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RAF Hercules C.1, mid-80s colours


Lord Riot

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I recently got another eBay bargain, the 1/72 Italeri Hercules, which of course I'll be doing as the RAF C.1 option, as much OOB as possible (XV215).

 

However, the decals have the 'last three' of the serial number for the nose and tail fin in black, despite painting instructions being for light aircraft grey undersides. I want to build the kit as circa 1980-85, light a/c grey undersides, am I correct to believe that all RAF Hercs at this time had white last three serial numbers, which only went black with wrap round camo in the 90s?

 

Also, is the upper grey camo medium sea grey or dark sea grey? It looks a bit lighter than the DSG on Buccaneers or Jags for example.

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I have just had a look through my book on the Falklands War and it has several photos of Hercules C1s in the colour scheme that you are describing, showing the numbers and "Royal Air Force" along the side in white. Sorry I can't help with the Grey colour though.

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6 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

Also, is the upper grey camo medium sea grey or dark sea grey? It looks a bit lighter than the DSG on Buccaneers or Jags for example.

Dark sea grey, what you have to remember is there's more of a canvas for the light to saturate the colour and make it look lighter than on the smaller aircraft, also, Herc's were usually nearly always parked outside so subject to greater weathering than aircraft that were hangared or lived in a HAS so the colour would get bleached to some extent but not to the extent the DSG was closer to MSG.

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That sand and brown looks lovely on a Herc, I never saw one in real life that colour unfortunately. Were they all painted like that? Would have been good in Afghan and Iraq instead of all green.

 

When was the last one turned green/grey?

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The RAF Herc's I flew in were all Grey/Green Camo some were light aircraft grey undersides and some had wrap a around camo too. I Joined in 1980. I think the two tone brow had a white area above the cockpit too.

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7 hours ago, tweeky said:

The RAF Herc's I flew in were all Grey/Green Camo some were light aircraft grey undersides and some had wrap a around camo too. I Joined in 1980. I think the two tone brow had a white area above the cockpit too.

Definitely dark sea grey/ dark green/light aircraft grey.

Where the two tone brown/black Hercules were concerned, there were some variation as a number didn't have the area above the cockpit painted white.

There were also variations with the roundels and fin flashes, some being high visibility red/white/blue whilst others sported the low visability red/blue version.

The white titles on the fuselage also went through some changes, namely Royal Air Force/Royal Air Force Transport Command/Royal Air Force Air Support Command.

A browse on Google can bring up some interesting variations of colours/roundels/titles.

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