Knock, knock! If it’s not too late, I wouldn’t mind joining this fine fellowship of the expats, rebels and renegades.

It just so happens that I am currently busy with one obscure, yet remarkable turncoat machine. It perfectly exemplifies intricate chaos of one of the most eclectic airforces in history. I’m talking about Yugoslavia, of course. What other country had Hurricanes and Messerschmitts, Stukas and Sturmoviks, Yaks, Spitfires and Thunderbolts, Sabres, Thunderjets and MiGs flying under same insignia through its turbulent history?

This particular Bf.109G-10 changed hands twice in relatively short time, being passed from Luftwaffe to their Croatian cronies, only to be taken by defecting pilot to Tito’s partisans. There it was quickly integrated in the fledgling airforce of the second Yugoslavia.

It is know that the two such late type, ex-Croatian Messerschmitts switched sides, one being this G-10 with the unit number “3”and the other number “5”, reportedly a G-14. The actual appearance of these aircraft during their service with Yugoslav partisans is a matter of educated supposition however, as only one very poor photo exists of one of these aircraft upon their escape and consequent arrival at the Zadar airfield.

There were several interpretations of this aircraft through the years, but the most recent one debunks some of the earlier ideas, based on the newly emerged photos of the Croatian Messerschmitts from the same squadron, taken after the capitulation. Tantalisingly good images of the next in the flight-line aircraft, number “4”, appeared - even one colored photo, showing some lovely details of repainted markings and heavy weathering of these machines.

Combined with the known rebranding practices of captured aircraft late in the war by the partisans, a fellow modeller, Goran Antić, created a very credible and inspiring rendering of the black-3 just few months ago. This profile will serve as the working idea for my build.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very unique idea @asekular I like it!

Thanks my friends! I am quite stoked about this one to. 😀

@j-healy As for the colors on the photo, I interpret them as bread’n’butter RLM74/75 with some other shades used for overpainting perhaps. I am in not really dogmatic about paint standards and am more inspired by the overall worn look of this aircraft.

To be honest, the first and only time I previously built a Bf109 kit was in the old millennium, during my student years. It was an Airfix 1:48 F-4 box . This kit by Hasegawa matured in my stash for few decades. I recently acquired one new Eduard kit of the G-6AS and decided to build them both, mostly in parallel, to see which I like better. The Eduard build will not be in focus here, but I will show some of the joint in-progress images and make comments as appropriate.

So onto the build - I do have some head start with this one! As I am not much of an expert for Messerschmitts and assume that y’all know tried and true Hasegawa’s plastic, let’s skip the formalities and show some mods and improvements I’m making along the way.

As with most of my prop-turning models, I made sure that the spinner will be able to justify its name and made custom bearings for it. Coaxial tubing is perfect for this task. One just needs to make an effort to drill an axial hole through the very center of the prop and spinner for the shaft, to avoid eccentricity.

I finished both of the prop assemblies and applied the ubiquitous spirals as decals. Making flat water-slides yield to the complex 3D-curves is always FUN, but after some powerful chemical convincing they assumed the position!

I've also removed the bottom of the engine exhaust openings, to adapt the depth for the metal “Moskit” exhausts.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Looking good Aleksandar. I’m also building my first 109 in many years.

That Croatian 109 that landed at Fano in Italy, came in and landed as a flight of B-25s from the 321st BG were taking off. the late Dan Bowling was flying lead, and told me how "all of a sudden, there was this 109 heading right at us as we lifted off and I was sure we were going to have a mid-air, but he dodged around us and put it on the ground."