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What colours - the prototype Canberra


rickshaw

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What colours were the Canberra prototype painted in?   I can see that it is either Azure blue or P.R.U. blue.  I am confused as the different pictures I've found have different hues for the blue colour.

 

Anybody got any ideas?

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1 hour ago, rickshaw said:

What colours were the Canberra prototype painted in?   I can see that it is either Azure blue or P.R.U. blue.  I am confused as the different pictures I've found have different hues for the blue colour.

 

Anybody got any ideas?

@rickshaw It's nether of those two colours, the English Electric A.1 was painted in, as was the fashion in the British Aircraft industry at that time, a non standard colour colloquially known as "Petter Blue" described as being a "sky blue". This colour has disappeared into history but all is not lost! Petter Blue reappeared on another of English Electrics very fine products, this time Deltic prototype DP.1 Preserved at the National Rail Museum York, and even better, a colour mach paint is available from a company called Rail Match Paints Deltic prototype blue  . If you fancy having a go at the A.1 there are quite a few mods to look out for.   

  A_120JPEG-1.jpg

John

Edited by canberra kid
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1 hour ago, canberra kid said:

 

@rickshaw It's nether of those two colours, the English Electric A.1 was painted in, as was the fashion in the British Aircraft industry at that time, a non standard colour colloquially known as "Petter Blue" described as being a "sky blue". This colour has disappeared into history but all is not lost! Petter Blue reappeared on another of English Electrics very fine products, this time Deltic prototype DP.1 Preserved at the National Rail Museum York, and even better, a colour mach paint is available from a company called Rail Match Paints Deltic prototype blue  . If you fancy having a go at the A.1 there are quite a few mods to look out for.   

  A_120JPEG-1.jpg

John

Well there's something I didn't know.

That's a great piece of information John, thank you.

I love this hobby, you never stop learning.

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2 hours ago, canberra kid said:

This colour has disappeared into history but all is not lost! Petter Blue reappeared on another of English Electrics very fine products, this time Deltic prototype DP.1 Preserved at the National Rail Museum York, and even better, a colour mach paint is available from a company called Rail Match Paints Deltic prototype blue  . If you fancy having a go at the A.1 there are quite a few mods to look out for.   

  

John

John,

 

Although we are talking about 'Blues' that piece of information is pure GOLD!!

 

Cheers... Dave.

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5 hours ago, canberra kid said:

 

@rickshaw It's nether of those two colours, the English Electric A.1 was painted in, as was the fashion in the British Aircraft industry at that time, a non standard colour colloquially known as "Petter Blue" described as being a "sky blue". This colour has disappeared into history but all is not lost! Petter Blue reappeared on another of English Electrics very fine products, this time Deltic prototype DP.1 Preserved at the National Rail Museum York, and even better, a colour mach paint is available from a company called Rail Match Paints Deltic prototype blue  . If you fancy having a go at the A.1 there are quite a few mods to look out for.   

  A_120JPEG-1.jpg

John

 

Why thanks for that.  I'll have a look.  It is a very odd colour blue, I must say.  Non-standard RAF colour. 

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2 hours ago, rickshaw said:

 

Why thanks for that.  I'll have a look.  It is a very odd colour blue, I must say.  Non-standard RAF colour. 

Very much non standard but it was the fashion then, there were some very attractive schemes around then. Colour photo's of VN799 are very scarce, the following is about the best I've seen.

VN799%207_zpscmryqclm.jpg

WT478 was a T.4 painted up to represent VN799 for the Canberra's 40th Roland Beamont remarked on the colour as being very close to the original,

WT478%20VN799%202_zpsxfvoatxs.jpg

For the 50th another T.4 this time WJ874, this was painted in PRU Blue which is too grey and dark, they also made a mess of the markings. 

WJ874_zpsrsdp0efl.jpg

 I was honored to attend the 50th at Warton with a display of my Canberra models, I met Bee and we got talking, I asked him what he thought of the colour match of my VN799 and he said words to the effect of it being spot on, that'll do for me!

373977_400808913280484_296693288_n_zpso5

John

 

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1 hour ago, John R said:

Was that 'Petter blue' used for the Midge and the Gnat prototypes?

