Paul Lucas

To the best of my knowledge they are supposed to be identical. The three figure reference numbering system was introduced in 1948 where the first digit, in this case a '3' was added to the original number, '59' to classify No.359 Middle Buff as a shade of yellow, cream or buff. The coloured rings that encircled the bombs in various widths and places were BS 381 No.4 Azure Blue, No.25 Light Brunswick Green No.37 Signal Red and Black. Black has never been included in any issue of BS 381.

@GABE, welcome. But are you sure that the red uniform top is a good idea?

In theory, a Target Tugs were supposed to be finished in Dark Earth and Dark Green on the upper surfaces with the Night and Yellow stripes confined to the under surfaces to Pattern No.1. With regard to the under surfaces, DTD TC 360 of 1943 states that "Stripes, as defined below and in colour Night, are to be applied to the under surfaces of the wings, fuselage and nacelles. The remainder of the under surfaces, is to be Yellow including the under surface of the elevator, but excluding the under surface of the tail plane which is to be Night. The stripes are to be 3 feet wide, running from port forward to starboard aft and be inclined at 60° to the lateral axis of the aircraft. The distance between the centre lines of the stripes is to be 9 feet and the centre line of one stripe is to intersect the centre of the port roundel." The upper surfaces clearly show that AA507 has been partly repainted and thus the upper surface of the tail planes might be completely different to the under surfaces, so the colour illustration might be something like right for the upper surfaces, but the under surfaces should have looked like the kit instructions. The pre war Air Diagram for Single Engined Target Towing Aircraft that showed an overall Yellow and Night finish showed the stripes on the fuselage reversing direction on the centre line to produce a chevron effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to that seen in the photo so that on the port side elevation, the stripes ran bottom right to top left sloping forwards from the tail towards the nose. Port side like this: \ \ \ Stbd side like this: / / / So as a best guess, the kit instructions are most likely to be correct. On the upper surfaces, the Night stripe was also centred on the centre of the port roundel so the Night stripes wrapped around the wing.

Not Winnie bashing. It's true. I have a copy of the target listings included in the draft plan that was sent to HQ Bomber Command from the Air Ministry on 25 May 1944. The RAF would have attacked one set of cities with Phosgene and/or Mustard Gas and the USAAF would have attacked another. In 1944, Bomber Command began to reapply gas detection paint to some of its aircraft, something not done since the end of 1940 or thereabouts.

From their introduction circa 1939, the SCC finishing materials that were intended for use on buildings, both Oil Paint and Oil Bound Distemper, were available as a normal smooth finish and as a gritty type. It all seems to have begun life as the normal smooth type to which a minimum of 50 lbs. of a suitable grit of between 40-80 mesh was to be added to every 100 lbs. of the non gritty material to produce the finish on the Standard panel. I have no idea how big that grit would be or how it compares with Silver Sand as mentioned by @Mike Starmer. According to BS 987, production of the gritty type was suspended in 1942. Presumably, this is why the War Office wanted Vauxhall to try spraying paint with Silver Sand in it? This would have cut down the specular reflectivity of an egg-shell finish. Pigments for the green colours are stated to be either Oxide of Chrome or something called "Pigment Green 'B''. I have no idea what Pigment Green 'B' was. l assume that the same pigments would have been used to produce vehicle specification paints, but using different vehicle and volatile substances?

@Kari Lumppio I have just checked with the Rawlings book to make sure that I did not make an error when typing the serial numbers. It definitely says PM628 is OI-P, so if this is an error, it's not mine. Spitfire - The History doesn't show PM628 on 2 Squadron either. I suppose 'P' could be either of the alternatives you suggest. I would suggest that PM625 might be the most likely because depending upon the style of the characters used and the distance it was seen from, it might be more possible to misread a 5 as an 8 than a 0 for a 2, especially if the aircraft was moving at the time.

I don't have anything relating to civil aircraft any earlier than March 1940. I covered the topic of BOAC in the Battle of Britain period in SAM Vol.42 No.8 October 2020. If everything goes to plan, this will be reprinted within Compendium No.4 in November. The March 1940 document states that land planes were to be Temperate Land Scheme on the upper surfaces and silver on the under surfaces. The demarcation between the upper and under surface colours was supposed to be located approximately half way down the side of the fuselage.

Hataka do it as a laquer and Vallejo do it in their Model-Air range. I have no idea how accurate the colour matching for either of these paints is though.

