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Who among you has ever seen such camouflage in a Harvard?


Stanhauser

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for ease of reference. 

 

large_000000.jpg?action=e&cat=photograph ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN THE FAR EAST, 1941-1945.. © IWM (CI 1144) IWM Non Commercial License

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The new Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South East Asia, Air Marshal Sir Keith Park, talks to Air Vice-Marshal S F Vincent, Air Officer Commanding No. 221 Group RAF, and Group Captain H Goddard, while vising RAF units on the Mandalay Front in Central Burma.

 

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I got it! I got it! Here is the pattern. :D i got nothing for the colors though.....

 

IMG_5482.JPG

 

Please, please don't tell the Mrs. :fraidnot: ( They're quilt patterns )

  • Haha 2
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That's the same Stanley Vincent who got Hurricane LF363 overhauled and ran her as his personal aircraft for a couple of years in the late '40s, thereby contributing to her survival to the present day

 

The Harvard scheme is profoundly odd and rather wonderful. Never seen anything like it on a WW2 RAF type before.

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„One night in Bangkok“ from the musical „CHESS“ ?! I know Bangkok is in Thailand not Burma... 

Now who’s the first to produce lozenge-style decals for this most interesting scheme? Thanks for finding it!

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One could guesstimate colours of this scheme but what about other markings? Lozenge camouflaged Harvard could have easily been marked with early WWI Union Jacks instead of roundels, with squadron codes in Cyrillic script and pink serial, shadowed in light blue. Not to mention that neither serial nor codes (if they had been applied at all) are known. Otherwise, yes, it would make most interesting model. Cheers

Jure

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A valid point, but the most ridiculously extreme Reductio ad Absurd(issim)am argument I've ever heard.

 

There's not enough information by far for me to attempt a build (even if the subject appealed to me), but let us not ridicule those brave souls who might now spend serious time and brainpower trying to work something out!

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OK, trying a little logic, the base colour would be yellow and this therefore is likely to be the lightest colour (and the underside?).  The two obvious camouflage (hah!) colours would be Dark Green and Dark Earth, with the DG being the darker shade.  It doesn't help that the starboard side isn't clearly in three colours, and the wing pattern isn't visible..

 

There were quite a lot of Harvards rattling about in SEAC so finding a serial would be difficult.  I can imagine going very carefully through every Mk.IIB in The Harvard File and not getting a clue other than eliminating all those not in SEAC.  I'd have expected Vincent's personal aircraft (as it surely is) to carry either his initials (SV or SJV) forward of the fuselage roundel and an AVM pennant under the forward cockpit.  There's no sign of either, so presumably he felt that the distinctive paint scheme would be sufficient.

 

Horrors - it could even be a T-16 handed over by the USAAF.  Yes, they did have some in the China-Burma theatre.  But they were only MK.IIBs anyway, in civilised lingo, as far as modelling is concerned.

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I'd go along with Grahams colour suggestion and very possibly SEAC roundels maybe?? Who knows???  We could have a special GB of building this one in whatever pattern colours we think it was in. As for the serial perhaps it was overpainted except the underside ones.

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Graham, if you look closely and carefully; you can see that the wing has the same wavy square pattern as the fuselage. It is hard to see; but it is there. It's just not as obvious. Colors, though, anyone's guess.

Joe

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Chillidragon, I went slightly over the top but such a non plus ultra praise for my comment? Now I have no choice but to join those brave souls, as you so delicately put it, frantically searching for clues to make sense from (lack of) information on the subject:think:. Cheers

Jure

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The more I look to  this image above, the more it appears that the lighter color was applied over the dark color.
The lighter one seems to be applied roughly, we can see the brush marks on the edges of each square...

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I'd agree with Grahams suggestion that the lighter colour could be yellow but I think the darker colour could be red. Who says the aircraft has to be in camouflage colours? If the Harvard was being utiilsed as a temporary utility transport for the important man in an area where there were a lot of aggressive young men looking for anything even remotely Japanese looking to shoot at high visibility may have been a distinct advantage.

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Weird camouflage, indeed....looks like something from Mary Quant's drawing board....

maybe something similiar to those camouflage tested by the USAAC during the prewar years...???

Anyway, the best thing in that second pic is the raised rivet pattern and overlapping panels.....some people should take good note....

Cheers

Edited by Artie
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