Bristol F2B

[Honeybee]

Hi guys

Building a Roden F2B and would like to ask if the green on them is NIVO, which I have in an Xtracolour tin, or Humbrol 108 Matt WWI Green. Not on the painting stage yet but any help appreciated,

Regards

Paul

[blimp]

Hi guys

Building a Roden F2B and would like to ask if the green on them is NIVO, which I have in an Xtracolour tin, or Humbrol 108 Matt WWI Green. Not on the painting stage yet but any help appreciated,

Regards

Paul

hello paul , the aircraft colours of the great war are an area of much debate , there are very few surviving examples . however , the F2b was a fairly late war machine , the original colour at that time was called P.C. 10 a kind of dark greenish grey , by 1917 this had been generally replaced by P.C. 12 a dark rusty brown ( it was cheaper ! ) - NIVO ' night , invisible , varnish , orfordness ' was a colour developed by the R.N.A.S. for use on night flying aircraft , a very dark green colour . it wasn't used on front line daytime units , although night bombers like FE2b's may have been painted in it . colour tones are notoriously difficult to match in old black and white film . - for a bristol fighter i personally would go for the later P.C. 12 brown shade . - i'll put my tin hat on now and wait for the 'flame war' to start . . .

[Ptmvarsityfan]

As blimp says,RFC green has been the subject of a great deal

of debate,PC10 apparently varied between green and a more

brownish tinged colour depending on composition and exposure

to the elements so there is no one colour which could be said

to be absolutely correct.Could use Humbrol 108 or Xtracolour

X22 RFC Green. I have also used the discontinued Humrol 170

"Brown Bess".PC12 was a rusty brown colour as blimp says but

was used mainly in the Middle East and by the RNAS and did not

replace PC10.I would go for PC10 myself for an RFC/RAF Bristol Fighter.

NIVO was used by night bombers between the wars and I do

not know of any confirmed use during WW1 although I believe

it was developed near the end of the war.

[Rowan Broadbent]

Not sure where Blimp got the idea that PC12 replaced PC10 - its news to me!

As ptmvarsityfan (thats a mouthful, and no mistake! don't people have names anymore???) says, PC10 covers a fairly wide range of colour - there were at least 5 different formulations - all subtly different plus the ageing effects of UV and atmospheric degradaition (principaly oxidation). As a general rule of thumb the earlier shades of PC10 (from 1916) tended to be more towards the green end of the colour spread and the later ones very much toward the chocalate brown end (that sounds like a vaguely unpleasant scatalogical referrence!).

PC12 was certainly a reder, browner colour and for many aircraft (particularly but not exclusively, from Sopwith) was interchangeable during production. Its impossible to tell from b/w photos which was used. It was also, as pbtcsfrtfan says, used for aircraft serving in the middle east due to its increased resistance to UV degradation of fabric covering.

Nivo was used on Biffs assigned to nightfighter duties - but not always!

As you've posted your query in the interwar bit, I assume you are going for a postwar finish and this was changed to aluminium dope (silver) and grey metal panels from around 1920 onwards. If you want something more specific on the date I can look it up for you.

Somebody recently suggested tha the colours favoured by kiddies doing their earliest watercolour painting (you know, the one you get when you mix EVERYTHING together) is a pretty good approximation for PC10.......

[magpie]

Agree with Rowan. PC10 is accepted to have been generally greener at the start of the war and browner at the end. In his classic book Sagitarius Rising Cecil Lewis describes his Se5 patrol taking off as "Eleven chocolate-coloured, lean, noisey bullets, lifting, swaying, turning, rising into formation"

Ed