Has one of the skinners here ever done pro-Allied Romanian Bf-109G6 skins? In particular I am looking for skins for the Grupul 9 V?n?toare.

I an asking, because I have recently build the historic mission during which Helmut Lipfert and his wingman shot down Romanian aces Constantin Cantacuzino and Traian D?rjan near Zvolen on 25 February 1945.

They should look a bit like this i guess...



ATB
Armin

Or this...

Thanks Emel and Armin.

On the Grupul 9 photos I have found I can't clearly see the colour of the wing tips. Are white wing tips correct for the early 1945 periode?

Afaik yes they are. They were used to clearly distinguish the axis aircraft now in allied service from enemy aircraft - which had yellow eastern front markings. But of course there were a lot of differences in
paintschemes - some aircraft had white underwingtips only and some surely - against the rules - none. The yellow engine undercowlings were overpainted white too and some aircraft used full size romanian rudder stripes or half size ones - the latter on the top of the tail rudder. Aircraft numbers in a lot of different
shapes, some placed in front of the fus roundel, some aft of them. Prop spinners usually plain black but there were exceptions too.

ATB
Armin

At the moment I am thinking about what to do with the 25 February 1945 mission I've created and if and how to release it. The mission itself is relatively simple and in my opinion not worth releasing it here at A&A. But maybe we could try something different this time.
It could be the basis for a themed skin pack. My mission could be added as an extra to this skin pack. The following five skins would be needed:

- D?rjans Bf-109G6 "Yellow 9"
- Cantacuzinos Bf-109G6 "Red 2"
- two I./JG53 Bf-109G14 skins for Lipfert and his wingman
- I./SG 2 Fw-190F8 winter camo skin (with national markings, but without numbers)

What do you guys think about this idea. Is one of you interested in such a project?

This all sounds very intriguing, sadly you can count me in under one condition: postpone until January. I'm currently fully occupied with a big skin project that I hope will be finished and uploaded before Xmas. Sorry for that. I was aiming for one or two 109s at the most which I thought I might pull off as a quick interim job.

If you're in a hurry to get the job done, let me know so I can re-evaluate my situation in case I need to "withdraw" due to my hefty timetable

Edit:

I'm also looking forward to work with you on this one Armin, would be fun. We'd have to sort out whose skinning what, but lets not go too far ahead yet.

I'm interested though,
Marcus

No need to hurry. I can wait till January.

By the way, does anybody own "The War Diary of Hauptmann Helmut Lipfert"?
I wonder if it contains any information on this mission and the fighting in Slovakia during early 1945. Moreover I am still searching for a photo of Lipfert's Bf-109 from 1945.

I have it. If I can remember there actually is a description of a 109s vs 109s with Romanian AF on the 25th of February 1945.

The combat itself doesn't seem to have been such phenomenal. Lipfert seems to have actually wanted to "test" the two Romanian pilots attacking him to find out if they were part of the same pilot group he had trained earlier that year at Tiraspol.

With only one MG operating he attacked the pair of Romanian 109s. They set course for home with full speed but Lipfert kept chasing the two. He opened fire with his MG at the wingman. It looked as if both pilots were having great difficulties of handling their 109s, therefore only mild evasive actions were taken. Lipfert soon realized these were not from his former "class", also he saw that they were flying older and slower 109 versions which allowed him to quickly gain on them to attack again. The rear most enemy 109 pilot did very little evasive manoeuvres and took in every burst that Lipfert sent at him. He was already smoking heavily but kept flying full speed ahead with Lipfert behind him. At some point the Romanian flight leader decided he had had enough and broke away abandoning his hapless wingman. Lipfert continued behind the wingman firing all the way when suddenly the Romanian Messerschmitt crashed into a hill without exploding. As Lipfert had sent his wingman home he didn't have a witness to this combat and could not claim a victory.

So, summa summarum: if these two Romanian Fighter pilots were indeed Darjan and Cantacuzino, it was a rather poor show from both of them (I know I have no right to say that as I'm no combat pilot and wasn't there). Either they were at that time both extremely disillusioned, tired of war, unwilling to engage their former allies which led in to this poor performance at February 25 1945, or then these two pilots were different pilots, rookies perhaps.

Finding photos of any of Lipfert's 109's can prove to be difficult. It may well be there are none available, at least none during his period in I/JG 53. Samson skinned a 109G flown by Lipfert but it's from a much earlier time period. Wishing luck though.

eMeL

Thanks Emel.

The Romanian version of the event is a little different. After Cantacuzino had shot down a Fw-190F8 from SG 2 the two Romanian pilots got careless and started looking for the wreck to confirm the kill. A very bad idea in a combat zone. They did not see the attacking German Bf-109s, which could explain why there were no evasive manoeuvres. Tragically D?rjan had indeed been one of the pilots trained by Lipfert at Tiraspol.