This is correct, it did continue after the war, BS 987C 'Camouflage Colours 1942' remained a current British Standard until it was withdrawn in 1964. From May 1949, two colours from BS 987C were also included in BS 381C. These were SCC No.2 that became No.499 Service Brown and SCC No.15 that became No.298 Olive Drab. When BS 987C was withdrawn in 1964, three more of its colours were incorporated into BS 381C. These were: No.1A that became No.436 Dark Camouflage Brown. No.10 that became No.435 Camouflage Red. No.16 that became No.437 Very Dark Drab. As an example of the continuing use of the SCC colours post war, a 1955 Defence List of Paints itemised the following colours under the heading 'Paint, War Equipment, Matt'. I'm only going to list the paints for brushing, but the same range of colours are also available for spraying to the same Specification DEF-1110. Light Stone Colour No.361for use in the Middle East 1gal. can Joint Service Catalogue No.8010 - 421176. RAF 33A/824. 5 gal. drum JSC No.8010 - 421177. Army HA10955. Olive Drab SCC No.15. To Colour No.15 in British Standard 987C : 1942 "Camouflage Colours". 5 gal. drum JSC No.8010 - 421178. HA10954. 1 pint can JSC No.8010 - 421989. 33A/860. Very Dark Drab SCC No.16. To Colour No.16 in BS 987C : 1942 "Camouflage Colours". 5 gal. Drum. For use in the Far East. JSC No.8010 - 421179. HA10956. Arctic White. Special tint obtainable from the Approving Authority. For use inside of gun shields. 5 gal. drum. JSC No.8010 - 421180. HA10957. In 1958, the RAF Vocabulary of Stores Section 33A listed SCC No.15 to Bituminous Emulsion Specification CS.2398 for Vehicles in 2nd Tactical Air Force and to DEF - 1110 for mobile radar equipment. It also listed SCC 1A to Specification CS.1736 for steel helmets. I know what you mean, and I know that I have seen the levels expressed as 'gloss units' somewhere, but where won't come to mind at the moment. I'm sure that one of the levels is actually called 'egg-shell' or something similar to the quote that I gave from BS 987 previously. BS 987 doesn't refer to a scale of reflectivity. It shows an apperatus in which a sample of paint is placed and then viewed when lit by a 60 watt bulb through a series of peep holes in conjunction with something called a 'Graining Comb' set against some Matt white paper. The idea is that the viewer should note the grazing angle at which a reflection of the comb can be seen, the angle of which should not exceed 20 degrees. Other than that quote, the only reference that I have to the finish of SCC colours relates to paint produced for application to buildings where it states that all the colours are to be 'Matt'. Edit It's just come back to me where I saw the the levels of reflectivity. The specular gloss of paint films as defined in BS EN ISO 2813 measured with a gloss meter in gloss units in the following bands. Matt less than 5 Gloss Units. Near Matt 6-10 Semi Matt 13-17 Egg Shell 15-25 Semi Gloss 45-55 Gloss 65-85 High Gloss more than 85.

@Kari Lumppio, here a few answers. The Squadron Codes should have been present in 1947. A listing given in Rawlings' Coastal, Support and Special Squadrons is as follows PM549 OI-F; PM555 OI-K; PM616 OI-T; PM628 OI-P; PM660 with OI codes only and PS832 and PS915 with no codes. The latter two may have been on the Squadron after the OI codes were dispensed with in 1951. There is no photo of PM555 OI-K in the September 1976 issue of Airfix Magazine though the tie up is given in the 'Squadron Codes' article. If the national marking on the fuselage is the Red and Blue National marking I, it was probably applied in the wartime shade of 'dull' Red. If the code letters were applied after 1947, they might have been applied using the new post war shade of Bright Red that corresponds to BS 381C No.538 Post Office Red. This would be why they appear to be different colours. When underwing serial numbers were reintroduced in 1945, those applied on a PRU Blue finish were specified to be Night. The AMOs that set out post war camouflage and marking policy between 1947 and 1950 make no mention of what colour serial numbers are supposed to be, and I can't find a mention of it in the extracts from AP 2656A that I have either. This lack of documentation might go some way to explaining why both black and white markings can be found. A 1951 extract from AP 970 however states that Night is to be used on light colours and White on dark colours. Given that the colour scheme information given in AP 2656A and AP 970 is usually word for word identical, I would imagine that this same information was incorporated into AP 2656A at some time between October 1947 and 1951, but I don't have a copy of the relevant Amendment List, so I don't know exactly when this ruling came into effect. PRU Blue is not one of the named colours in the AP 970 extract so I suppose that where the Spitfires were being refinished as part of their routine servicing, the colour used to apply the serial numbers would depend on the opinion of whoever was responsible as to whether PRU Blue was a light or dark colour. The original wartime serial numbers were applied in 4 inch high Medium Sea Grey characters. In October 1947 AP 2656A AL 36 specified that the fuselage serial number on all RAF aircraft was to be 8 inches high, 5 inches wide with a 1 inch stroke and 1 inch between characters.

