was extended by 1.2mm in the process.

I chose a fictitious, though not entirely unpleasing, camouflage scheme of RLM78/RLM75. Markings are for JG51 in the Reichsverteidigung with the green-white-green tail band in subdued colors.

(In the picture above I photoshopped the colors to look like a North African camo scheme.)

Rob Haelterman

      

Photos and text © by Rob Haelterman