WW2 aircraft preserved in Finland

[AnttiL]

6 hours ago, Kari Lumppio said:

Terve!

 

Antti, You should know better? Such statements will become a fact quite soon. 

 

No RLM 71 is ever mentioned in the orders of Ikarol paints. I researched those years ago when Sota-arkisto -archive was still working.

 

The Finnish AF olive green for warplane metal surfaces was Ikarol 291 ½/B made to Finnish colour sample. As were most of the Ikarol paints bought from Germany (codes from A to F).

 

The remarkable exception is matt Ikarol 291 /65 which was the matt light blue ("DN"-colour, RLM shade 65). Note the code is missing the "½" in paint code which I believe stands for semi-matt.

 

Finnish olive green was not RLM 71.

 

 

Cheers,

Kari

 

 

 

 

Hei!

 

Yes I know the coding and the standard samples made. The tones still varietes a lot what they should be.  Anyway, there is more than just one Finnish olive green. But for the modelling that is more or less irrelevant.

Edited December 2, 2018 by AnttiL

[AnttiL]

4 hours ago, Antti_K said:

On the other hand I think that the colours of the Airacobra are "more reliable" because the aircraft has been exposed to air all the time.

 

What do you guys think about the accuracy of the Finnish AF WWII paint set (produced by Lifecolor I think and based on the research made by Mr. Raimo Heikkinen)? Some modellers here in Finland couldn't even consider using the light blue.

 

One other thing: Thank you Michael for your kind words🙂

 

Cheers,

Antti

Because the Brewster was underwater and no oxygen or ultraviolet affected, I would say the color tones are better preserved than the colours of Airacobra.

 

The reference paint for the light blue color was not mixed well before the sample was taken, so unfortunately it came out too dark.  

 

Edited December 2, 2018 by AnttiL

[Antti_K]

Hello AnttiL,

 

what you say sounds reasonable. I was thinking that after the war the Airacobra most likely spent most of the time out of the Sun light and therefore could have preserved better. Do you happen to have more information on the "rapid" colour tone change Mr. Mecklin was talking about during the Brewster restoration?

 

It would be interesting to compare my colour notes on Olive Drab and Neutral Grey with findings made by others...

 

I was asking about that light blue because there seem to be few spots of "darker" (or more vivid) light blue on the Hurricane. I thought that the colour has faded considerably and those small darker areas are spots where the surface has been cleaned by careful sanding. For example to study the original hue.

 

Cheers,

Antti

[AnttiL]

19 hours ago, Antti_K said:

Hello AnttiL,

 

what you say sounds reasonable. I was thinking that after the war the Airacobra most likely spent most of the time out of the Sun light and therefore could have preserved better. Do you happen to have more information on the "rapid" colour tone change Mr. Mecklin was talking about during the Brewster restoration?

 

It would be interesting to compare my colour notes on Olive Drab and Neutral Grey with findings made by others...

 

I was asking about that light blue because there seem to be few spots of "darker" (or more vivid) light blue on the Hurricane. I thought that the colour has faded considerably and those small darker areas are spots where the surface has been cleaned by careful sanding. For example to study the original hue.

 

Cheers,

Antti

Hello kaima!

 

I've been working at the museum seven years now and it still looks same to me. When it arrived to our museum, it was already spent almost ten years at the surface, so the colours should have been neutralized already. I'm not sure what Kai meant. 

 

There was some amateur restoration already made when the Hurricane arrived to our museum for conservation. The fresh light blue and some yellow on the fuselage has been painted by someone when the Hurricane was storaged at Vesivehmaa, I think. We made some careful sanding when we removed the grey paint layer covering the swastikas. The newly painted swastikas has been painted on removable layer. Also there's few reproduction panels which were painted with modern paints and mixed the colour as close as possible to the original. For example the covering panel of the left outer wing seam.

[72modeler]

For both Antti's and Kari-

 

I found this just now while looking for Fokker DXXI detail photos. A pretty short but neat video walkaround of  some of the preserved Finnish aircraft discussed in this topic. I hope this will be of interest. Wish the Bf-109G-6 was one of the Finnish "gunboats!"

Mike

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWuLHA4MUyk

 

[Paul J]

A slight deviation from all the military stuff in those great pics of the Finnish Museum, in the second pic of the Fiesler Storch a Cherokee is visible in back ground reg OH-PJN. I saw this one at Gatwick December 1969 for the London Sydney Air Race. The BP sponsored sticker can be seen under the windows.  There were quite a few light aircraft taking part and flagged off by Sir Francis Chichester.  I recall 'skiving' from school for the few days the aircraft gathered. Supermarine Seagull VH-ALB was on its way from Australia but never made it but is now in the hands of the RAF Museum as A2-1

 

But, getting back to the pics, its nice to see so many different aircraft preserved.

[vppelt68]

4 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Wish the Bf-109G-6 was one of the Finnish "gunboats!" Mike

Our other survived Messerschmitt, the MT-452 was originally a G-6/R6 gunboat, though the wing cannons were soon removed. V-P

 

https://ilmakilta.info/mersu.php

 

 

[72modeler]

7 hours ago, vppelt68 said:

Our other survived Messerschmitt, the MT-452 was originally a G-6/R6 gunboat, though the wing cannons were soon removed. V-P

 

https://ilmakilta.info/mersu.php

 

 

Thank you so much for posting the photos of MT-452! I have saved one of my Finemolds G-6/R6 kits to do a Finnish gunboat, as I love the armament fit and the Finnish markings, as the Luftwaffe ones are nice but have been done to death. I have decals to do one of four that had the MG151's! Thank you again! My favorite is probably MT-461, Yellow '6' flown by 1st Lt. Kyosti Karhila, C.O. of 3/HleLv24, who had eight kills flying this gunboat, one of the few that retained its MG151 cannon pods. I think  I recall seeing a photo of a pair of the MG151 gun pods at one of the museums in Finland and wondering why they weren't fitted to one of the surviving Finnish G-6's.

Mike

 

 

 

 

[vppelt68]

Oh the -461 was another legendary aircraft! You know, many think that all our Mersus were similar.

MT-460 S.Sgt. Emil Vesa 3/HLeLv 24; no R-6, Erla, high wooden rudder

MT-461 Ltn. Kyösti Karhila 3/24; R-6, Erla, low metal rudder (actually all Finnish /R6 had low rudders, a balance issue?)

MT-462 M.Sgt Nils Katajainen 3/24; G-8/R5, 3-pc cabin, low metal rudder, German markings

MT-463 S.Sgt Tapio Järvi 2/24; G-6/AS, Erla, high wooden rudder

That's a lot of variety in four consecutevily numbered Messerschmitts! They were all of course flown by many competent pilots as we had more of them than aircraft, contrary to Luftwaffe . V-P