ME-109E-4 - Desert - Prototype on ebay (NOT MINE)

[NWarty]

Let me just ask this, as I'm curious.

What was going on with that pilot in the auction pictures? What I mean is, the pilot of the prototype desert 109 looked as if he was sculpted from a single block. The figure didn't seem articulated whatsoever, just a solid resin cast. Not the figure that was put into production 21C Bf-109's.

Was this prototype done AFTER the 109E had been established on the market? Why would there be a pilot figure that bears no resemblance to his production counterpart?

It made me raise my eyebrows a bit.

[vmf214]

Let me just ask this, as I'm curious.

What was going on with that pilot in the auction pictures? What I mean is, the pilot of the prototype desert 109 looked as if he was sculpted from a single block. The figure didn't seem articulated whatsoever, just a solid resin cast. Not the figure that was put into production 21C Bf-109's.

Was this prototype done AFTER the 109E had been established on the market? Why would there be a pilot figure that bears no resemblance to his production counterpart?

It made me raise my eyebrows a bit.

Good question, as far as we know the desert scheme was the intended initial release, who's to say except 21st. If I remember correctly TRU initially got the Mustangs and 109's in 1999 so it's really hard to say when exactly these paint proto's were done. Early as there were only 2 schemes when the first proto accidentally got sent out, the white 12 initial release and the spinach scheme that was supposed to be club only. I bought my spinach 109 in mid 2002 so the desert prototypes were obviously made prior to that. The pilot looks pretty standard to me, don't really see anything other than he's a little too short like the rest of their 109 pilot figs at the time.

[DropTank]

For my plate of CROW, I think I shall glaze in a nice burgundy wine sauce.

[aferguson]

the mustang and 109 first showed up at TRU in the autumn of 2000, along with the panther and sherman, kubel, jeep yadda yadda..

The desert scheme was not meant to be the first but a later one. They realized it was bland and inaccurate and released the spinach 109 instead...the name being incorrect as 'spinach' referred to the sand and spinach desert scheme we eventually saw. They just kept jumbling with the order. Because the s2 109 had a mottled paint scheme the 'sand and spinach' nickname stuck, even though it made little sense.

Someone on the board got mailed one of the plain sand prototypes by mistake when he ordered a spinach 109 from 21c's online store. 21c tried to get it back from him, but were not successful.

Why on earth someone would pay $1800 for one is beyond me. It's crude and not very accurate. You could pay someone skilled to paint you one for a small fraction of that.

[vmf214]

Not really an accuracy thing as much as a collectibility thing. It's an authentic prototype with only 3 in existance, to a collector, that says enough. The S2 has always been referred to as "spinach", on this board as well...

[aferguson]

yes i know....but the originally it was called 'sand and spinach' and the intent was to issue the dessert 109 we eventually got as the s2 scheme. But it was pushed back and they did the green mottled 109 instead. Because of the green mottling, somebody at 21c thought that that was what 'spinach' referred to and the nickname stuck on the green s2 we got, even though it really made no sense. Over time it was shortened to just 'spinach'.

Sand and spinach was the british nickname for ww2, italian and german aircraft camo that featured green mottling over a sand base. So it made a lot of sense to call the desert 109 that, but none whatsoever to call the green mottled s2 that. Still the nickname stuck.