1/48 Eduard, Bf 109 G-2 ‘black 13’ was flown by Oberleutnant Günther Rall when he was Staffelkapitan of 8./JG 52 in September 1942. The G-2 was a non-pressurized fighter equipped with 2 7.92 mm machine guns mounted over the engine and a MG 151 20 mm cannon that fired through the prop hub. It used the same wheels as the 109 F series, 650 mm x 150 mm mains, and a 290 mm x 110 tail wheel. The colors were the standard finish of the time, undersurfaces and fuselage sides, RLM 76, upper surfaces RLM 75 and heavily painted areas of 74 gray. The spinner and propeller was RLM 70 blackgreen. The III./JG 52 emblem was as shown.
Luftwaffe pilot Günther Rall achieved a total of 275 victories making him currently the highest ranked living ace of all time, after the death of Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. Perhaps Rall would have exceeded this tally had he not been transferred from the Russian Front to take charge of II/JG 11 in the defense of Germany March 1944. The overwhelming numbers of American fighters made victories harder to come by and most pilots did not survive the home defense arena. On 12 May 1944, in an air battle with P-47’s from the 56th Fighter Group, Rall’s left thumb was shot off and he was hospitalized for six months of painful recovery. In March 1945, Rall took charge of the prominent home defense fighter wing JG 300. He gave up his beloved 109 and flew the Focke-Wulf 190 D-9 until the end of the war.
