Short Sunderlands used in the Berlin Airlift 1948-49

[beany]

Can anyone help me with this please.

I've been invited by a work colleague who is ex-RAF to attend the local ATC Cadets as a civilian helper with a view to entering a diorama in the annual contest the cadet squadrons have. We are doing a scene from the Berlin Airlift. I have looked for quite some time on the old t'interweb and found the b/w photos of a Sunderland or two on the Havel See near RAF Gatow in Berlin where they principally delivered salt as they were the only aircraft able to transport this highly corrosive stuff! I understand from the research that 10 RAF Sunderlands were used from 202 and 230 squadrons.

What I need help with is accurate colour scheme references (although a guess would be ocean grey/slate grey wings and upper fuselage over white) for any of the 10 used and in particular need the serials and reg. numbers to use on our model which will be of a Sunderland being unloaded into small boats on the river. (Don't ya just love the prospect of modelling water without it looking totally pants?! Mind you if it does I'll just blame it on the kids - if they can't take a joke they shouldn't have joined...)

Thanks in advance.

P.S. We only have four weeks to do this!!

Alan

[Potato Pete]

Alan,

The only example I can find is a GR5 of 201 Sqdn, NS*D VB889. There is a photo in the Warpaint book and a profile in the Osprey book. The colours should be just medium sea grey uppers, and white sides and undersurfaces. The serial number is repeated on the underwing in 36"(48"?) letters. There is a useful plan view of the colour scheme in the Warpaint book.

HTH

Pete

[Len Thomson]

Ocean Grey was not a colour used by Coastal Command IIRC. I would most gertainly go with Medium Sea Grey.

[miduppergunner]

I concur with Pete - the upper leading edge is white by the way - wrap around - the grey starting a little backf rom the leading edge of th upper wing. I have a neighbour who flew Sunderlands during the war and a little after - if he is not away I will see if he knows anything that may help.

[Edgar]

Sea Grey Medium was the specified colour; under surfaces glossy white, with the white "extended upwards and merged into the upper surfaces in such a manner that, in front and side elevations, the aircraft appears almost entirely white." Engine nacelles "The standard white is to be extended upwards to cover the whole of the top surface, forward of the boundary of the upper surface colour of the wing near the leading edge." In actual fact the white wasn't "merged," but had a hard delineation from the top colour. 201 Squadron:- ML824 NS-Z; NJ193 NS-L; NJ267 NS-P; PP115 NS-C; RN284 NS-C; RN304 NS-L; SZ567 NS-B; SZ577 NS-P; VB889 NS-C. In Arthur Pearcy's "Berlin Airlift," there's a photo of NS-K, with small boats standing by, but, as yet, I can't read the serial no. Interesting point:- no guns in the rear turret. Code letters appear to be red. When the airlift started, originally, the American side of Havel Lake was used, but it was moved to the British side, into the RAF yacht club, which became Gatow Marine Base, and was christened "HMS Deadalus." (at least that's what the book says; shouldn't it be "Daedalus," or is it a victim of Service humour?)

Edgar

[beany]

Well, unfortunately we ran out of time so the diorama was incomplete but the kids are taking it along to the Wings Field day this weekend anyway. I was only asked to help out with this some four weeks ago and started from scratch when the other squadrons started back in January I believe. The main omission is serials from the Sunderland which I just didn't have time to print up the decals for - a shame as I put a lot of effort into researching a particular a/c to model for the diorama. Here are some pics of the a/c on the baseboard of the diorama. The dio actually looked more alive once we scratch built some barges with boxes and sacks on and added several figures (from model railway type people). I've asked that someone take a picture of the dio in situ on the day as I was unable to attend myself. Good fun but very disappointed not to have finished in time.

Kids had the idea for the water (from Art Attack on TV) which was cling film and PVA glue over a painted baseboard. I actually quite like the effect. Remember this comp. is really for 14-17 year old cadets with help from grown ups (and not entirely the work of the elders like some squadrons that could be mentioned!).

Anyway, the kids were stoked with the result and convinced it will win so who am I to disillusion them. They had fun doing it so that's what counts.

Cheers

Al.

P.S. The trees were the result of brutalising a £3.99 12 inch fibre optic Xmas tree - cut off the branches, pull out the fibres and wrap the ends in masking tape and then glue into a drilled hole in the baseboard.

[Radio Gnome]

Lovely job on a beautiful aircraft!