A good question John, I don't know if the blue on VN799 was an off the shelf colour or a one off mix, Petter had his MG painted the same colour as VN799, so if he still had the car when he went to Folland they could have done a match to it by eye, or something like, he must have really liked the shade of blue. Thinking a bit more about it, the split between Petter and EE.Co was not amical, so perhaps he wouldn't have gone for the same shade? 

 

John 

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WT478, remember it well.  Just after arriving at Wyton it did a belly landing, being a t-bird, one pilot selected wheels down, flaps up the other pilot selected the reverse!  It came out of cat 3 repair not long before the OCU arrived.

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Maybe this is very close to the color pattern ?

I painted "chip" in blue MrPAINT MRP-277

int-color-mig-15-17-19.jpg

 

 

P.k

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17 hours ago, canberra kid said:

On the subject of non standard blue Canberra's, VN799 wasn't the only one, the second one was the PR.3 prototype VX181 this was painted "Cylearian Blue" which was apparently being tried as an alternative to PRU Blue.

 

John  

The ancient Profile (1966 or so) stated 181 was PRU Blue, so obviously those outlandish colours weren't easy to identify way back when.

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18 hours ago, canberra kid said:

On the subject of non standard blue Canberra's, VN799 wasn't the only one, the second one was the PR.3 prototype VX181 this was painted "Cylearian Blue" which was apparently being tried as an alternative to PRU Blue.

 

John  

I suspect this was Cerulean Blue: just a posh word (Greek origin) for sky blue - by which I don't mean MAP Sky Blue.  Are you suggesting that VN799 and VX181 were different colours?  Is it possible that Cerulean Blue was the supplier's name for "Petter blue"?

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The name Cerulean Blue has often appeared when discussing Canadair Sabres under surfaces. As we know that these aircrafts had PRU blue undersurfaces, I wonder if the name refers to a supplier name for the same PRU blue or something else

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7 hours ago, tempestfan said:

The ancient Profile (1966 or so) stated 181 was PRU Blue, so obviously those outlandish colours weren't easy to identify way back when.

I can understand that, the blue on VX181 was a bluer blue, less grey than PRU Blue, but if who ever identified the colour would not have known she was involved in a trial with a new scheme and just assumed it was PRU blue. 

7 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

I suspect this was Cerulean Blue: just a posh word (Greek origin) for sky blue - by which I don't mean MAP Sky Blue.  Are you suggesting that VN799 and VX181 were different colours?  Is it possible that Cerulean Blue was the supplier's name for "Petter blue"?

Graham I can't remember now what the document I saw was that quoted Cerulean Blue, but it said it was a potential camouflage colour. I suspect given the higher altitudes the PR.3 would be operating in they would have been looking at the available options. I found a tin of Cerulean Blue, made by Precision Paints I think? in an old shop in Llandudno many moons ago, unfortunately I no longer have it.  I used it on my VX181, it's close to "Petter Blue" but not the same. 

4.jpg

 

John

       

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I researched this when I built my A1, including extensive useful input from Canberrakid John, didn't get a definitive colour match, so I went with Humbrol Hu89

 

Looks okay to me??

 

a%207.jpg

 

 

DSC_0382.jpg 

 

 

a%205.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

. . . Kes 

Edited by Kes
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Having built virtually all the Prototypes now courtesy of John's wealth of knowledge,You will not find Cerulean Blue in any Humbrol,Revell,Xtracolour.It is however a bluer PRU Blue and the only definitive colour shot I found was the Cerulean Victor from Farnborough mid 50s.I have tried to post both my VN799 and VX181,but Photobucket is noncooperative,and latest Windows 10 updates have stopped my old camera from uploading pictures,so only my son's will work and he objects to shots of my Modelling lack of expertise.Anyway the 2 colours of the Blue(VX181) and Petter Blue(VN799) are very different,and yes again the Midge and Prototype Gnat are different again and not Petter Blue.

Whatever John states should be looked at as "Gospel".The Coventry Historic Team painted WK163 in the correct colour of VN799,as a recognition of the 1st Ptototype,so a recent shot of that should give a clue as to the proper colour.

Edited by mikestow
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Was this Cerulean Blue one of R-R's house colours? It pops up from time to time if you google search for:

Beagle G-ASWJ

Spit G-ALGT

DH 125 G-BARR

Austers G-AIJT and G-AIPH (both were at Merlin Flying Club, Hucknall, plus a

Meteor, whose reg escapes me ATM.

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