Bf-109
G-2 Trop

About This Build

The Subject

Hauptmann Werner Schroer was one of the Luftwaffe's most decorated fighter aces of the Second World War, accumulating 114 aerial victories across campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, and the Eastern Front. A veteran of JG 27 and later JG 3, he carved out a formidable reputation over the North African theatre before the tide of the campaign turned against the Axis. By early 1943, with Allied pressure mounting in Tunisia, Schroer was operating from the Aegean island of Rhodes — a strategically vital outpost in the eastern Mediterranean, positioned to support Axis supply lines and provide cover against Allied advances from both the west and the Levant. His aircraft, "Red 1", was one of the tropical-filtered Bf 109 G-2 Trop variants adapted for the harsh dust and heat of the southern theatre — built tough for an environment the original Gustav was never designed to withstand.

The Kit

The FineMolds kit is a revelation in 1/72 scale. The surface detail is extraordinarily fine — the panel lines, rivet rows, and skin lap joints are all correctly scaled and beautifully rendered, a world apart from the coarser recessed lines of older European toolings. The build spanned some 70 hours across four months, and the time was well invested: the open engine bay was an early commitment, requiring careful removal of cowl panels and detailed scratch-and-PE work to represent the Daimler-Benz DB 605 internals with sufficient plausibility at this scale. The canopy was cut into three sections and posed open — a technically demanding operation with such thin framing — using a razor saw and steady nerves, then carefully re-framed with stretched sprue reinforcement on the inside edge before fitting. Eduard photo-etched parts for the cockpit interior brought the cramped Gustav office to life, with harness, gunsight frame, and instrument panel all benefiting from the brass-fret replacements.

Colours & Markings

The Mediterranean colour scheme was mixed entirely from Mr. Hobby Aqueous colours: H68 RLM 74 Graugrün and H69 RLM 75 Grauviolett for the upper surface camouflage, with H417 RLM 75 used for the softly mottled fuselage sides and H70 RLM 02 Grau for the undersurface. The tropical filter on the nose — that distinctive sand-coloured Vokes filter housing faired into the lower cowling — was painted in a mix of H27 Tan and H79 Sand Yellow to achieve the sun-bleached, dusty tone of an aircraft that had spent months in the field. Markings are from the AeroMaster sheet 72-074, which provides the correct "Red 1" numeral and the associated Geschwader insignia. The result is a compact but deeply characterful model — one that rewards the substantial hours invested.

"Ein brillanter Bausatz mit super Oberflächendetails!"