Skins by Aelius

[aelius]

My second skin and now its first patch!

When I first posted Anton-Paula from 6./ZG76, the image had been taken from Breffort and Jouineau, Me 110 from 1939 to 1945, which illustrates the Haifischgruppe in the yellow livery of the Balkan campaigns. This particular plane was flown by Hauptmann Heinz Nacke (who was awarded the Knight's Cross in November 1940) and combines the traditional post-Battle of Britain camouflage colors with the yellow markings of the Balkan campaigns. A handsome plane it is, but I neglected to color the spinner tips to match the yellow identification letter of the Staffel. I've corrected that in the link to the plane in my original post and again here.

More to the point, the artist rendered the plane with the entire nose in yellow and the tips of the wings uncolored. An illustration from Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstorer Aces of World War 2 by John Weal, however, shows only the hinged gun-bay cover in yellow, as well as the propeller back plates, a scheme supported by a photograph from Vasco and Estanislau, The Messerschmitt Bf 110 in Color Profile 1939-1945, which shows a sister ship of M8+AP in the foreground.

In the colored illustration that accompanies the picture, the back plate is white (mistakenly, I suspect) and, although the undersides of the wings are not visible, Weal depicts the tips in yellow (but with no identifying letter). I've redone the plane, this time following his scheme, a link to which is here.

Nacke's plane has been illustrated several times, and one is struck by the fact that none of the illustrations are consistent. But it is understandable, given that they all depend upon often grainy black-and-white photographs. Nor is my replication any more exact. Coloring the underside of the left engine nacelle introduces a splinter of yellow on the outer rear of the right nacelle (a fact that took some time to discover). But it cannot be eliminated without affecting the coloring of the nacelle itself. The supercharger intake also is painted but that, too, cannot be corrected. And the leading edge slats affect the coloring of the under-wing tips. None of these artifacts will be readily apparent, but it is annoying that I don't have the skill to eliminate them.