RAF bomb trolley colours

[Phil Evans]

Hi,

 

I've started the Airfix Dambusters Lancaster and decided to make up the trolley for the Upkeep mine. What puzzles me is what colour should it be. According to the instructions the main part should be Humbrol 33 (black) with the wheels, mine frame part G16 and towbar Humbrol 30 (green). The photo on the back of the box shows it made up and all green, so I'm guessing that the colour callout for the main trolley G19 is a typo..

 

I would have presumed that the trolley should be green overall until I saw that the vehicles in the RAF Bomber Resupply set are all Humbrol 29 (brown).

 

So should it be green or brown or could it be either?

 

Cheers

 

Phil

[Hardcastle]

Hi Pjil

 

Colours varied throughout the war - I have seen colour photos with trolleys from RAF blue to green to a darkish brown. The vehicles were usually camouflaged, but it seems trolleys were not always painted according to the rule of the time.

 

Tim

[Phil Evans]

Thanks Tim, I think I'll go with green.

 

Phil

[Graham Boak]

RAF vehicles were painted during the war in the Army colours.  Prewar they'd be RAF Blue Grey, and I suspect that many bomb trolleys in the Uk stayed that way for a while.  They wouldn't be a particularly high priority.  Then they should have been Green G3, until that was replaced by chocolate brown SCC2, which was eventually replaced by SCC15 Olive Drab.  For dates etc see http://www.mafva.net/other pages/Starmer camo.htm.  I rather doubt that any ended up in SCC15, except perhaps in 2 TAF.  For anything as late as the Dambusters I'd assume SCC2, but the rules were not to paint anything until it required refurbishing, so the older colours tended to last a while.  Even so, that's a lot of years for G3 to have lasted.

 

These paints are available from Sovereign Hobbies Colourcoats..

[Selwyn]

11 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

RAF vehicles were painted during the war in the Army colours.  Prewar they'd be RAF Blue Grey, and I suspect that many bomb trolleys in the Uk stayed that way for a while.  They wouldn't be a particularly high priority.  Then they should have been Green G3, until that was replaced by chocolate brown SCC2, which was eventually replaced by SCC15 Olive Drab.  For dates etc see http://www.mafva.net/other pages/Starmer camo.htm.  I rather doubt that any ended up in SCC15, except perhaps in 2 TAF.  For anything as late as the Dambusters I'd assume SCC2, but the rules were not to paint anything until it required refurbishing, so the older colours tended to last a while.  Even so, that's a lot of years for G3 to have lasted.

 

These paints are available from Sovereign Hobbies Colourcoats..

In addition to  grahams post, the other thing is whatever colour used that the side members were often painted white or had white stripes on them as an airfield visability measure as there were several instances of vehicles running into towed bomb trains  at night or low visibility. You also saw  cradle position markings either on the side or on the top of these rails to  indicate where the cradles should be positioned for different weapons. Unit and base markings were sometimes apparent as well.

 

Selwyn

[Phil Evans]

Thanks Graham and Selwyn,

 

I had been wondering if there was anything out of the ordinary with them as they would have been basically one offs. 

 

Phil

[Troy Smith]

Stirling Bomber by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Lancaster Bomber by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Halifax Mk. II by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

If you can find a copy, the Nightbombers DVD has lots of colour film of bombing up.

[Ossington 2]

ISTR an order forbidding the painting of squadron numbers on GSE (or even on the back of denims) as a security measure, Squadron codes being the prefered method to prevent inter- squadron pilfering. 

[Selwyn]

1 hour ago, Ossington said:

ISTR an order forbidding the painting of squadron numbers on GSE (or even on the back of denims) as a security measure, Squadron codes being the prefered method to prevent inter- squadron pilfering. 

Bomb trolleys were not on squadron inventories, they belonged to the bomb dump.  If they had a sqn number on them it was probably part of  weapon delivery management by the dump (i.e. trollies marked XXX Sqn were earmarked to deliver to XXX sqn).

 

Selwyn

[Mancunian airman]

In the night bombers DVD you can see quite clearly the letters of 'PM' on one bomb trolley in particular which indicates to me that the section of the film was taken at Elsham Wolds, home of 103 Squadron whose squadron codes were 'PM'  .. .

 

By painting any colour, be it Green Black or Brown, nobody can tell you its wrong !!!

I marked up my trolley's with RED & GREEN strips to indicate the locations of cradles plus the occasional white panel . . . .

 

Ian

[Graham Boak]

Nobody who has yet contributed to this thread can tell you that it is wrong.  Which is not quite the same thing.

[Phil Evans]

Thanks everyone. It's given me ideas for when I do the Resupply Set trolleys.

 

As for the Dambusters Upkeep trolley I'll stick with the green. I won't bother with any white or other marking as I can't imagine arming the aircraft being carried out in poor visibility. As they were only used virtually just the once I reckon they would have been pretty much devoid of any changes from when they were made.

 

Cheers

 

Phil