Something else has occurred to me. Looking in Mike Starmer's booklet, he quotes A.C.I. 533 of 12 April 1944 as the introduction of Olive Drab to the British Army thus. "1. Olive Drab will be adopted as the basic camouflage colour for all army equipments, in lieu of Standard Camouflage Colour No.2 (brown),. . ." Like the AMOs I referred to previously, it does not refer to SCC 15, but does refer to SCC 2. So the RAF were not being slipshod with their nomenclature and it would appear that Olive Drab did not have an SCC designation at the time that it was being introduced. Is this because the Ministry of Works and Buildings had not yet allocated an SCC number to the new colour or was it because it was the American OD No.9 and not an SCC at all? In the ICI paint list given above the colour is given as 'Olive Drab Lustreless'. As has already been mentioned, 'Lustreless' is American nomenclature for what in Britain would usually be described as a 'Matt' finish. BS 987 states that "The finish may approximate to that known as 'egg-shell-gloss'." So if the Olive Drab in the ICI list was manufactured to have a 'Matt' finish, it would not have complied with the requirements of the Standard for SCC paints. So it would not have had a SCC designation. If later production of Olive Drab included less matting agent or some other change so as to comply with the requirements of BS 987 with regard to surface finish, did the reduction in the matting agent affect an otherwise unaltered formula, in such a way as to change the final colour of what was subsequently designated SCC 15? Alternatively, was the reason for a change financial? Looking at the price list, the provisional agreed price is one of the more expensive items and while the final price was not expected to be much different to KG3, what if it was, and the formula had to be revised so as to keep the price down? Might the use of cheaper pigments have been responsible for a change in colour?

I don't know. I think that it might be related to the specification of the paint. Under the heading 'Consistency' BS 987 Camouflage Paints : 1942 states that "The paint shall be supplied normally in a 'ready-for-use' condition. If dilution with water or other liquid is required, as in the case of emulsion pastes, the nature and quantity of such thinners must be indicated clearly on the container. The method of application shall also be stated on the container." The aircraft finishing materials that I am more familiar with are not covered by BS 987.

@Corsairfoxfouruncle, according to the Squadron Patterns of Plan Q for Bomber/Strike Command that dates from 1967, the Unit Establishment for a V-Bomber Squadron was 8 aircraft.

In the RAF, vehicle paints were listed within Air Publication 1086 RAF Vocabulary of Stores Section 33A. The Section 33A numbers are often referred to in Air Ministry Orders that deal with the subject of vehicle camouflage. For example AMO A.891/43 entitled 'Camouflage Painting of MT Vehicles' dated 9 September 1943 referred to 33A/559 Primer PFU, Red Oxide of Iron Special (spray or brush application) for wood and metal surfaces to Specification CS.1482. This was then to be overcoated with 33A/560 Paint PFU MT Brown, Special No.2 Spraying. Specification CS.1733 to SCC No.2. This was amended by AMO A.519/44 dated 8 June 1944. This made reference to 33A/560 being superseded by Paint, PFU Olive Drab, air drying for spray gun application 33A/577 or Paint, Olive Drab, air drying, for brush application 33A/578. AMO A.897/44, dated 14 September 1944 went into a bit more detail stating in the process that vehicles would be received off production finished in Anti Gas Paint colour Olive Drab to Specifications CS.1898 or CS.1984. It identifies 33A/577 as Olive Drab CS.1898 for spray application and 33A/578 as Olive Drab CS.1984 for brush application. Part of this ties up with an entry in SUPP 4/333 dated 13 April 1944 that recorded an order for 35,000 gal. of AM Stores 578 Paint PFU - AG Olive Drab brushing that was placed with International Paint and Composition Co.Ltd. 5000 gal. were to be delivered during April 1944 with the balance being delivered at a rate of 15,000 gal. per month thereafter. As can be seen the order precedes the promulgation of the new finish to the Service by some two months and spans it's introduction, but I have no idea if this was the first such order for the new paint for use by the RAF. As usual, there is nothing here that helps identify the actual colour of Olive Drab 33A/577 and 578 as either US OD No.9 or SCC.15, but I find it odd that if it was the colour that we know today as SCC.15, that it doesn't appear to have been allocated that designation by the time that it was being introduced to service.

I have been going back through some of my old notebooks and found the following handwritten transcript from the days when digital photography did not exist, and photocopying at the National Archives was ruinously expensive. I reproduce it here as I have it written down. January 1945. War Office Camouflage Notes Vol.1 Part 3 Section 4. "ACI 533/44 changes the basic colour for the painting of British Army equipment (except Bailey Bridges) from SCC 2 to Olive Drab when stocks of the former colour are exhausted. 2) The former colour was adopted when, through shortage of raw materials, it became necessary to depart from the original basic colour Khaki Green. SCC No.2 has always been regarded as 'second best' in regard to colour, and as soon as supplies of certain pigments improved a decision was made to revert to a dull green shade. As a matter of convenience the American shade Olive Drab was chosen instead of Khaki Green. 3) Ordnance Catalogue Numbers for Olive Drab are as follows. Paint PFU AG Olive Drab Spraying HA 0242 Brushing HA 0244 Heat Resisting HA 0243 Bituminous Emulsion Olive Drab HA 6145." (Emphasis added by myself for its relevance here). The Olive Drab under discussion here has nothing to do with USAAF aircraft of any description. Aircraft finishing materials of whatever colour were manufactured to entirely different technical specifications.