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World War II: Great Britain
Aircraft of Great Britain in WWII.
Hosted by Rowan Baylis
Which Is Correct ?
armouredcharmer
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Joined: June 09, 2009
KitMaker: 670 posts
AeroScale: 175 posts
Posted: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 05:30 PM UTC
Hi Guys,I`ve finally begun to paint my 1/32 scale BoB Spitfire but i`ve gotten stuck on the colour of the paint on the underside.
Different guides say to Paint it Light Grey,the guide i`m using says to paint it Duck Egg Blue but i`ve even seen some saying that it`s Black and White !.
WHO`S RIGHT ????
Somebody out there help me please as it really confusing (by the way,i`m doing Al Deere`s Aircraft.if that`s any help)
werx07
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Washington, United States
Joined: February 21, 2010
KitMaker: 26 posts
AeroScale: 24 posts
Posted: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 06:45 PM UTC
I'm pretty sure black and white is correct for that Spitfire.
EdgarBrooks
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England - South East, United Kingdom
Joined: June 03, 2006
KitMaker: 397 posts
AeroScale: 384 posts
Posted: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 10:49 PM UTC
The black/white (wings and fuselage centre section only, with roundels, the rest was supposed to be silver) scheme lasted until June, 1940 (the 7th, to be exact,) but shortage of Sky paint meant that its entry was a bit stuttery, to say the least.
There's a certain amount of evidence that some Squadrons used Sky Blue ( a colour designed for drones, like the Queen Wasp,) since they had no idea what Sky was (it was Sidney Cotton's "Camotint" renamed,) so used what they thought was right.
Personally, I'd also forget all reference to grey undersides; I suspect that someone has seen "grey" relics, from crash sites, and didn't realise that Spitfires (and other a/c, as well, possibly) had a grey undercoat/primer, before the camouflage colours were added.
Note, too, that, when Sky was introduced, the roundels were painted over.
Edgar
wizard179
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New South Wales, Australia
Joined: January 27, 2006
KitMaker: 251 posts
AeroScale: 179 posts
Posted: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 12:10 AM UTC
My references has a colour profile of Al Deere's Spitfire P9398 and suggests that the underside was duck-egg green but has the disclaimer that the undersurface colour is based on a b&w photo. They represent the plan in early June so the proper shade of Sky may not have been available, as per Edgar's comments, leading to Duck-Egg Green.

I assume that this means you can discount black & white as, depending on the angle & clarity of the photo (unfortunately not shown), the very dark "Night" or very white "White" or the demarc itself would be obviuos. You could probably even discount duck-egg blue as that would have appeared darker but again depends on clarity of the image.

Cheers
Damian
EdgarBrooks
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England - South East, United Kingdom
Joined: June 03, 2006
KitMaker: 397 posts
AeroScale: 384 posts
Posted: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 07:55 PM UTC
There was never any such colour, in official nomenclature, as duck egg green. The first mention, obviously as a response to "What the Hell is Sky?" signals, comes in an Air Ministry signal, which says that "Sky Type S can best be described as a Duck-egg Bluish Green."
Later, at the end of 1940, when it began to appear in Air Ministry Orders, it was described as "duck-egg blue (Sky Type "S")." Although I seem to be on my own, I take the use of lower case letters, for duck-egg blue, to be a description, not a title (when you read Service letters and signals, you become increasingly aware of what sticklers they were for protocol and correct English usage,) which leaves Sky Type "S", with its capital letters, as the name. Later in the war, probably when Type "S" (for Smooth) paints became standard, the name became just Sky.
Since Sky = Camotint = duck-egg blue, you cannot discount it as being too dark, since it was, in fact, very pale, at times almost white. Squadrons, and repair units, were told that they could spray "not more than" two coats of Sky over the existing paint (so you must decide, for yourselves, what effect the underlying black, on the port wing, might have had,) but, due to balance considerations, ailerons were to be stripped of the underside paint, before the Sky was applied.
Edgar
MikeMx
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England - North East, United Kingdom
Joined: May 22, 2008
KitMaker: 649 posts
AeroScale: 434 posts
Posted: Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 09:33 AM UTC
I use Xtracylix's RAF Sky. Looks about right to me compared to Spitfires and Hurricanes that still fly today.

thanks
Mike
robot_
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United Kingdom
Joined: March 08, 2009
KitMaker: 719 posts
AeroScale: 691 posts
Posted: Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 11:59 AM UTC
Ironically, the BBMF is known to have used Humbrol paints as colour references for having paint mixed...
tornado64
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England - North West, United Kingdom
Joined: August 15, 2009
KitMaker: 203 posts
AeroScale: 57 posts
Posted: Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 11:54 PM UTC

Quoted Text

There was never any such colour, in official nomenclature, as duck egg green. The first mention, obviously as a response to "What the Hell is Sky?" signals, comes in an Air Ministry signal, which says that "Sky Type S can best be described as a Duck-egg Bluish Green."
Later, at the end of 1940, when it began to appear in Air Ministry Orders, it was described as "duck-egg blue (Sky Type "S")." Although I seem to be on my own, I take the use of lower case letters, for duck-egg blue, to be a description, not a title (when you read Service letters and signals, you become increasingly aware of what sticklers they were for protocol and correct English usage,) which leaves Sky Type "S", with its capital letters, as the name. Later in the war, probably when Type "S" (for Smooth) paints became standard, the name became just Sky.
Since Sky = Camotint = duck-egg blue, you cannot discount it as being too dark, since it was, in fact, very pale, at times almost white. Squadrons, and repair units, were told that they could spray "not more than" two coats of Sky over the existing paint (so you must decide, for yourselves, what effect the underlying black, on the port wing, might have had,) but, due to balance considerations, ailerons were to be stripped of the underside paint, before the Sky was applied.
Edgar



it is also not to be forgotten that when first in use difrent squadrons had difrent ideas of what sky colour was as they mixed thier own i am sure i have seen bright blue in chroma to represent it
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