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Wellington MkIII camouflage question


Blacktjet

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Wellington MkIII 12 squadron 1942, BJ606 PH-S, would it have had yellow leading edges on the wings? I'm not a WWII modeller so have no reference material on Wellingtons and an internet search only came up with illustrations that showed with and without.

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The yellow leading edges were not paint but Kilfrost deicing paste.  As such the aircraft could be accurate with or without.  You do see this on early Mk.II Halifaxes so I'd suggest that its use was winter 1941/42.  At some stage it went out of use but I don't know when.

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Bomber Command aircraft did not have yellow painted leading edges as did their brethren in Fighter Command as a recognition marking.  However many bombers could be seen with yellow de-icing paste on the leading edges of all flying surfaces when moderate to severe icing was expected.  I don’t know if this was easily removable and applied on a mission-by-mission basis or if it tended to be left on the aeroplanes for days or seeks on end.

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Thanks for the replies. The only picture I can find is one of the crew standing in front of the aircraft, with only the inner wings visible. One looks like there is no yellow paste, the other looks like it has peeled yellow paste. The aircraft was lost on a raid,15/16 October 1942.

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As it was a paste, it had a very "smeared" and uneven texture - not like paint at all. If I was modelling it, I would just mask off the leading edges of the wing and apply the paint using crude brush strokes to give a streaked, uneven appearance.

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