I realise I ask more questions than I answer, but I greatly appreciate any tips or help given by you experts :-). But as you might have guessed I have another question. My Spitfire MkXIVc is ready for its camouflage. I’ve painted the underside Medium Grey, and painted the top with Ocean Grey. It’s now ready for its dark green camouflage. I usually enlarge the kit instructions to the proper scale, cut out what I need and I have a template for masking.
But in the kit instructions there is only a top view with D-Day stripes, so a view of the complete camouflage is rather limited. Does anyone know what is the proper scheme is, and where I could find a template I could use as mentioned above ??

Hi,
I think the pattern is the same irrespective of camo colours. The only question is whether its
an A scheme or a B scheme, a mirror image of A. So any other Spit in the A or B scheme without invasion stripes would do.
I'm sure the better informed will be a long soon.
Cheers
Peter

What there is visible of the camouflage, doesn't look like a A scheme or a B scheme. In some parts it does, and some it doens't. Whether this is due to poor instructions I don't know.

Hi again mossieramm,
I'm stumped. I thought there was only A and B.
Looks like one of the Spit experts will have to sort this one.
Good luck and sorry I can't say much more.
Cheers
Peter

Hi mossieramm, my reference book on spitfires states that camo schemes A and B were merged on 14 January 1941 and only scheme A was to be used as standard after that. The only D-Day XIV profiles in the book show standard camo paterns.

Sorry about the poor quality, I don't have a scanner
As for a template there are after market paint masks available or you could make your own. Place the wing over a good quality piece of paper and draw round the wing to give an outline. Then copy the camo patern onto it. cut out the areas to be masked and tape them onto the upper wing surface. This can be repeated for the other wing and tailplane. The fuselage can be done the same way but will probably be more fiddly. Another way, the one I use is to use Blue tac, roll it out into thin sausages and lay them onto the wing and fuselage to outline the camo patern. Then fill in with pieces of masking tape.

Hi brandy, don't worry about the quality of your print. I do have a question about it though. Looking at the side profiles, I notice that the camouflage is not the same, for instance look at the tail-root and near the exhaust, the Green is different. Why is that ??
Just curious, what reference did you use ?? I don't have many references on the Spitfire.
I don't live near a hobbyshop that sells masks. But I've found my technique to work fine (except now), but I'm always open to sugestions. The technique you use sounds good, I'll give it try, thanks for tip.

I've been looking into RAF camo tring to find definite information on how camo was applied. There are a lot of contradicting stories and it is a real minefield. One I read somewhere was that the camo paterns were laid down as official schemes and the paterns had to start and finish at certain points on the airframe, eg X inches along the wing leading edge running to Y inches along the trailing edge. However there was some leeway allowed to prevent any slowing of production and the patern lines could vary somewhat [within certain limits] in between these start finish points so long as the general patern was followed. This could explain the slight variation in the two side profiles in my earlier post. I have seen photos of groups of spitfires and there does seem some slight variation in the "waviness" of the camo patern, especially on later marks.
My main reference on the spitfire is "Spitfire The History" by Eric B. Morgan & Edward Shacklady. It is a big book, 634 pages, and really does go into the whole spitfire story from Mk1 to the Mk47. There are a lot of colour profiles and photos in the book. Appendix IX give lots of info on the official camo schemes, mainly Air Ministry paiting requirements. Even here there is some discrepancy between instructions issued by the Air Ministry and what was actually done in the factories.

:-) I managed to find these, they may be of some use. :-)
1. Spit camo
2. Spit camo
3. Spit camo
Mal

Thanks for the links Holdfast.
Looking at a photogragh of a squadron of Spitfire Mk XIV's in Signal's Spitfire in action, there are four plane in the photo, all are camouflaged but all have a slightly different pattern.
So after doing a bit more searching, I've come to the conclusion, that the camouflage scheme is just a guide line. Just as long the colours are correct.