I am planning to make Kuttelwascher's Hurricane BE581 for the Aces High 2 Campaign. I am finding two profiles, one in overall night, and one in green and grey over night. I am guessing, from the number of kill markings (6) on the black scheme, that it was the earlier one. The camouflaged profiles don't usually show kill markings, but the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's re-painted Hurricane that is in this scheme does have them.

I think that there are some photos of the aircraft the morning after Kuttelwascher had 3 He-111 victories in one night, in the camo scheme. Does anyone have copies of these, or know of a book with them in? Some profiles of the camo scheme have the rudder in black, and others not- which was correct for this night?

I am going to use the Revell IIc 1/72 kit, and TechMod transfers.

I'm not sure of the dates, but I think the profile of the black ruddered version is from a contemporary painting. According to the BBMF blurb the black rudder (with red dope repair patches) was a replacement. There was also a replacement black panel on the port wing,towards the rear between the outboard cannon and aileron.
From memory the machine has five kill markings at this time.
I'm sure someone will know more!
Steve

Both versions of BE581 appear as profiles in The Aviation Workshop Publications, On Target Profiles 12 Hawker Hurricane in RAF and Commonwealth Service. As the reference used it says private sources so you may have problems finding any published photographs. In both cases the location and date are the same, Redhill, May 1942. Identical profiles can also be found in Combat Colours Number 2 The Hawker Hurricane in RAF, Commonwealth and FAA Service, but there is a four view of the Night Intruder Scheme (camouflage). Neither publication shows any kill markings on the camouflage version. As the aircraft must be depicted soon after the camouflage was applied it is probable that the kill markings were painted over and not reapplied. They may, of course, have been added again later. Both publications show red repair patches on the rudder and fuselage.

From November 1940 night fighters were painted all over Special Night, an ultra matt black. Night and Special Night were developed as a countermeasure to searchlights. Black is not a very good disguise for an aircraft at night as it has a high contrast with the sky especially in moonlight. For this reason the Night Fighter Scheme was later changed to all over Medium Sea Grey with a Dark Green disruptive pattern on the upper surfaces. No 1 Squadron were involved in intruder missions that involved flying over to France and loitering around airbases hoping to pick off aircraft as they took off and came in to land. They adopted the Night Intruder Scheme of Ocean Grey/Dark Green disruptive pattern on the upper surfaces and Special Night under surfaces. Special Night was retained on the Night Intruder Scheme because it was thought likely that they might encounter searchlights.

During the RAF’s sojourn in France some Hurricanes, in order to make them look more like French aircraft, painted red, white and blue stripes on the rudder. These markings were found to be useful but there were concerns that that applying extra layers on paint to the rudder might affect the balance of the controls adversely. So, instead, fin flashes were introduced. Methinks it more likely that BE581’s rudder was simply left unpainted for similar reasons. The profile does not show any black panel on the wing.

Antoni, thank you for your very informative reply.

Do you know whether this aircraft had flared exhausts? I have found a scanned set of illustrations on the web (a Russian site I think) by James Goulding that shows 5 views of the aircraft, and in these it has the flared exhausts, and the black panel Steven mentions, but no kill markings.

Did these night intruders carry the normal IFF antenna from the stabilisers to just forward of the sky fuselage band?