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RAF Winter Camouflage


At Sea

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Hi,

I have seen models of II (AC) Squadron Tornado GR.1's in winter camo but never a picture of the real thing.

I have seen pictures of Harrier GR.3 and Jaguar GR.1 in winter camp where white replaces green.

I have seen pictures of Jaguar GR.? in winter camp painted 'fishnet' over the tactical green grey scheme.

I have seen HC.4 Commando's in white and a fishnet style and a tiger stripe style scheme over green.

Question (calling all Lineys!)

Are these the only types to sport winter camo or did other types wear it too?

Is there an official line on winter camp or is it applied ad-hoc before Norway exercises?

When did it start or stop. Mid to late 80's seems to be the hey day for it.

Thanks.

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Thank you.

Another variation, white & green.

It seems that there are few rules about winter camo. :-)

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Number 1 (F) Squadron applied temporary white camouflage to some of their grey Harrier GR Mk.7s which were deployed to Norway in January 2004 during exercise Snow Falcon - I don't remember seeing the scheme being worn by any types after that date.

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There are images of Shiny Two Tornados on both Airliners & Airfighters.com in winter camo -

Puma has received the winter treatment, completely all over White back in the late 70s when I was based at Odiham, - 33 Sqn

RAF Bucaneers also received a Grey/White scheme during the 1980's - 208 Sqn

1 Sqn applied a very snazy dotted scheme to their GR5 Harriers

Edited by Gary West
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No 4 also applied winter camo to Harrier GR7s.

Both 3 and 4 applied winter camo to Gr3s in Germany (3 applied the white over grey, 4 over green) and 4 also had some T 4s as well. There were also 233 OCU Gr1s and T4.

At least one Royal Marines Gazelle had white applied.

Oh, Jaguar GR3 white disruptive over the MOD95 two greys scheme

Edited by Dave Fleming
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  • 4 years later...

In re: winter camo on Buccaneers.  There was one Buccaneer that received a winter camo paint job on one occasion of which I am aware: XV160 in early 77.  The scheme was applied for an overseas deployment to Canada.  This aircraft was one of the few that were painted in the desert camo scheme in July 77 for Red Flag, so the winter camo did not last long.  Here are two well known photos of XV160 in winter camo that have been published several times:

51161539357_9a61972856_z.jpg 51163309615_b9328e5873_c.jpg

 

 

Now here is a recent discovery that I got excited about (yes my level of excitement about this does in fact mean that I should get out more, but never mind that):

 

51162445033_447c4b8de5_b.jpg

 

I found this on Facebook just the other day.  Notice that the white distemper paint has been removed from the top of the fuselage in front of the windscreen.  Obviously the glare from the white was unfavorable in the operational environment.  This is something I had never seen before.  So there you have it, a complete history of winter camo as applied to the Buccaneer. - Jack

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XIII Sqn painted their Tonka GR1a's in winter camo during a deployment to Norway in 1993.  I have photos but, alas, they're not accessible right now.  However, there's a side profile on this website which gives some indication of the scheme.

 

There are some additional pics of the scheme on this Britmodeller thread:

 

 

Edited by mhaselden
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On 8/6/2016 at 3:24 PM, At Sea said:

I have seen models of II (AC) Squadron Tornado GR.1's in winter camo but never a picture of the real thing.

 

@At Sea

A little late, but this morning I spotted a small photo of a II(AC) Tornado with white over the green on page 38 of Vol 31 of WAPJ, so they did get the winter camo ;) 

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Further to all of the above, I would say any Cold War or later transport or ground attack types except Typhoon, FLA and Merlin could potentially have a Winter scheme, which will be a washable white paint as either a disruptive pattern on an overall grey, or white replacing grey or green on a grey/green tactical scheme, either overall or with pale grey underside.

 

As the white is washable, it tends to vary from opaque to about 50% coverage. Check references of any type to see what weathered Winter white looks like in general, but don't stress it and try and copy an individual picture because that is "what that aircraft looked like on that date". It was different the day before, and would be different again the next day.

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There is no RAF "Winter" camouflage scheme.

Now if you bothered to discuss the RAF  Arctic camouflage scheme............................................! 

Applied to all aircraft that would operate in Arctic regions.

 

Selwyn

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