Wessex HAS.3: Yellow and... blue?

[Wizball]

I'm sitting here with a Italieri Wessex HAS.3 and I'm trying to find out what color the blue in the yellow/blue pre-Falkland scheme *really* is. The box features several schemes, this being two of them:

 

...and in that picture and color callout they claim these are *different* blues, top one being RAF blue-grey (Italieri being their usual helpful selves only give Model Master paint numbers) and bottom one "True blue". But when I scour the internet I see a lot of model choppers painted Yellow/blue-gray, so the bottom scheme should really be the *same* blue as the top one.

 

Anyone better than me at Falkland-era British color schemes?

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im not the expert but i thought that it might be Oxford blue ? The true experts on the type can be found in these two threads. @Tramatoa, @Scimitar, & others.

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235046186-flying-a-council-house-from-the-upstairs-loo/

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235047611-those-other-wessex/

 

Hope these help you ?

 

 Dennis

Edited February 16, 2019 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Wizball]

Wow, lot of nice photos in those threads - apparently Wessex has been painted in every color imaginable over the years... Second thread I saw this:

 

 

Which do mostly look like blue-grey, perhaps? I'm not familiar enough with the colors to tell for sure if that's Oxford blue instead

 

Did find this: 

where some claim they were never painted in Oxford, only Lynxes were. 

Edited February 16, 2019 by Wizball

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

1 hour ago, Wizball said:

I'm trying to find out what color the blue in the yellow/blue

RAF Blue Grey.BS633.

Best example I've found is here:

https://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/collections/colourcoats-sea-british/products/acrn19-raf-blue-grey-bs633

The Wessex in British service was never painted in Oxford Blue.

 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

1 hour ago, Wizball said:

so the bottom scheme should really be the *same* blue as the top one.

 

The top one should be dark sea grey (or EDSG?)

 

There will be a couple of Fleet Air Arm bods along shortly and they probably know more

[Wizball]

29 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

The top one should be dark sea grey (or EDSG?)

 

There will be a couple of Fleet Air Arm bods along shortly and they probably know more

Of course! That was the missing piece - when I started to assume the top one was blue grey I was led astray. Thank you - blue grey it is. A rather striking scheme, I thought.

[perdu]

Be warned/advised

 

It can bite 

 

Another vote for the Colourcoats paints, the RAF Blue Grey equates perfectly with my old jar of Compucolor2 RAFBG

 

 

It isnt the RAFBG that bites, guess which colour bit me several very painful and obvious times*

But no doubt about it, it is a fabulous scheme

 

 

*no that is an unfair question, nobody can tell which scars seared my soul...

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

6 hours ago, Scimitar said:

The Wessex in British service was never painted in Oxford Blue.

 

6 hours ago, Scimitar said:

The top one should be dark sea grey (or EDSG?)

 

6 hours ago, Wizball said:

Of course! That was the missing piece - when I started to assume the top one was blue grey I was led astray.

It was just a best guess, happy to learn the true color and more about the Wessex. 

[Our Ned]

According to Burden et al Falklands - the Air War (BARG, 1986), all (bar one) of 737NAS' helos were painted in RAF Blue-Grey overall, with yellow upper surfaces.  Those aircraft deployed south had their yellow upper surfaces and white markings overpainted with RAF Blue-Grey, with black "ROYAL NAVY" and serials, and amended roundels.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Our Ned

[perdu]

I'm pretty certain that"Humphrey" is painted in all-over RAFBlueGrey, it does not look like Extra Dark Sea Grey to me

 

I suggest you should check the excellent walk around on our own site, page 4 of the Rotary Wing walkarounds especially details XP142 Humphrey, trust me it is RAFBlue Grey all over

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I’d be amazed if Humph is anything other than RAF BG.  The yellow top was painted out on the way south by the flight; they would havehad RAF BG to hand... but not much else.

 

The profile innthe original post diesn’t help, because the blue of the lower aircraft is WAY too blue; it does almost look like Oxford Blue in that drawing, but it;s wrong.  Only the early Lynx was painted Oxford Blue, and that;s a totally different colour.

 

Definitely RAF BG for your Wessex 3

[Selwyn]

13 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I’d be amazed if Humph is anything other than RAF BG.  The yellow top was painted out on the way south by the flight; they would havehad RAF BG to hand... but not much else.

 

The profile innthe original post diesn’t help, because the blue of the lower aircraft is WAY too blue; it does almost look like Oxford Blue in that drawing, but it;s wrong.  Only the early Lynx was painted Oxford Blue, and that;s a totally different colour.

 

Definitely RAF BG for your Wessex 3

The Blue in the bottom picture reminds me of the blue used on the  RAN Wessex

 

Selwyn

[71chally]

Crisp is right, RN Wessex 3s were RAF Blue Grey throughout their lives, for a long (non combat) period they had the yellow top decking for hi vis for such inconvenient events as ditching.

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Inconvenient and regular.  Single engine dunking at night.  Hmmm.  What could possibly go wrong?

[perdu]

Probably have been better to bung a couple of Gnomes in... oh

 

😜

[Wizball]

Have to thank everyone again for their helpful contributions!

[JagRigger]

Was the radome on these blue too, or black ?

[71chally]

Generally speaking the radome was the same colour as the main airframe, RAF blue/grey.

Edited February 27, 2019 by 71chally