Paul Lucas

Further comment is superfluous.

It's been a hard day's night, and I'm sleeping like a cat. . .

I don't know man, I've never smoked either of them. . .

It has the look of an RAF Vocabulary of Stores Reference Number to me. Section 41H/135801 could be the reference number for a Hurricane starboard elevator. If you look carefully, the tailplane also has a similar number on it something like 41H/150037 just forward of the missing square panel. The letters 'CX' under the number on the elevator denotes the doping scheme 'Cellon X'.

When I was looking at the RAF use of the B-24H as a possible subject of a 'Colour Conundrum' article a couple of months ago, the only 'H' models I found were those supplied to 223 (Bomber Support) Squadron in Bomber Command. I evidently missed the three in the Middle East. If everything goes according to plan, the resulting article should appear in the June and July issues of Scale Aircraft Modelling. 223 Squadron also used a number of 'J' models and these are also covered, which might be of interest to anyone wanting to have a go at modelling a Bomber Support Liberator using the new Hobby Boss kit in 1/48.

It's The Flying Squad!!

For cleaning plastic prior to applying paint, try wiping the surface down with a tissue dipped in Methylated Spirits (the purple stuff). If there is a lot of raised moulded detail on a surface such as a cockpit interior, instrument panel or ejection seat, use a stiff brush. The Methylated Spirits will remove most types of grease from the surface and evaporates away in seconds leaving a clean dry surface almost instantly.

As far as I know, the main thing to watch is the type of intake fitted to the underside of the engines. For a B. 35 you will need to fit parts E 23 & 24 that have the vent detail on the sides and not 21 and 22 (annotated as 'F' in the instructions). Besides the bomb doors and fairing, other errors that also apply to the B.XVI are the kit tail wheel is the wrong type, it should be of the anti-shimmy variety and the petrol cooler intake is missing from the side of the fuselage under the starboard wing. Other than that, it's down to the electronic/aerial fit and the colour scheme that will vary from one aircraft to another.

@Steve in Ottawa, as far as I know officially, all the roundels were supposed to be of 36 inch diameter, unless Airfix have information to the contrary with regard to the specific aircraft on their decal sheet. According to Admiralty Fleet Order 87/59 dated 9 January 1959 entitled 'Naval Aircraft-Colour and Markings' that deals with the subject in general terms "The roundel is normally to be 36-in. diameter of space allows, but it must not encroach on any control surface". The key word here seems to be 'normally' because there does seem to have been some variation in the size of the fuselage and under wing roundels on Gannets. According to Modeldecal, both the fuselage and under wing roundels could be of either 33 or 36 inch diameter, but the upper wing roundel was always 36 inch diameter.

@zdsjrx, Airfix kits refer to Humbrol paints in their instructions. As these are not available locally, you will need to try to find a paint that is available to you which looks like Dark Earth BS 381C No.350 (shown on the instructions as Humbrol No.29) and Dark Green BS 381C No.241(shown on the instructions as Humbrol No.163).

The relevant part of BS 987 'Camouflage Paints' of June 1942 states under the headings 'Specification' and 'Opacity, Colour and Finish' that "The finish may approximate to that known as 'egg-shell-gloss'."

According to Frederick Taylor in his book 'Dresden', Bloomsbury 2004, W/CDR Maurice Smith flew KB401 'E' from Coningsby with P/O Leslie Page as Navigator. Taylor does not state the unit to which this Mosquito was allocated, but it would not appear to have been 627 Squadron. Possibly Coningsby Station Flight? I don't have access to the Form 78 for this aircraft to take this matter any further. The primary green markers were dropped by the Lancasters of 83 Squadron.

Extra Dark Sea Grey BS 381C No. 640 is the same colour as the wartime Extra Dark Sea Grey.

Supermarine Drawing 36004 'Spitfire Camouflage Scheme' quotes Dark Green 33B/201-203, cross referenced with Aircraft Design Memorandum No 332 of September 1939 and DTD Technical Circular No.360 of February 1943 both of which give the same Vocabulary of Stores Section 33B reference numbers for Dark Green to DTD 314.

