Rick Bethell's Blog: Messerschmidt Bf 108

One of the most well known and successful fighter aircraft of World War 2 was the Messerschmidt Me 109. It was designed by Willy Messerschmidt and Robert Lusser at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in the mid 1930's. This blog isn't about the 109, but its older brother the 108. The overall design inspiration for the 109 was the 108, although the 108 is 'beefier' in every way, except engine power and armament. (the 108 was un-armed) The 108 could seat 4 people, the 109 was a single seat fighter.

Bf 108 -

Bf 109 -

Brief and to the point, as always - from Wikipedia -

"Originally designated the M 37, the aircraft was designed as a four-seat sports/recreation aircraft for competition in the 4th Challenge International de Tourisme (1934). The M 37 prototype flew first in spring 1934 powered by a 250 PS (247 hp, 184 kW) Hirth HM 8U inverted-V engine, which drove a three-blade propeller.

Although it was outperformed by several other aircraft in the competition, the M 37's overall performance marked it as a popular choice for record flights. Particular among these traits was its extremely low fuel consumption rate, good handling, and superb takeoff and landing characteristics.

The Bf 108A first flew in 1934, followed by the Bf 108B in 1935. The Bf 108B used the Argus As 10 air-cooled inverted V8 engine. The nickname Taifun (German for "typhoon") was given to her own aircraft by Elly Beinhorn, a well known German pilot, and was generally adopted.

Interesting note - Bf 108s played the role of Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters in war movies, including The Longest Day, The Great Escape, 633 Squadron, Mosquito Squadron, and Von Ryan's Express.

Here is a Youtube video of a still-flying Bf 108 -

My model of the Bf 108 is an Eduard 1/48 Bf 108B, militarized version, with a two bladed metal prop. It depicts NF-MS in service on the Russian front during the winter of 1942-43. It has been overpainted by a special white paint which, over the winter, washes off so that by the spring there isn't much left, like the snow. At some point it is handwashed off completely back to its original summer camouflage of a two-toned green 'splinter' pattern.

Here is a profile of what NF-MS looks like normally.

Here is a copy of a sheet of instructions from an Eduard kit -

When I built my kit, the decals for this scheme was not available, so I used spare decals I had in stock.

The yellow patches at the ends of the wings may or may not have been present, see profile above.

Here are three photos of my completed model on a dark background -