SafetyDad

As here? Source: Etienne du Plessis Flickr Photostream HTH SD

Very cleverly thought out and presented - looks great! SD

Air Vice Marshal Keith Park (as he was then) was in Command of 11 Group during the Battle of Britain and was well-known for wearing an all-white flight suit when he arrived at RAF stations for any visit. I don't have information about any other wearers of all-white suits, but other contributors may well add their ideas. HTH SD

Hard to be sure - here is the Shinden at the NASM today (Photo credit NASM - link here: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-media/NASM-A19600333000-NASM2019-01675) If that undersurface is painted, then it's very thin paint. Notice the wrap-around uppersurface camouflage colour on the underside of the leading edge). The B&W pictures in the Bunrin-Do might suggest that the underside of the leading edge might have been painted grey (under the green waves), but the rest sure looks like bare metal. Others may know more - to be fair I am speculating, so please see my contribution as just that. SD

Mark Postlethwaite also co-authored a book focusing entirely upon the Lancasters used in Chastise. He confirms that all the bomb aiming equipment was removed, and the larger blister was fitted. The Wingleader book cited by Matt above describes how some bomb aimers used the wooden y shaped device seen in the film to determine the release point, where others drew lines on the perspex blister itself. HTH SD

This link might help https://oldmachinepress.com/2020/05/20/kyushu-j7w1-shinden-interceptor-fighter/ It seems to be well-researched and sits well with the information that I've been able to glean from my Bunrin-Do special on the J7W1. If I understand your post correctly, you are enquiring if a J7W1 model could be finished in bare metal? Well some parts could be... According to the link above, this is the first airframe after repair work was completed following an accident on its first flight. It would make a very distinctive model - quite different from the usual colour scheme. Note the absence of cockpit glass. HTH SD

my vote goes for 82 - I think the green isn't dark enough for one of the older greens Just my 2p SD

Post-script @Paul Lucas posted while I was typing that reply above - I hadn't seen his thoughts when I posted SD

Thanks Graham. To a great extent I agree with you, but I'm sticking with my original caption. I completely understand the difficulties and lack of consensus around RLM81, 82 and 83. The only late war uppersurface colour I'm confident about linking to a specific RLM number is, as you say, RML81 Braunviolett. The real fly in the ointment here is the fairly recently unearthed documentary evidence describing RLM83 as blue, not green. I appreciate that not everyone accepts the evidence for 83 being blue, but it's cited by Ullmann so I tend to go with it. That then leaves us with three distinct colours, namely Braunviolett, light green and dark green to somehow be assigned to only two RLM paint numbers - namely 81 and 82. I quite agree that 81 can't really be both brown and green, any more than 82 could be both light and dark green. Personally I think this highlights the current incomplete understanding of late war uppersurface colours. I have a sneaking feeling that the earlier dark greens 70 and 71 were still in use by some manufacturers much later than is widely believed. That would go some way to explain this apparent contradiction. But the current situation is a confusing mess. However, whatever the RLM number, the pic shows the green upper surfaces well. And you're right, it's a good shot - quite a few taken that day have lost their colour balance over the years. In this pic the undersurfaces look cream And the uppersurfaces could be taken for grey (although we know they're green). Just highlights the issues with 77 year old colour pictures SD

I think the evidence from the NASM machine, plus the concealment argument, probably tilt the balance in favour of the uppersurfaces being green. This is the best colour picture that I can find of the machine in the USA Certainly looks like dark green to me - so RLM81 Dark green? Or even one of the older greens? Probably not, as it doesn't seem quite dark enough. HTH SD

I suspect that the colours used for the Ju388 varied with the variant of the aircraft. Prototypes seem to have been finished in two greens and blue - Graham's post above ably makes the point that using RLM numbers without a descriptor doesn't really help with these late war uppersurface colours as so much variation in colour seems to have existed within a given RLM numerical designator. So here I might suggest 81 Dark Green with 82 Light Green for these early airframes (although RLM70/71/65 remains possible). The majority of Ju388s manufactured were L-1 reconnaissance versions - these include Wk Nr 560 049 that was captured and eventually made its way to Silver Hill in the USA. Some of the best photos of Ju388s were taken at Leipzig Mockau, sadly after the airframes were set alight. Nevertheless, some useful information can be gleaned from these pictures (Photos from online sources in the public domain) These aircraft seem to me to mostly have a single uppersurface colour (although the tailplane at bottom left visible in the last picture seems to be two-tone splinter). Green or grey? It's not easy to be sure - personally I favour RLM75 Grauviolett but that's just my take as the RAF adopted a similar scheme for their PRU aircraft performing a similar role. Other sources favour this uppersurface colour as a dark green. Check out Christoph Vernaleken's website at www.Ju388.de for much more, including the history of the NASMs Ju388. HTH SD

The Wingleader series on the Lancaster is your friend here - they present Lancasters by production batch and highlight the changes. The batch containing W4140 had No H2S Fuselage windows - but possibly overpainted Faired windscreen wash cleaners Small bomb aimers blister Original pitot head Aluminium painted interiors to turrets Rear mounted trailing aerial Photos of other Lancasters from this batch show they had the anti-shimmy tail tyre fitted. HTH SD

@GiampieroSilvestri I really can't add anything to what has already been said here without knowing the Wk Nr of the specific aircraft that you have in mind. The information already supplied above by @MDriskill mirrors exactly what I would have uploaded, and gives you an excellent oversight of the complexity of the subject under discussion here. Crandall and JaPo have covered 190D camouflage and markings in great detail, they don't always agree, but they offer sufficient information to allow the reader to choose. If you have a specific colour or markings scheme in mind, then pitch in and we can take the discussion further. HTH SD

Excellent job! Really like that SD

I'm very aware of the RLM 83 blue controversy, and personally I no longer use the terms 82 and 83 (at least without an accompanying descriptor) as I find these unhelpful, given the variations in them (and people's views about them). Light green and dark green is less confusing (at least for me). I would also agree that the development of the late war colours to replace 70 and 71 is well established. Merrick is offering some insights here into how he feels the late war colours were developed and tested. I took care in my post above to stress that Merrick's ideas were just that, ideas, and not necessarily definitive. I would be interested to see your evidence to support the final part of your statement above, namely that 'There is absolutely no connection with RLM 61, 62 and 64' I'm quite prepared to be convinced if an alternative hypothesis is out there. SD