Enzo Matrix

Stickers on.

Stickers on.

Stickers on...

It's easy to see why.

The RAF had a similar scheme for their Mosquito and later Beaufighter nightfighters. It was overall Medium Sea grey with an uppersurface disruptive pattern of Dark Green. The logical scheme is overall matt black, which both the RAF and Luftwaffe used in the early part of the war. However it seems that RAF experience showed that a matt black (or "Special Night" as the RAF called it) nightfighter could provide a stark silhouette against the night sky, which is rarely truly dark. The medium grey scheme seemed to provide a better camouflage at high altitude. I imagine the Luftwaffe came to a similar conclusion. RAF night bombers retained black undersurfaces but they were later semi-gloss providing some reflections, which simply looked like starlight when the aircraft was caught in a searchlight. The grey camouflage scheme was simply another step along the path of evolution from night fighters to all weather fighters.

I was always under the impression that the Centurion was developed from the earlier cruiser tanks such as the Cromwell. In theory that may have been true, but it certainly wasn't a linear development. Maybe developed using experience from the Cromwell. The Centurion is significantly larger than the Cromwell, as you can see by comparing it to my concurrent Cromwell build in the They Also Serve GB. The Centurion is a similar size to the Panther, which makes sense as the Panther was the vehicle that the Centurion was designed to counter. Incidentally, there's about a hundred quid's worth of AA resin in that photo as the Cromwell uses significant amounts as well.

I painted the wheels and tyres over the weekend and followed up with spraying the tracks using Vallejo Panzer Aces track primer. Then some work this evening. I started off with the resin glacis plate and the kit running boards, which have to be cut down to match the glacis part. Added to the hull and followed up with the relevant resin and kit parts as detailed in the AA instruction booklet. Suddenly I have a tank!

After cleanup I primed the model with grey auto primer. Then I sprayed the undersurfaces and fuselage sides with Lifecolor UA539 Sky. They undersurfaces were masked... Uppersurfaces were sprayed with Lifecolor UA109.

Primed using grey plastic auto primer and then sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1002 Dark Earth. Camouflage masked. And the sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1037 Light Slate Grey. The undersurfaces were sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1003 Medium Sea Grey. And we have a fugitive from the Shelf Of Shame attempting to get in on the act...

Primed with my usual grey plastic auto primer. And then sprayed with Xtracrylis XA1006 Ocean Grey. The camouflage is masked using, in part, a photocopy of the Airfix Spitfire XIV instructions. Dark green sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1001. The undersurfaces have been sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1003 Medium Sea Grey. Fuselage band from Lidfecolor UA539. And then the wing leading edges were masked off, sealed with a coat of clrar acrylic varnish to prevent paint creep and then carefully sprayed with Fiat Broom Yellow from an auto paint rattle can.

The colour scheme is High Speed Silver, not natural metal. HSS was an aluminium paint, which tended to fade quickly to a semi-matt finish. I used aluminium auto paint. And to break up the finish slightly, I highlighted some of the panel lines with a very light spray of Alclad dark aluminium.

Fuselage and wing joined. Cleaned up, with the huge rudder added. Various greeblies added and then primed with black auto primer from a rattle can.

First step is to build the wings. And then move onto the cockpit. A lot of stupidity went on here. I sprayed the cockpit interior and then promptly lost the fuselage halves. Couldn't find them anywhere!!! I then found the overtrees kits in The Satsh and robbed the fuselage halves from one of them, which explains the darker grey plastic. At this point I found the missing fuselage halves...

Why have I not updated this thread since the GB started? Falling back into bad habits... Well, here are the sprues.

That's better... This is a nightfighter. To my mind nightfighters should always have a black undersurface. Luckily this scheme does...