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De Havilland registration letters, interwar.


stevehnz

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Welcome Roger.

 

I think we ought to see some of your lovely models on here!

 

Yes I'll be based in Hall 3 probably on the Bomber Command SIG is where the demo area was last year. I echo Roger's  comments about the colours and for the record most pre-war Moth cockpits were a mid Grey but the cabin machines were usually upholstered to compliment the fuselage colour. I think the DH 82a, Tiger was the first to have green cockpits when the military orders came in. The early Tigers were grey.  Wings were usually Silver as were many fuselages as this was best for UV protection and the lightest paint.

In fact when the owners of the Moth G-EBMU 'Silvry II' wanted Black wings, DH's were concerned about the weight of paint on the wings. The rest was Silver as the name suggests.

 

By the way did you pin down the fuselage colours of the Hampshire Aeroclub Moths?

 

John

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I'll have to find a new photo-host first. All my model photos are on Photobucket.....

 

Regarding silver, many registrations were also silver, not the white in which they are commonly depicted, especially on contemporary restorations. In old painting/finishing manuals, white was a non-preferred colour as it had the heaviest pigment and the poorest covering qualities. It's often very difficult to distinguish white lettering from silver in old photos.

It was all but forbidden to paint fabric flying surfaces white.

 

I certainly have some of those early Tigers in my future, along with all flavours of DH60. I'd like to know when the familiar interior green colour came into general use, but I doubt it was before 1935.

 

I know well the 'Silvry' Moths. They were owned by David Kittel, who was the first secretary of the British Light Aeroplane Owners Club. 

 

HAC 'stripe' was 2-tone blue (mentioned in a 1926 Flight). Their membership card also used those colours. 

 

Roger

 

 

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On the subject of the Grey interior, if you look at the linked cockpit shot in the thread DH Hornet Moth then you can see the under lying Grey of which I speak.

 

John

 

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235029125-dh-hornet-moth-interior-color/

 

Roger

I have gone temporarily to Flickr but I don't like the way everything is shared. It works fine, but I wouldn't put family stuff on there.

 

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On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 5:58 PM, John Aero said:

 

The Yellow would be a customer call but DH would have a standard (Cellon) range. Honestly at this distance I'd opt for a Yellow which takes your fancy. As for the man in the hat, are you taking the pith?;)

 

John

John is correct about DH using Cellon paints, specifically their Titanine brand of dope, as their standard factory finish. So it may be safe to use a suitable yellow from the Titanine range of colors.

I have an old, 1935, Titanine commercial aircraft color chart which shows two yellows. I haven't matched these to either the BS or FS color chips but they appear to be close to the USAAC 'Yellow #4' and the 'A-N Orange-Yellow'.

Tim

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On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 10:38 AM, VH-USB said:

John is correct about DH using Cellon paints, specifically their Titanine brand of dope, as their standard factory finish. So it may be safe to use a suitable yellow from the Titanine range of colors.

I have an old, 1935, Titanine commercial aircraft color chart which shows two yellows. I haven't matched these to either the BS or FS color chips but they appear to be close to the USAAC 'Yellow #4' and the 'A-N Orange-Yellow'.

Tim

I have matched the two yellow paint chips on my 1935 Titanine color chart. Here are the closest matches...

 

Yellow - Shade No. TE76    BS355 Lemon               FS13655 (needs to be a bit lighter and a tad more yellow for a match)

Yellow - Shade No. TE75    BS356 Golden Yellow     FS13538

 

Tim     

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Thanks for that, sorry I hadn't seen this before now, the perils of trying to skim read the view new content activity page. :(  I should be able to track down some sort of a match to those, at least enough to look the part, every small piece of info helps to build the jigsaw. :) 

Steve.

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4 hours ago, John Aero said:

Sorry for the delay but I thought I had posted this after Tim's post.

 

The original colour chart is a nice thing to have. Thank you for the Yellows. I would be interested in the Reds and Blues too, if you have them.

 

John

Hi John,

 

Yes, there are reds and blues. Two appear to be the darker RAF blue and red.

There are also greens and creams.

I'll match the colors after our upcoming long (USA) holiday weekend.

 

Cheers,

Tim

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Perhaps of interest to this topic. I'm currently reading The Story of the Lightplane (1963) which I've had on my bookshelves for over 30 odd years. One little gem on the general pricing of aeroplanes is that an 'off the shelf' Gipsy Moth "in a standard factory scheme of Azure Blue and Silver with Black letters" could be bought for £575.

 

John

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