commonly used in north africa, large umbrellas were used to shade the cockpit of fighter planes, while on the ground. I've seen several pics of german planes with these in place and they are usually large and colourful beach umbrellas that are used. Most of the time they were just stuffed in the back of the cockpit but some of the 109G trop models had little umbrella holders on the outside of the fuselage.
A great source of umbrellas for this, in 1/18, are cocktail umbrellas. My local grocery store carries them. They look decent (though i'll probably darken the wood colour with a wash) and make for an neat little add on to any tropical 109.
http://old.messerschmitt-bf109.de/pics- ... swfoto.jpg
http://old.messerschmitt-bf109.de/pics- ... swfoto.jpg
Cockpit umbrella
Cockpit umbrella
i never met an airplane i didn't like...
