Blenheim IV camouflage scheme allocations

[lasermonkey]

Hi,

I'm in the process of making a model of Blenheim IV R3637/TR@C* of No. 59 Squadron in July 1940. As far as I know, no photos exist of this particular machine, but I have found a few pics of other Blenheims from No. 59 Sqn around the same time, so have a fairly good idea of how she probably looked.

 

The one thing I don't know is whether she wore the A or B scheme. Is there any "rule of thumb" (such as with Spitfires and Hurricanes) as to odd/even numbered aircraft wearing A or B schemes? I haven't been able to draw a conclusion by looking at photos of other Blenheims.

 

Any assistance in ascertaining the likely scheme would be most gratefully received.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

 

 

* it took a while, but I eventually found the individual a/c letter from the No. 59 Sqn website.

[lasermonkey]

At the risk of making this look like an echo chamber, where I only talk to myself (closer to real life than I probably care to admit!) I've done a bit of online trawling and found, for the most part, that even serial numbers had the A scheme and odd numbers had the B scheme. Exceptions seem to be in the L9XXX range (which seem to be reversed) and in the Z7XXX range, which seem to be random. Certainly, all of the photos I've seen of the RXXXX Mk IVs conform to the A=even/B=odd convention, so that's what I'm going with. Unless, of course, someone pops up with evidence that changes everything!

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[Graham Boak]

It was commonly written that odd serials wore the A pattern.    I have seen this corrected to the first aircraft in a production batch, with the implication that not all batches began with an odd serial, although most of them did.  Worth a quick check on Blenheim blocks?

 

It seems to me that once the paint shops gets into the habit of painting aircraft in these alternating patterns, then there is a number of ways in which this can slip.  Aircraft are not always finished in serial order - individual ones may be held back because of a missing or defective part.  Export orders slipped into the run may simply be painted as just more aircraft in the line.  Blackout blocks in the serial allocations may not always be even numbers.  Then there is whatever might happen if the factory is producing more than one type...

 

Once the alternation stopped, then which company ended up with which pattern may simply have depended on whichever pattern was painted on the last aircraft through the shop, rather than any conscious decision in the design office..

[Welkin]

Maybe someone tossed a coin?

Heads = A

Tails = B

[Mike Starmer]

So digging through my files, R3637 is from block 3590 - 3639.  I found a picture of R3600 in A pattern.  Presuming this fits the expected run of allocations then this suggests that R3637 is in B pattern.