Bf109 G5 trop,Wilhelm Reinert,Tunisia 1943

[elephant]

For the last couple of months I did some extensive research on the LW fighter units in the Mediterranean and decided to realise my study in some skins.
So I grabbed Jester's, excellent Bf109 F to K template, and start fooling around.
I have to say that most of the credit on this skin must be given to Jester anyway.
I made some tweaks and corrections, added some more layers of my own but the template gave a very steady base to work on.
I decided to start with not well known and overskinned planes.
My first attempt is this one for the G6 in game, a G5 trop in fact, flown by LW's first ace in the Tunisian Campaign: Lt.Ernst Wilhelm Reinert.
There were not but fragmental pics of his aircraft, but as you can see below in the vintage photos it seemed to be a G5 (from the inscription:"Beim Schliessen der Kabine auf Vorderteil-Gummirahmen achten"-"On closing the canopy beware of forward frame seal", indicating a machine with pressurised cockpit i.e G1, G5, G8.The wavy pattern of the camo on the same pic, compared to the other pic that shows the aircraft's nose reveals that it was a G5 with the typical early RLM 74/75/76 camo of Messerschmitt's production facility in Regensburg.



I continued searching and comparing camos from different aircraft of the same facility served in the Mediterranean, (JG77, JG53, JG51, IIJG27) and finally concluded to the result below...which is a bit speculative on one hand, but as historical as possible on the other.





They say that a plane is nothing without the pilot so I made a Reinert pilot skin,(from a great vintage color pic I found on the net), to make an ensable with the aircraft...





Tell me what do you think, is it worth releasing and continuing this project?
As I said I wish there was someone to make a Tunisian/Sicilian Campaign to use these skins properlly...any volunteers?...
Well may be after the release of new desert map.
Great job Ian !

[Dukayn]

The skins do indeed look great, very nice work.