If you mean the shade of green used on Spitfires being used in the Fighter role, then yes, the shade of Dark Green used on the Spitfire V was the same as that used on BoB aircraft. Dark Green was formulated in 1933 and began to be used in conjunction with Dark Earth on RAF Expansion Scheme types from 1936. It remained in use for the whole of the war and way beyond. In 1964 it was incorporated into BS 381C as No.641 Dark Green, the number, though not the hue of the colour being subsequently ammended to No.241. Dark Green No.241 remains in BS 381C today.

Assuming that Trolley accs were finished in the colours prescribed for RAF MT vehicles, the most likely basic colour for a UK based unit in 1944 would probably be SCC No.2 33A/560 as this had been introduced at the end of 1942. This basic scheme might have had a disruptive pattern added using either SCC No.1A 33A/562, that was a dark brown, or from September 1943, a matt black, SCC No.14 33A/570. This began to be replaced by Olive Drab SCC No.15 33A/577-8 on new vehicles from June 1944. The SCC No.14 disrupter was retained with this new colour until September 1944 when it was dispensed with. In the 1964 edition of BS 381c, SCC No.2 was included as No.499 Service Brown, SCC No. 1A was included as No.436 Dark Camouflage Brown and SCC No.15 was included as No.298 Olive Drab. I have no idea how well any of these colours might be matched in the Tamiya, Vallejo or AK paint ranges, but Humbrol No.10 Service Brown is something like SCC No.2, No.98 Chocolate is something like SCC No.1A and No.253 RLM 83 Dunkel-Grun is something like SCC No.15.

The official scheme was supposed to be Extra Dark Sea Grey on the upper surfaces with Sky on the under surfaces. There might be a case for suggesting Dark Sea Grey on the upper surfaces or Sky Blue on the under surfaces of some aircraft, but the argument to make either of these cases is too long and involved to go into here. Offhand, I don't remember ever seeing any primary source document that places Medium Sea Grey on the upper surfaces of a wartime Coastal Command aircraft in either the Anti-submarine or Torpedo Bomber role.

@Graham Boak replied with the above post while I was typing this. If this was one of the Spitfire VCs delivered by Operation Calendar, in my opinion the single tone upper surface colour was most likely Dark Mediterranean Blue and the under surface colour Sky Blue. I did not find any reference to repainting the roundels on the upper surface of the wings during 1942 while carrying out the research that led to the publication of the Colour Conundrum articles dealing with the Malta Spitfires. That said, there was a proposal in 1943 to outline National making Is on the upper surface of the wings and sides of the fuselage with a 1 inch wide black ring, not acted upon, as far as I am aware, and some photographic evidence that some Spitfires did employ a lighter shade of blue such as Light Mediterranean Blue in the upper wing roundels to contrast with the blue scheme in use at that time. The whole story is too involved to recount here and anyone interested will find all the relevant Colour Conundrum articles that deal with the Malta Spitfires from the siege period until the summer of 1943 were reprinted in Colour Conundrum Compendium No. 1 that should still be available from Guideline Publications or specialist bookshops.

