Skins by Aelius

[aelius]

One final skin to complete the daytime camouflage patterns of the Bf-110C-4: a plane from 8./ZG 26 that flew in September 1942. It had been repainted for the Libyan campaign in RLM 79 (sandgelb) with the underside in RLM 78 (hellblau).

There is no agreement as to the actual color scheme and even some uncertainty as to the variant. On the basis of the photograph below, which shows a dust filter on the port wing, Vasco and Estanislau have concluded that the plane is a tropicalized E-4. They illustrate it with the sand-colored camouflage extending over the whole of the fuselage, including the engine nacelles, with only the underside of the wings in light blue.

All this would seem to be correct and reasonably preclude the plane being skinned as a C-4. Breffort and Jouineau, however, identify it as just that type. They retain the under-carriage in RLM 78, although not as robin's-egg blue. Nor do they color the spinner tip and or the under-wing letter (as rendered by Estanislau). And, in spite of the photographic evidence, they place the hakenkreuz far too high on the tail fins. If ever there was a plane to prove csThor's dictum that illustrations are not really reliable for colors, it is this one.

It goes without saying that 3U+GS is not appropriate for the Battle of Britain. But for those who might want to pretend that they are flying over the shores of Tripoli or simply enjoy a different screenshot, I hope it proves satisfactory.

It is available here.