In Colour

[Daniel Cox]

Hi All,

This is a thread in which I will over time occasionally post British Commonwealth aviation subjects in colour, I will mostly concentrate on revealing details that are likely to be of interest rather than posting the bigger picture as such. I sometimes will share my opinion on these if I feel I have anything of value to add to the discussion otherwise if I can't add anything that is useful especially when I haven't a clue about what I am showing I will just post the pics.

The details I post will sometimes be out of focus or indistinct because they will sometimes be drawn from distant subjects that weren't the photographers subject. That said I am posting them because they will sometimes reveal things often missed. Many of the images I post will have been previously published some of it may not have been. Although you may have seen some of this before in books or magazines you may not have noticed some of the smaller things in the background which I will share with you.

As to colour rendering and perception I appreciate that we all will be viewing these images online using different devices with different colour space environments with varied colour perception. I will not be covering issues relating to colour management. The images I share will have an embedded ProPhoto RGB colour profile, some of these images will have very obvious colour deterioration others will not. If you are interested in learning about how colour images can and do go south I recommend you take the time to read the following "The Permanence and Care of Color Photographs: Traditional and Digital Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides, and Motion Pictures by Henry Wilhelm" which can be found here at Wilhelm Imaging Research. Also worth reading if you are interested in colour management is "Color Management, Second Edition by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy and Fred Bunting" which can be seen here.

Now to begin, considering the recent discussions regarding the squadron and aircraft codes of 145 Squadron (Sqn) Royal Air Force (RAF) and the attached Polish Combat Team also referred to as the Polish Fighting Team and or African Team.

I have decided to reveal some additional colour images of these Spitfires in order to complement the oft published picture of the Spitfire Mk. IX EN459 ZX-1. The following two pictures show two 145 Sqn Spitfires featuring blue and white codes, unfortunately the individual identities of these airframes are indeterminate since they were not the primary subject of the photographer at the time of capture and are unfortunately out of focus in this instance. That said these images at the very least provides another tantalising glimpse at the colours of some of the Spitfires used by 145 Sqn and complement the colours shown in that photograph of EN459.

In the image above the individual code cannot be determined the squadron code is just discernible as ZX.

Although the above image is better than the first one shown, this aircraft of 145 Sqn also remains individually unidentifiable.

All of the images I post in this discussion thread can also be found here.

Cheers,

Daniel.

[Super Aereo]

Fascinating, thank you for sharing!

[Daniel Cox]

Fascinating, thank you for sharing!

You're welcome Super Aereo, it is my pleasure.

Looking at the blue codes on 145 Sqn RAF aircraft I wonder if the blue used for the codes was Bright Blue, like what was probably used for the blue of the fuselage roundel as seen on the 417 Sqn Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Spitfire Mk. Vc JG726 as shown below?

Cheers,

Daniel.

Edited June 24, 2012 by Daniel Cox

[Spitfires Forever]

Thanks for posting these pics. I find them interesting despite any anomalies, in fact just about anything regarding the Spitfire perks my interest. I especially enjoyed the picture from their makeshift maintenance depot/ boneyard. In the foreground it is pretty evident that we have the remains of a MkV of some sort. it would be great to know the time frame we are working with so I can get a better handle on the aircraft in the back ground being worked on, perhaps a Mk V or possibly a MkIX /VII, I don't know enough about the particular squadron to speak with any authority. I don't recall the blue modex being used on this squadron's MkV, just seen it on their Mk VII's/IX's. I imagine Edgar would know if anybody would about the squadron and it's aircraft. Every picture tells a story if one is willing to look beyond the obvious. Some stories they reveal are short and to the point, then others could fill volumes. Keep the pictures coming mate.

Cheers

[Super Aereo]

It could be Bright Blue, but Dark Mediterranean Blue is rather close in hue to Bright Blue, if a bt greyer and duller, so I sould not rule it out either (and it could of course just be a field-mixed paint). Lovely photos.

[mhaselden]

The pic of JG726 (AN-L) is interesting - the different colours apparent when comparing the fuselage roundel to the fin flash are quite startling. The "red" of the flash almost looks orange, as if this was a SAAF bird.

Edited June 24, 2012 by mhaselden

[GrzeM]

I'd say that the top plane is "ZX-4" and the second - "ZX-7". But I may be wrong.

Thanks for these photographs!!!

There was a discussion about these colours ("ZX" letter codes in Polish Combat Team) on the Polsih forum lately. No conclusion, but one pretty interesting note: some letters look very light, and some very dark, almost black on the b&w photos. I even started to suppose, that some of the planes had the white outlines of letters only, without blue interior. But the photos are rather poor.

Dave, I have seen the colour photo of "ZX-1" turned b&w on your other Picasa album, and the letters look very dark there. Can you comment it?

[Daniel Cox]

Hi All,

Spitfire addict you're welcome, as to those Spitfires; JG726 plus the one with a bent prop are Mk. V's while the 145 Sqn examples are Mk. IX's. As to Edgar knowing I concur he is rather helpful although lets not forget there are a number of other forum participants that also share their considerable expertise regarding these subjects, not to mention it isn't very difficult to access the relevant Operations Record Books if one is so inclined to learn about the squadrons and their aircraft.

