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World War II: Great Britain
Aircraft of Great Britain in WWII.
Hosted by Rowan Baylis
Colour advice please
__dmh__
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: December 31, 2007
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 12:39 AM UTC
Hi

I'm just about to start (my first) the build of my Douglas Dakota, using the colour scheme below:




I'm using RAF Dark Earth and RAF Dark Green for the main body, but I'm not too sure about the colour for the underside.

I've been advised that RAF Medium Sea grey might be the closest?

Can anyone offer any help?

Thanks a lot.
_H_Dori
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: November 09, 2006
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 12:43 AM UTC
Alright Darren. That pic actually makes it look a bit like RAF Sky.

Sure someone more knowledgable than me will be along soon though.

H
__dmh__
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 12:58 AM UTC
OK.

Looking at those pics I kind of wish I was doing the USAF one, as the lines between the lower and upper colours seemed delibrately wavey - not a clean line like the RAF ones seems to have. Although the pic is the BBMF one, so it could well have been 'tarted' up for the benefit of the shows etc.
vanize
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Texas, United States
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 02:55 AM UTC
well, you've got two options on this one as I see it.

your subject was wither given the RAF color scheme in the factory, or by the RAF at a receiving depot (or whatever they were called). either way, the pictures you have are clearly of a restored aircraft, so you cannot depend on the colors in those photos being accurate (though they are probably not a bad guideline as to what the real ones might have been).

So, if is was a factory applied scheme, it would have been "equivalent "colors - something like ANA613 (olive drab/dark green) and ANA617(dark earth), and ANA610 (type 'S' sky). these are similar too, but not usually the same as the RAF colors (actually, the sky color is quite different). Often times, normal USAF olive drab was considered a fair substitute for RAF dark green for expediency's sake.

But since Dakota sub-assemblies were made in different factories, pre-painted, and then assembled in another place, I seriously doubt if the camo would have been factory applied (you don't want mis-matched parts). I could be wrong about this, but I think Dakotas were only supplied thru lend-lease via US army stocks, so that would help confirm this notion (though not actually proof, because in the case of the p-40, for example, the USAAF took on many examples of aircraft painted in RAF equivalent colors that were factory applied, but again i do not think this is the case for dakotas)

this means the RAF repainted the machine upon arrival into their stocks (but probably before assgning it to a unit). Question is, how thorough were they? did they just spay RAF dark earth over the factory olive drab and neutral grey? Did they also paint the neutral gray over with RAF sky (an odd greenish gray color a lot like the one you see in those pics), or did they repaint everything? No telling now, as clearly everything has been repainted (probably several times) on the aircraft you have the pictures of.

If we are going to go by your picture, then I would say go with the who RAF scheme. Usually RAF sky was used with the dark earth and dark green combo. Medium sky gray was more often used with the dark green ocean gray combo. Plus it clearly looks like they are going for RAF sky in those pictures. If they made an attempt at matching the original colors when restoring the machine, then that is clearly what they were trying to reproduce in this case (of course they just might have gone with what they thought was correct and not bothered with what was actually there).

hope that makes things as clear as mud for you...
__dmh__
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: December 31, 2007
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 03:13 AM UTC
Thanks for the lengthy response

The pictures were from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight website (www.bbmf.co.uk), so I'd assume that they were meticulous on the authenticity of the colourings. I understand what you're saying about it being restored, but finding a Dakota in RAF colours is hard enough (they all seem to be USAF) - finding an old (unrestored or restored and reliable) is VERY hard! I'll keep hunting though as I want it to be accurate.

Thanks again
vanize
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Texas, United States
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 03:16 AM UTC
well, the battle of britain memorial flight will be meticulous about restoring the aircraft into the colors they were supposed to have by the regulations. that doesn't mean they aren't going to interpret olive drab as dark green though....

but at least you can rely on the fact that the aircraft was supposed to be in RAF dark earth, dark green, sky now!
__dmh__
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 03:22 AM UTC

Quoted Text


but at least you can rely on the fact that the aircraft was supposed to be in RAF dark earth, dark green, sky now!



I can indeed - I'll get them ordered tonight

Thanks both of you
vanize
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Texas, United States
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 03:25 AM UTC
as for who makes a decent RAF sky - Gunze Sangyo H74 sky (duck egg green) is a reasonable representation in my opinion.
__dmh__
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
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Posted: Friday, February 01, 2008 - 03:28 AM UTC
There's a good Company here that sell it (HERE)
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