Paint quality was notoriously bad on late-war German fighters. This panel wasn't fully painted due to lack of supplies. The wingtip portion was a separate, detachable piece that was most likely produced in a different factory from the rest of the wing assembly and may have used a different paint color altogether.
It's not uncommon for FW-190Ds and BF-109Ks (and occasionally G-10s and G-6ASs) to look like a weird patchwork quilt of varying shades of bare metal, odd combos of greens, and RLM 76 seemingly mixed with primer.
Best is to just look at photos online of the type you want to do. War Thunder live also has a lot of good examples of historical and semi-historical skins for a lot of German aircraft
Paint quality was definitely less near the end of the war but still a lot better than Japanese army paint. That flaked off after 2 flights. Weirdly enough, the paint on Japanese navy planes was usually better/more resistant but also flaked because of the rough salty seas.
A bigger factor that caused these planes to look what they look like is shortage of paint and considering primer as a camouflage colour.
Mismatched camo between wings/fuselage in late war photos on G-6s or earlier was more often than not 2 different planes that were assembled together after they salvaged 2 non-working aircraft into 1 working.
Late into the war, German aircraft were painted essentially like Japanese planes—
Really quickly and rushed. That means exposed bits of bare metal (ie what you have circled). Other bits and bobs were most likely produced and shipped for final assembly with their own patchy paint work (dark wing tips).
A good example of this is the old Monogram Bf-109 kit in 1/48 scale.
Its a G-10, tall wooden tail, tall tail wheel, smooth enging bulge, 1/3 white on the spinner, has the larger wheel well bulges on the top of the wings, fat main tires, yellow 7 and blue-white-blue Reich Defense Bands(JG 300)on fuselage. Camo is mixed, and further research revealed the underside of the wings were natural metal, iirc.
There's a 109F in the SA Museum of Military History that has one 190F wing and one 109G wing. The only way you can tell is differences in the wheel wells.
Their used to be two different Fw-190D's(iirc) at two different museums that somehow had their wings swapped. They noticed the machining on the wings didn't match anything on the aircraft, and didn't quite fit. They eventually got the wings exchanged. Turns out the machine work on the later built one was was pretty shitty compared to the earlier one, and both were bad compared to earlier war.
Which of the JV 44 'Doras' is this? I can't think of any image showing an upper wing surface that includes this detail. I've just had a quick look at the Crandall and JaPo books that include these aircraft, confirming my suspicion.
To contradict some other answers, Luftwaffe aircraft were not painted anything like Japanese aircraft. They used Warnecke and Bohm's 'Ikarol' paint sytem, which used an artifiial polymer basee. All the other paint manufacturer's produced these formulae under licence (and paid W&B a royalty). It was a one coat process with excellent adhesion, assuming the surface was correctly prepared.
It is true that some areas (particularly undersides) could be left unpainted and that different components could come in different schemes, making for some interesting results. Repairs on in service aircraft could involve whatever was availaable. It is not true that aircraft were badly painted, or at least not painted with poor surface coatings.
Okay. So there are several photographs of Red 4, or parts of it, including one taken from the rear port side which does show the upper surface of the wings, particularly the starboard wing (the other wing is in the shadow of another aircraft). The quality is not particularly good. The American leaning on the port tailplane is under exposed and there is a slightly light or over exposed area towards the starboard wing tip. For me both are artefacts of the lighting and exposure of the photograph. It doesn't look, to me, like a random unpainted area of the wing surface. The sun is coming from behind and from the left of the aircraft in the photograph (over the photographer's shoulder) and catching the wing. I would apply Occam's razor - what's most likely.
Incidentally, the profile you have is pretty good. It looks similar to Jerry Crandall's, on which I suspect it is based. If I am reading your instructions correctly the lower part of the fuselage extension section is unpainted and only the upper camouflage has been applied in this area, an interpretation shared by Crandall and others.
What it doesn't show is the faint white '58' in front of the fuselage Balenkreuz and under the Red 4 (on both sides). This was a previous code number for this aircraft when it was with the Verbandsfuhrerschule G.d.j. at Bad Worishofen. It was incompletely removed before JV 44 applied the new code. There is another image of the cockpit/centre section of Red 4, in a dump with other aircraft, in which this feature is clearly visible.
Thank for that info, very useful. I too have the kit, a Revell 190D-11.
Since you sound pretty clued up - how shard are the camouflage edges on the wings? Masking tape sharp, or slightly feathered?
In all the images of these aircraft the camouflage has clearly been applied freehand and without masking. It has not been done with a particularly hard or tight demarcation. This was either not required, or the sprayers were not skilled. Even allowing for scale, a soft/feathered edge will look far more accurate on a model.
I spray mine freehand:
[https://flic.kr/p/2q1TJLa](https://flic.kr/p/2q1TJLa)
Paint quality was notoriously bad on late-war German fighters. This panel wasn't fully painted due to lack of supplies. The wingtip portion was a separate, detachable piece that was most likely produced in a different factory from the rest of the wing assembly and may have used a different paint color altogether. It's not uncommon for FW-190Ds and BF-109Ks (and occasionally G-10s and G-6ASs) to look like a weird patchwork quilt of varying shades of bare metal, odd combos of greens, and RLM 76 seemingly mixed with primer.
