Did the color of the spinner on Typhoons denote what country was operating the aircraft, i.e. black for the RAF, white for Canadian, red for Australian ect. Can anyone shed any further light on this for me. Thank you.

I've not heard anything like that before, but some squadrons or individuals did their own things with spinners.

As far as I know, the regulations for spinner colours follow this time line:
Before 2nd Nov 1942, Sky

2nd Nov 1942 - 5th December 1942, White (along with the whole nose)

5th December 1942 - 23 January 1943, Spinner forward of the propeller blades: sky, remainder of nose in camouflage colours
(this order was badly worded, they had intended the whole spinner to be sky, but many squadrons interpreted it literally)

23 January 1943, Sky (clarification of the above)

Some people think that some squadrons in early 1943 used the ambiguous signals to make their own markings, e.g. it used to be thought that 609 Squadron's A and B flights had the rear half of the spinner painted red and blue, respectively, with the front part being sky, as per original signal. Chris Thomas, leading Typhoon historian, now doubts this, from looking at photos- more likely they all hard ocean grey rear parts. But he thinks there is more evidence for this colour theory from mid-1943 until early 1944.

Colour photographs show Typhoons of 56 and 198 Squadrons with the front part of the spinner in sky, and the rear parts in night (black).

I'm not sure of the date of the signal, but in mid-1944 Typhoons began getting night spinners, which they had until the end of the war. Some instead used camouflage colours for the spinner: I've seen profiles of MN258, DP-P, 193 Sqn, May 1944 with a dark green spinner; PD608, 5V--G, 439 Sqn RCAF in early 1945 with a ocean grey spinner.

After VE-day (and in some case before) several squadrons became more relaxed about colours: 193 Squadron painted all their's red, 245 Squadron had at least some blue spinners, in 1945 184 Sqn aircraft had white spinner with red dot in centre and a thin red band around half way back. I've also seen a profile of RB451, ZH-Y, 266 Sqn, April 1945, with a red spinner.

Some other special spinner colours I know of:

Squadron leader's aircraft of 245 Squadron, MR-?, with a sky and sky blue spiral spinner, at the time of D-Day (according to a profile on the official RAF website, but I have also see this aircraft, also in full D-Day stripes, depicted with a spinner with blue front half and white rear half).

609's Sqn Ld Ritchey flew R7752, PR-G with a sky spinner with a red tip (same as his 609 Squadron Spitfire, which was an echo of his Hurricane mk.I's red spinner), Beamont flew the same aircraft as Sqn Leader of 609, and by the end of his time with the unit, he had a completely yellow spinner.

I know of two aircraft, one flown by an American, and one by a Canadian, that copied the eccentric white spot on a black spinner from bomber squadrons. These aircraft are PD600, DP-C 'Little Rae', 193 Sqn F/O Heath (American), Nov 1944; and JR500, 5V-X, 439 Sqn RCAF.

Wow Mr. Micklem, thank you for this information, its very informative. Juan.

You're welcome Juan!

I just happened to have a couple of really good references to hand, plus some profiles i had collected from the web. Keep and eye on the forum for when I restart building my two Typhoons (thread), as one has a red spinner and cannon barrels, and the other yellow spinner and cannons- you should look pretty striking together.

Hello Mr. Micklem, I am looking for reference material on the Typhoon, I currently have the Squadron and Warpaint books as well as the Koku Fan book, which unfortunately written in Japanese, but some good pics. I'm hoping to find a book with good cockpit and wheelwell detail, something along the lines of Detail and Scale book would be great, is there anything you can recommend? Please advise. Juan.

Juan,

I don't actually have any books on the Typhoon (I have a few magazine articles and a history of 193 Squadron).

For a few useful photos of the last remaining Typhoon:
http://www.184squadron.com/rafhendon.htm

Note the grooved tail wheel- early Tiffies wouldn't have this.

A cockpit shot here:
http://www.wwiivehicles.com/unitedkingdom/aircraft/fighter/hawker-typhoon.asp

and here (scroll down):
http://www.spitfirespares.com/SpitfireSpares.com/Pages/fuel.html

A big one here:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Hawker-Typhoon.../0818953/&sid=3e10664a6d89e6e2e76bb197cb874ff8

Not an original reference, but I think the aires 1/48 wheel bays are accurate:
http://www.ipmsusa2.org/reviews2/aircraft/details/aires_48/aires_48_typhoon-whl-bay.htm

Also, I think the MDC 1/32 cockpit should be pretty accurate, so you can use that as a guide.

If you need information on colours:

Not much if anything was painted interior green. Undercarriage bays and inner surface of the doors was aluminium coloured.

Cockpit interiors were always black, but the framework could have been aluminium coloured or interior green on some.

Seat might have been bare aluminium, or painted grey, or maybe interior green.

There were lots of revisions to the planes as time when by- vents for the cockpit, IFF aerials changed, radio mast changed (and not necessarily at the same time as the canopy changed to the bubble). Late Tiffies had bigger tail planes to cope with carrying 1000 lbs bombs, four blade props, there were two types of air filter in the centre of the radiator, starting from when they went to Normandy after D-day. Also a tropical filter behind the radiator in the very late Typhoons.

Search on the forums on Britmodeller.com, Chris Thomas posts there, and he is the best source of knowledge on the Typhoon.

The build log of my stalled Two-Tiffies project is here:
https://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/144983&page=1

Thank you again Mr. Micklem. Juan.