hi there,

i'm currently making hassy's kit in 1/48 of Eric Hartmann's famous whitewashed mount whilst he flew for I/JG53.

there is a picture of this on the front of John weal's excellent 109 Aces of the Eastern Front.

it does not show, however, whether this aircraft had the under belly drop tank and the bulging bracket which was used to attach it, and i can find no images on the web thus far.

does anyone have any ideas? i would love to see some pic if anyone has them.

kind regards,

Nicholas

Hi Nicholas,
I'm not the greatest exponent of the Bf 109 (far to many of them modelled, should do mor Spitfires ) and I can't help with any pics (but I'm sure there is someone here that knows the answer). Just my thoughts on this, I think this was on the Eastern front? if so it is very likely that it would have carried, or atleast have had provision to carry a drop tank, due to distances involved on that front. I'll see if I can find something, while waiting for the experts.
Mal

I'm bumping this so Rowan and others get to see it
Mal

I am pretty sure that it was used. If you don't want to add the tank, than you can at least add just the bulged mount.

Another thing to, watch out for the black tuplip decal on this kit. Its a tricky bugger, I sliced and mirco-sol'd for a couple days. But when its done it looks nice.

~Chip

Hi Nicholas

I've had a quick wade through my references - plenty of photos of Hartmann, but none showing whether his aircraft was fitted with an ETC rack and drop-tank. I've never read that Hartmann refused to fit the rack and I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't have been fitted when a mission demanded it.

If you do chose to model his aircraft with a rack and drop-tank, it's well worth checking out EagleParts' resin replacements - they are a massive improvement over Hasegawa's parts.

All the best

Rowan

I have looked through my only reference on the Bf109, the Squadron in Action title. Nothing on Eric Hartmann's 109 in particular but there is a pic of Bf109G-14 with a drop tank. The rack and drop tank were a field modification set or "Rustsatze", so it is very likely that the aircraft was flown with and without the drop tank.
Mal