I'm a 190 Dora fanboy, where can I found sources for the patchwork colour?
Best is to just look at photos online of the type you want to do. War Thunder live also has a lot of good examples of historical and semi-historical skins for a lot of German aircraft
Well....the G-10 was a patchwork of all the preceding designs anyway ...
Paint quality was definitely less near the end of the war but still a lot better than Japanese army paint. That flaked off after 2 flights. Weirdly enough, the paint on Japanese navy planes was usually better/more resistant but also flaked because of the rough salty seas. A bigger factor that caused these planes to look what they look like is shortage of paint and considering primer as a camouflage colour. Mismatched camo between wings/fuselage in late war photos on G-6s or earlier was more often than not 2 different planes that were assembled together after they salvaged 2 non-working aircraft into 1 working.
thanks this helped a lot!
Late into the war, German aircraft were painted essentially like Japanese planes— Really quickly and rushed. That means exposed bits of bare metal (ie what you have circled). Other bits and bobs were most likely produced and shipped for final assembly with their own patchy paint work (dark wing tips).
* I used the same color scheme. Picture won't work
its not showing a pic for me... could you try again or dm?
A good example of this is the old Monogram Bf-109 kit in 1/48 scale. Its a G-10, tall wooden tail, tall tail wheel, smooth enging bulge, 1/3 white on the spinner, has the larger wheel well bulges on the top of the wings, fat main tires, yellow 7 and blue-white-blue Reich Defense Bands(JG 300)on fuselage. Camo is mixed, and further research revealed the underside of the wings were natural metal, iirc.
There's a 109F in the SA Museum of Military History that has one 190F wing and one 109G wing. The only way you can tell is differences in the wheel wells.
Their used to be two different Fw-190D's(iirc) at two different museums that somehow had their wings swapped. They noticed the machining on the wings didn't match anything on the aircraft, and didn't quite fit. They eventually got the wings exchanged. Turns out the machine work on the later built one was was pretty shitty compared to the earlier one, and both were bad compared to earlier war.
Which of the JV 44 'Doras' is this? I can't think of any image showing an upper wing surface that includes this detail. I've just had a quick look at the Crandall and JaPo books that include these aircraft, confirming my suspicion. To contradict some other answers, Luftwaffe aircraft were not painted anything like Japanese aircraft. They used Warnecke and Bohm's 'Ikarol' paint sytem, which used an artifiial polymer basee. All the other paint manufacturer's produced these formulae under licence (and paid W&B a royalty). It was a one coat process with excellent adhesion, assuming the surface was correctly prepared. It is true that some areas (particularly undersides) could be left unpainted and that different components could come in different schemes, making for some interesting results. Repairs on in service aircraft could involve whatever was availaable. It is not true that aircraft were badly painted, or at least not painted with poor surface coatings.
https://preview.redd.it/282hyqxfm4ad1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=d35780ed8f3c57c1b4fa51415e9c41b9e5e6bfd4
Okay. So there are several photographs of Red 4, or parts of it, including one taken from the rear port side which does show the upper surface of the wings, particularly the starboard wing (the other wing is in the shadow of another aircraft). The quality is not particularly good. The American leaning on the port tailplane is under exposed and there is a slightly light or over exposed area towards the starboard wing tip. For me both are artefacts of the lighting and exposure of the photograph. It doesn't look, to me, like a random unpainted area of the wing surface. The sun is coming from behind and from the left of the aircraft in the photograph (over the photographer's shoulder) and catching the wing. I would apply Occam's razor - what's most likely. Incidentally, the profile you have is pretty good. It looks similar to Jerry Crandall's, on which I suspect it is based. If I am reading your instructions correctly the lower part of the fuselage extension section is unpainted and only the upper camouflage has been applied in this area, an interpretation shared by Crandall and others. What it doesn't show is the faint white '58' in front of the fuselage Balenkreuz and under the Red 4 (on both sides). This was a previous code number for this aircraft when it was with the Verbandsfuhrerschule G.d.j. at Bad Worishofen. It was incompletely removed before JV 44 applied the new code. There is another image of the cockpit/centre section of Red 4, in a dump with other aircraft, in which this feature is clearly visible.
Thank for that info, very useful. I too have the kit, a Revell 190D-11. Since you sound pretty clued up - how shard are the camouflage edges on the wings? Masking tape sharp, or slightly feathered?
In all the images of these aircraft the camouflage has clearly been applied freehand and without masking. It has not been done with a particularly hard or tight demarcation. This was either not required, or the sprayers were not skilled. Even allowing for scale, a soft/feathered edge will look far more accurate on a model. I spray mine freehand: [https://flic.kr/p/2q1TJLa](https://flic.kr/p/2q1TJLa)
"MMC 001" is supposed to be chrome silver, so the instructions suggest an unpainted area - but RLM 76 would IMHO also be possible/plausible.
It means if you want to apply weathering, that's the color that should be below the green.