Messerschmitt Me-109 K-14 - Post War West German Luftwaffe

After the war ended in 1945, tensions between the US and the Soviet Union rapidly mounted. Therefore in 1946 the US military started arguing for re re-armament of the German forces to withstand the Soviet threat. In spite of furious protests from the British and French a new German Luftwaffe was formed in April 1946 in the US controlled sector of occupied Germany.

Although the Americans had helped to form the new Luftwaffe they were reluctant to supply aircraft from their own stocks and the new Luftwaffe was only a paper force during the first two months of it's existence. The officers of the service were keen to show their good will however and started to look for aircraft to arm the new service. An aircraft that was available in large quantities in Germany was the Me-109. Large numbers were scattered about the airfields, in woods and in abandoned factories. As they were easier to repair and maintain than the FW-190 and more advanced Me-262's, it was decided to make the Me-109 once again the main fighter of the Luftwaffe.

A program was started to collect as many complete airframes and spares as possible in order to rebuild one hundred aircraft for the fighter squadrons of the Luftwaffe. Most of the aircraft selected were of the K-4 variant and during reconstruction these were upgraded to K-14 standard. The K-14 featured the more powerful DB 603L engine and a four bladed propeller.

In June 1946 the JagdGeschwader 1 "Richthofen" was officially commissioned in Munich with a complement of 80 Me-109 K-14 fighters. The aircraft were painted in a new camouflage scheme which was to become the standard of the post war Luftwaffe and were marked with a new stylized version of the German Cross.

Although the K-14 was the most powerful version of the Me-109 ever, the aircraft was outdated and not able to hold its own against the newest Soviet fighters. In 1947 the last Me-109 was phased out of active service and the Luftwaffe was re-equipped with the P-51D Mustang.

The model

The model is a conversion of the Hobbycraft Me-109K with the Cape Hobby and Gift K-14 conversion set.