Colour beneath Lancaster "glass house"

[Graham T]

Building the Airfix Lancaster II & the instruction s call this area out in black but I suspect it should be topside colour. Any guidance?

[JWM]

Here:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Avro-Lancaster-Flypast-179005844

http://www.sonsofdamien.co.uk/Lancaster-Lincoln%201.htm

it is green, but rather inisde green, not dark green. So the third option...

Cheers

J-W

[Heraldcoupe]

I understand this is one of those areas which varied according to when (and possibly where?) the aircraft were constructed.

It would appear that Old Fred at the IWM has the area in the topside green

Cheers,

Bill.

[bobgpw]

Looking at the colour film available and wartime colour images, it looks to me like the camouflage colour extends under the cockpit canopy.

In the film Night Bombers, as the ground crew are refuelling the aircraft there is a good view of the rear portion of the canopy and the camo looks to extend under the canopy. Similarly, the colour view of the Lancaster being serviced at Bottesford shows the dark green extending under the canopy framework.

There is also a good black and white image of Lanc noses apparently being produced at Chadderton. The canopy frames have been fitted,sealed and painted although the colour only extends down about 6-12 inches before you see bare metal. Another image taken at Castle Bromwich shows a similar production technique. There are some good images on the Getty website showing Chadderton production, and again I'd suggest that the camouflage colour continues under the canopy.

As Bill says, this is quite possibly something that varied from manufacturer to manufacturer and at various stages of production.

Bob

[Seahawk]

Yes, that's my understanding as well, probably gleaned from a posting on this site: that the decking under the glass was treated as part of the external structure ie took the colour of the adjoining camouflage. Not a rule (if it is a rule!) that one can extrapolate to other types ie rear decking on Tempests was, I seem to recall, black.

[dogsbody]

From The IWM.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205188753

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205188822

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205188205

Chris

[stevehnz]

Those are a great selection of photos Chris, thanks for doing the hard yards for these.

A query I have that has sort of grown out of this thread, what about post war/late war Lancs that ended up in different schemes, I'm thinking Tiger scheme & the post war ASR lancs that were finished in TSS, would the glass house have been detached & the area underneath refinished?

Steve.

[Nigel Bunker]

Having googled Tiger Force Lancasters they appear to be white under the canopy. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that the glass house would not have been removed and the area would have been painted by an 'erk' with a paintbrush and a pot of paint rather than going to all the trouble of removing and re-attaching the glasshouse.

[bobgpw]

The rear portion of the Lanc canopy is timber/metal construction (aft of the flat side windows) I believe. I wonder if this can be detached separately to allow it to be painted?

[Graham T]

Having googled Tiger Force Lancasters they appear to be white under the canopy. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that the glass house would not have been removed and the area would have been painted by an 'erk' with a paintbrush and a pot of paint rather than going to all the trouble of removing and re-attaching the glasshouse.

There's a pic in Christopher Chant's book "Lancaster The History of Britains Famous WW2 Bomber" of NX612, a B Mk VII(FE) that is "clearly" Black in this area but apparently, this machine was completed to this standard & not rebuilt/painted from an earlier machine. I say "clearly" although the area in question is a shade lighter than the black undersides; could just be the light of course.

Thanks for the responses, I'll go with the surrounding camo colour!

[Heraldcoupe]

Having googled Tiger Force Lancasters they appear to be white under the canopy.

I came to a different conclusion. There are certainly some images showing this area to be white, but others show a much darker colour, presumably the earlier scheme which had not been repainted to match the rest:

http://eternal.flight.pagesperso-orange.fr/wu21/lanc1p3.jpg

http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/bww2/lancast/lancast-11.jpg

https://masterbombercraig.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/tl-h.png

As ever, try and find an image of your specific subject,

Cheers,

Bill.

[Work In Progress]

The rear portion of the Lanc canopy is timber/metal construction (aft of the flat side windows) I believe. I wonder if this can be detached separately to allow it to be painted?

It all comes off if it must, but you aren't going to do it if you can avoid it.

[dogsbody]

Those are a great selection of photos Chris, thanks for doing the hard yards for these.

A query I have that has sort of grown out of this thread, what about post war/late war Lancs that ended up in different schemes, I'm thinking Tiger scheme & the post war ASR lancs that were finished in TSS, would the glass house have been detached & the area underneath refinished?

Steve.

I'm retired now and it's winter here so I don't have anything better to do 'til spring.

Chris

[Mike Starmer]

I have seen a copy of the camouflage drawing long ago and it stated Dark Green under the canopy. BTW the Fairey Battle drawing has Dark Earth under it's canopy irrespective of handed camouflage pattern.