According to F.K. Mason, Z3437 was one of a batch of Hurricanes produced by Hawker, the deliveries of which commenced on 14 January 1941 and ended on 28 July 1941. I don't have access to the Form 78 for this aircraft, so I don't know when it was taken on charge, nor do I know when Hawker began to apply the spinner and tail band marking on the production line. The application of the small serial number on the band suggests an in service application of the band, but was this done as soon as Z3437 was delivered to an ASU, or was it only applied immediately before issue to a squadron? The later in 1941 that it was applied, the greater the chance that Sky was used rather than Sky Blue. The date of issue was possibly in May 1941 when it might have been allocated to 302 (Polish) Squadron at Kenley. Z3437 is first mentioned in 312 Squadron's ORB on 4 June 1941, just a few days after the Squadron moved to Kenley leaving both it's aircraft and equipment behind at Jurby. On arrival at Kenley, between 27-30 May, 312 Squadron took over the aircraft and equipment previously used by 302 Squadron, and this seems to have been how and when 312 Squadron acquired Z3437. Unfortunately, 302 Squadron's ORB for May 1941 seems to be missing, so it is impossible to confirm that Z3437 saw service with this Squadron prior to serving with 312 Squadron from this source. Because Z3437 can be seen to have been in service with 312 Squadron from early June 1941, the Temperate Land and Sky scheme shown in the decal sheet instructions is valid. Z3437 was still on the Squadron in early October 1941 and therefore also carried the grey and Dark Green upper surface camouflage scheme with Medium Sea Grey under surfaces and Sky codes seen in the photo. It is known that some aircraft retained Sky Blue spinner and tail band markings following the adoption of the grey and green scheme with Sky codes from mid August 1941. Whether Z3437 might have been one of these aircraft depends upon whether the viewer thinks they can see a difference of tone between the Sky codes and the tail band in the photo posted above. If the band looks lighter, it may have been Sky Blue, and would therefore probably have been Sky Blue when the aircraft was finished in the Temperate Land Scheme. On the other hand, such a difference might be due to the tail band being an aged and chalked Sky finish compared to the more recently applied Sky codes that would have been applied using a different tin of dope. What ever the colours were, they were so similar that the 'D' was given a thin outline where it encroached on the tail band. Either Sky Blue or Sky could be correct for the scheme in the decal sheet.

@Tomasz Gronczewski, @Troy Smith and anyone else who has taken an interest in this thread. I am afraid that I have no specific knowledge that would add anything of value to the discussion. In general terms, the Midstone segments of the upper surface camouflage are in the correct places for the Desert Scheme of 1941-2 in which Midstone replaced the Dark Green segments that featured in both the Temperate Land Scheme and Day Fighter Scheme. As to what the other colour(s) might be, I think that Tomasz's interpretation is plausible. I agree with Troy in that I think that this scheme, if it does feature three upper surface colours, probably occured by accident rather than by design. That said, three colour camouflage schemes were deliberately created and used in the Middle East as shown by the photograph of the Wellington that Troy posted. For the benefit of anyone who wants to read the Colour Conundrum articles that Tomasz referred to so as to make their own minds up about this subject, they originally appeared in the October and November 2019 issues of Scale Aircraft Modelling. They have been reprinted in 'Colour Conundrum Compendium No.3' published in November 2023 that should be currently available. Three colour Wellington camouflage schemes such as the one seen in the photo that Troy posted are also discussed in a previously unpublished Colour Conundrum entitled 'The Sea Rescue Flight and No.294 Air Sea Rescue Squadron in the Middle East 1941-1943'. It is good to know that someone not only reads the Colour Conundrum material but uses it to make very nice models such as this one.

The letter 'D' is the individual aircraft identification letter within the unit.

Indeed they do. I was principally thinking of the work done by the Fleet Air Arm Museum on their Corsair and Martlet when I wrote those words.

The policy decision to extend the upper surface colours all the way down the sides of the fuselage on Training aircraft was made on 30 October 1940. Given that V3540 was taken on charge just two days later, I don't think that there would have been time for this decision to be made known to the RTO at deHavilland let alone for it to be acted upon prior to the aircraft being accepted by the Service. I don't have a copy of the instruction that is said to be dated 7 November. I do however have a partial transcript of Cypher X789 dated 27 November 1940 that states that "Following alteration in colouring and markings of aircraft are to be made effective as soon as possible. 1) In order to make them less conspicuous on the ground all aircraft whose undersurfaces are painted Yellow are to have the upper surface camouflage colours extended downwards to cover completely both sides of the fuselage." Thus it would appear that though V3540 would probably have been delivered with the demarcation between the upper and under surface colours half way down the fuselage sides, by the time that it was lost in January 1941, there would have been time for the upper surface colours to have been extended down to the bottom of the fuselage as required by the revised policy.

We can only hope that they are diligently recording the different paint finishes that they find on a layer by layer basis. . .