Small Scale Military Headquarters

The Luftwaffe grew concerned about the ability of its fighter pilots to tell friend from foe during the Battle of Britain and began to mandate that its BF-109s add yellow markings to aid the ID process. These often involved yellow noses as well as rudders and, less frequently, wing tips. I like the way these look and have collected---or modified-----many diecast and Easy Model replicas that have the yellow nose feature. Here are some pictures. First, three 1:48th scale models---two from C1 and one from CDC Armour:

Now, a set of 1:72nd scale birds:

More yellow noses:

Another group:

Still more:

The yellow nose motif was carried over for a time to North Africa. Here are four examples:

Good stuff, Ed.

Always liked the German camo patterns, and the yellow nosed early 109's just look "right".

Thanks, Snake. As you can see, the yellow changes its shade considerably from brand to brand and even for models made by the same brand. The real German "gelb" was a slightly reddish yellow, as distinct from the very pale color you see on some of the models.

Nice collection.
A funny contradiction how the Germans go to all that trouble and spend all that time making some of the best camouflage to not be seen, then paint their noses bright yellow to be identified.

Got a couple of those Corgi 109E's and noticed the same thing on the yellow shades. I'm assuming the Galland is more correct than some of the others then?
(my crude "approaching the cliffs of Dover" pic)


I've got most of the Gemini BF-109F's except for the desert yellow nose and the Hahn one. Really like them.

I hope Corgi does a good job on the upcoming 1:72 BF-109G. Though the first one is a winter Hartmann, got it on pre-order. I don't see any yellow nosed ones in the pipe yet, but hopefully we'll see some down the road.

Just some trivia, but yellow paint has a lot of lead in it, wonder if it weighed those planes down a little?

One of the main functions of camouflage during the early stages of WW2 was to make the planes less conspicuous when on the ground, to confound enemy attackers and observation planes. When the Germans invaded Poland, their fighters were in two shades of dark green, carried down the fuselage sides, mainly for this purpose----I don't know why, unless they were worried about French and British attacks as the Poles had a very weak air force. When the Germans went on the offensive in the West, first against Norway, then the Low Countries and France, they saw the need to lighten both their surface colors and the fuselage sides as an air superiority tactic. However, when the RAF proved a tough nut to crack, during the BOB, and German fighters had only 20 minutes of combat time over their UK targets, speed became of the essence and quick recognition devices were needed to avoid ID mistakes. Hence, the yellows. Once the Luftwaffe went on the defensive, the yellows ----certainly on the noses-----were dropped. As to the actual color, I would say that the Gemini BF-109s, plus some of the Corgis, come closest to "gelb", however it should be noted that this color was often hastily applied by overworked ground crews, and the coats may have been rather thin and easily worn down on some planes, therefore paler.

Thanks for the brief explanation of the early Luftwaffe camo, Ed.

" I would say that the Gemini BF-109s, plus some of the Corgis, come closest to "gelb", however it should be noted that this color was often hastily applied by overworked ground crews, and the coats may have been rather thin and easily worn down on some planes, therefore paler. "


Not sure if it was intentional or not, but this is a feature of the great Carousel 1/48 Galland 109. The yellow is pretty thin, and you can see the camo pattern underneath. Again, don't know if they meant to represent this, or just had the yellow paint too thin?

The question was raised on the old DHP, I think, Snake, and the answer was that the thin yellow on the C1 model was deliberate.

It was on the old DHP Ed, and remember it well.

I picked up a bunch of Carousel aircraft models, when they were being virtually dumped at GoToMotorbids, including this Galland 109.

While it may have been intentional for effect, would have kind of preferred that they went with a slightly thicker coat. It isn't really distracting, but it is noticeable, and just seems like a flaw.

Just my opinion.