Super Aereo, you may be right regarding the actual paint that was used, unfortunately I doubt we will ever know with certainty except that it wasn't Dull Blue.

I agree Mark that the fin flash is rather reminiscent of a South African Air Force item although I can't find anything that lists JG726 as a South African aircraft.

GrzeM, regarding the codes thanks for suggesting ZX-4 and ZX-7 of course based on those out of focus crops we will never know for certain although it is interesting to ponder at the very least.

Onto b&w conversions I did this in order to see how the colour images would be rendered through the application of various simulated photo filters. I won't go into picture editing or photography here, that is a whole other discussion that said if anyone is looking for some good online forums for that I recommend the following as good places to start; The Luminous Landscape, photo.net and Digital Photography Review.

The conversions I did were very quickly done to use as a rough guide to compare against extant period b&w photographs of relevant subjects from the era. For example the application of a red filtered b&w conversion rendered the blue 145 Sqn codes as very dark, while alternatively the application of no filter or a neutral density filter rendered the codes as light. All of this is exampled below and also complements the series of b&w photographs that show Spitfires AB205, ER220 and EP481 in flight over the Tunisian coast on the 23rd of March 1943. I also did other b&w conversions of colour images where I applied blue, green and yellow filter simulations in addition to the red and neutral density ones on various images showing Spitfires MA425, MH635 and EN459.

The conclusion I have reached following this undertaking is that I consider it highly likely that all similarly coded 145 Sqn aircraft and Wing Commander Gleed's Spitfire Mk. Vb AB502 featured blue codes that appear lighter and brighter than the Dull Blue as often seen on RAF aircraft roundels at the time.

EN459, colour

EN459, red filter

EN459, neutral density filter

EN459, no filter

Rear, colour

Rear, red filter

Rear, neutral density filter

Rear, no filter

Profile, colour

Profile, red filter

Profile, neutral density filter

Profile, no filter

JG726, colour

JG726, red filter

JG726, neutral density filter

JG726, no filter

Shown above are images of the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire LF. Mk. VIII JF503, ZX-F of 145 Sqn RAF at Canne, Italy during the 14th of January 1944. Also shown are three Spitfire Mk. V aircraft AB205, ER220 and EP481 of 244 Wing RAF flying over the Tunisian coast on the 23rd of March 1943. While the Spitfire Mk. IX EN239, ZX-T of 145 Sqn RAF at Pachino Italy during the 14th of July 1943 can also be seen.

If anyone is interested in viewing further images of the Spitfires AB205, ER220 and EP481 in flight I recommend you look at the images that can be found through the following links CNA 816 and CNA 818 that are part of the Imperial War Museum collection or alternatively look in the books listed below;

Nohara, S., Ohasato, H. Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I-V: Aero Detail 8, Dainippon,

Tokyo, 1993.

Price, Alfred. Dr. Spitfire Mark V Aces 1941-45, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 16, Osprey, Botley, 1997.

Also worth mentioning with respect to ZX coded aircraft are the books listed below;

Gretzyngier, Robert. Matusiak, Wojtek. Polish Aces of World War 2, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 21, Osprey, London, 1998.

Matusiak, Wojtek. Polskie Skrzydła 13, Supermarine Spitfire IX 1942-1943, Stratus, Sandomierz, 2011.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Daniel Cox

[GrzeM]

Daniel, many thanks for very detailed and interesting answer. I still have one doubt, related with this photo:

Letters look exactly like on your simulated "red filter" photos. But not the roundels! The difference is very clear. How could you explain that?

I'm pretty familiar with photographic techniques, so you can - if you have time and will - go into details. Thanks in advance!!!

[Daniel Cox]

Hi GrzeM,

I don't know where to start with that one, that picture also appears in Polskie Skrzydła 13 where Wojtek Matusiak suggests that a shadow of the photographer also appears in the image. I don't think it is a shadow at all and suspect it may be due to a double exposure or perhaps the deterioration of the negative or the print.

Although I have handled many old nitrate negatives, colour slides and old photographic prints over the years and am very familiar with how they deteriorate since I have been involved with the preservation of old negatives, slides and photographs (I am not a fan of the smell of vinegar). There are just too many unknowns with this one to do much more than make largely ill informed guesses. When was this picture taken? Where was it taken, was it a double exposure, was it sourced from a damaged print or negative, is there a higher resolution image of this available how has it been cropped are there other items that may have been in the original exposure that reveal more? Is the negative still available for inspection?

At first glance one might presume that the fuselage displays a three tone camouflage, which may not be the case at all. This could simply be due to the condition of the source image or due to environmental weathering on the paint finish or damage to the airframe that has caused this appearance or of course maybe it is three toned. Who knows how long this airframe had been there before being photographed, did the paint on the roundel weather differently from that used for the codes?

A better quality copy of that picture would certainly be helpful.

Cheers,

Daniel.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Daniel Cox