Avro Anson - RAAF Experimental Camouflage

[Ed Russell]

 

 

To combat the threat of Japanese submarines off the Australian east coast, the RAAF raised three new maritime patrol squadrons in 1943, equipped with Ansons. AW665 was repainted RAAF colours of Foliage Green/Earth Brown/Sky Blue after repair work.

During October 1943 this 71 Sqn Anson was experimentally camouflaged at Lowood Qld with matt white vertical surfaces and gloss white undersurfaces. It was flown in company with a normally camouflaged Anson and assessed for visibility. The white was determined to give an advantage in hiding the aircraft from surface observation but RAAF Command felt that the effort was not warranted and AW665 was ordered to be re-camouflaged and was scrapped in 1946.

 

Pioneering aviation historian Geoffrey Pentland produced profiles of this aircraft in the full RAF Coastal Command scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey, Dark Slate Grey with Red codes and this has been faithfully copied by many profile artists and kit and decal manufacturers and is now regarded as “fact”. However Ian Baker’s Aviation History Colouring Book series contains, in Vol 75, an article looking at the RAAF documentation from that time, based on a National Archives holding - He notes the only colour mentioned in the document is white. As there was no relevance to the visibility from below or written reference at any stage to re-camouflaging the upper surfaces one must question whether it would have been done – it would have been a complete waste of effort as the aircraft was soon repainted to match the rest of the squadron. Even more problematic are the red codes. Red was ordered to be removed from roundels and fin flashes in July 1942, due to instances of confusion with Japanese markings. While red was briefly used for RAF Coastal Command markings, an Air Ministry Order actually called for Light Slate Grey for code letters. While the full Coastal Command livery makes a strikingly different model the combination of available evidence, common sense and wartime expediency points to the Anson’s actual colours being as shown here.

 

 

 

The 1/72 Airfix kit was introduced in 1962 as a Series 2 kit in a plastic bag. It has been re-issued many times since then, the only improvement being a box and different decals. For some reason, after the first production run, the wings were modified to have an imaginary fabric finish. At the time of writing Airfix have no plans to update the Anson but if they did, a look at a real one would show the wings are plywood covered. This build was intended to be more-or-less out-of-the-box but the Flightpath and Tasman updates pushed it into the well and truly modified category. The ailerons were reduced and the flaps extended in span, the undercarriage tidied up a bit, the Falcon canopy used in conjunction with Flightpath’s very complete interior and window frames. The cowlings were drilled out using a Dremel and router bit so that replacement engines from Tasman would fit neatly and the Falcon turret was used. The fabric effect was removed from the flying surfaces using Mr Surfacer followed by mild sanding and the wingtips and tailplanes were reshaped. The underside was sprayed with White Knight Gloss White enamel and masked so the upper surfaces could be painted with Humbrol 98 and 149 which are good matches for the camouflage colours. The sides and tail were later matt varnished. Decals came from Red Roo sheet RRD7273 which includes this aircraft and two other mid-war Ansons.

https://www.redroomodels.com/product/raaf-ansons/   (There's also a 1/48 version)

A few notes - an expanded version of this post will appear in the modelling magazine ModelArt Australia - https://www.facebook.com/groups/420186691329185/

Valuable contributions were made to this build by @rossm and @Juanita

 

[fubar57]

Very nice and different.....I like it

[JWM]

Ed, really a great result for this old (~60 years)  Airfix kit! Very interesting scheme as well.

Regards

J-W

 

[Baldy]

Very nice build and different scheme for this old but good kit.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

[MikeR]

Very nice indeed!

 

Mike.

[RMCS]

Superb 

[tonyot]

Gorgeous job Ed and I agree with the colour of the codes...... never thought they would be red.

Cheers

          Tony

[Ed Russell]

One of my colleagues (Thanks @VH-JEB ) has unearthed a folder of RAAF correspondence relating to these trials. It is some 21 pages and if anyone would like it as a PDF justl et me know. I did have a couple of people sending me colourised pictures where the codes are pink! Moral - avoid colourisation unless you are pretty good at interpreting B&W photos yourself.

 

In essence, it shows we ( @Juanita and @rossm and the Red Roo team) were completely correct in our assessment of the photograph. The document mentions other photographs but these have not yet been found. They may just be ground to air pictures at a distance.

[Mynimal]

Old and beauty . 👍

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, what a cracking job Ed, sorry to have missed this the first time.   Looks absolutely stunning.  Great work and great research.

Chris

[Tom R]

So I was right - me and a few others.

How about the two-tone green Spitfires next?

[Brett.Johnson]

Well done Ed lovely build. thanks for posting along with some interesting information.