Hasegawa 1/48 Bf 109E-3 Oblt Otto Bertram, JG 2, France May 1940

Here is my latest completed model. I blew off the dust from an old Hasegawa 109E box and got cracking.
I'd always wanted to build this particular plane - I have the original boxing of this still in the stash, and I've wanted to build this for at least 15 years and never got to it.
Carpe Weekium, and it is complete.
The old Hasegawa decals were not only cream (as usual) but refused to stick or respond to MicroSet/Sol. So, I used a combination of Eduard stencils and national markings, and some markings from Sky decals.
I kept this very simple, adding only the aforementioned decals, an Ultracast resin 109E seat and some judicious use of wire to add some details. I simply drilled out the gun barrels rather than adding Master Brass barrrels.

I used a combination of WEM RLM enamels and Humbrol enamels for the paint. The WEM enamels are great, so much better than the Xtracolour enamels (for me anyway).

Oblt Otto Bertram was appointed Staffelkapitan of 1./JG2 on 26 October 1939. He claimed his first aerial victory of WWII on 20 April 1940, downing a Morane 406 over St Avold. He went on to claim four victories in the Battle of France and in total claimed 22 aerial victories during the war.
On 28 October 1940 as a Hauptmann in charge of III./JG 2 Otto Bertram was awarded the Knight's Cross of The Iron Cross. He was also sent back from active duty as both his brothers had been killed (both were in the Luftwaffe). He never saw combat again, fulfilling mostly administrative and training roles in the Luftwaffe.
Otto Bertram finished the war as a Major and passed away on 8 February 1987 in Freiburg im Breisgau, aged 80.

The boxing I used, which contains generic 109E-3/4 sprues.


'Bonzo the Dog' was a cartoon by Briton George Studdy, and pictures graced both German and British planes in the war.


That classic 109 silhouette...


I added the canopy retaining wire.


Classic early war 'splinter' of RLM 71 Dunkelgrun and RLM 02 Grau. This plane the walkways on the wing in RLM 70 Shwarzgrun. The wing crosses are also quite far out compared to later markings.






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