Kittyhawk Mk Ia leading edge yellow color

[mike kippenhan]

Hello all,

I am currently building Special Hobby's 1/72 Kittyhawk Iain the marking of GA-Y from No. 112 Sqn., Libya 1942.

The box top art shows the aircraft with yellow on its leading edges; however, the instructions do not show yellow.

Searching the web, I have found a port view of the aircraft; however, the shadow on the under wing obscures where there would be a paint demarcation.

On the below wikipedia page, there is a color photo of a plane from this squadron taxing and it definitely has yellow leading edges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._112_Squadron_RAF

 

Can anyone help me out? Yellow leading edges or not?

 

Thanks in advance

Mike K

Oregon, USA

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello Mike

I assume you are inquiring about Kittyhawk I AK772 London Pride? Here is IWM reproduction of the photo you mentioned:

 

© IWM (CM 2895)

 

I am not certain but I cannot see yellow leading edges on these photo. Apparently there has been also some dispute about the camouflage colour of AK772's lower surfaces, at least according to this decal manufacturer.

I hope I have not just added to the confusion. Cheers

Jure

[Graham Boak]

I'm not certain but I think I can.  Yellow leading edges are clearly visible on photos of C,L, S and V (source below).

 

Re the undersides.  The colour was most probably not Dupont Light Grey (I assume there was a paint so named) but Dupont Sky Type S Grey, which is a colour intended to match Sky but it didn't quite make it.  It is most likely that the underside will have been repainted as ME HQ thought Sky too light, and indeed prepared their own alternative colour sometimes called Iraqi Blue.  This (or very similar) was approved for mass use as Azure Blue.  If the colour is confirmed as darker than this (still fairly light) colour then of the two suggestions then I would assume Light Mediterranean Blue, because this colour has been reported in ME use, and was later approved for use with the Desert scheme.  Deep Sky was a rare colour restricted to high altitude operations and mainly (if not always) restricted to US-built heavy bombers.  But see below...

 

Annoyingly, there was a series of colour photos of such P-40s published in the 70s, in the Japanese magazine Koku Fan, but I no longer have this (or possibly do, but only as clippings and buried deep).  One of these was (slightly lower quality) used for the cover of Shark Squadron by Robin Brown, a history of 112 Sq.  I'd suggest from this that the underside colour is a medium blue, too dark for Azure Blue.  Were I making the model I'd have absolutely no qualms about using Light Mediterranean Blue.  The aircraft on the cover are L, V and another possibly B or D.  The codes are light blue, the aircraft are FRxxx serials sitting directly on the Desert Scheme.  This raises the question of whether earlier aircraft also carried the yellow.

 

AK772 was with the Squadron from March to June 1942.  The book contains a photo dated 14th April showing two aircraft with yellow leading edges, one of which is S (serial unknown) which also appears to have this dark patch of an earlier camouflage behind the serial.  So not quite QED but pretty close.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Graham Boak
Removal of references to Dark Mediterranean Blue.

[Work In Progress]

I would trust the Barracudacals sheet over the sppecial Hobby info. The aeroplane should in principle have had yellow leading edges, but not everything is as it should be in war.

[Troy Smith]

7 hours ago, mike kippenhan said:

On the below wikipedia page, there is a color photo of a plane from this squadron taxing and it definitely has yellow leading edges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._112_Squadron_RAF

 

Can anyone help me out? Yellow leading edges or not?

 

Hi Mike

 

from what I can see the colour shots are of later Kittyhawk III's,  see

http://raf-112-squadron.org/112_photos_page_4.html

and not the Mk.Ia you want.

 

Barracudacals are one of the better companies when it comes to research.

 

there are photos from the earlier era here

http://raf-112-squadron.org/112_photos_page_2.html  this has the IA shots.

http://raf-112-squadron.org/112_photos_page_3.html