A jet question from a prop guy on Sea Harriers...

[pat d]

Is there a website / publication for sale / download dealing with the camouflage used by the SEA Harriers FRS1 in the Falkland War? I recently read "Harrier 809" and have become interested in learning some more about how the colors evolved. I bought the Warpaint book  on the A/C but despite the title there is very little written about the colors used and it left some question in my mind about the actual nomenclature on the colors. Also, I have been told that the SAM Molders Datafile color information has been superseded by new information.

TIA,

Pat D

[Dave Swindell]

Modeldecal sheet 66 on the Falklands Sea Harriers will give a good basic guide to to the colours used on which aircraft, but not all the whys and wherefores.

Invincible had a spray booth so the SHar's on there were spray painted, Hermes didn't and her SHar's were painted with a roller.

[PhantomBigStu]

Sea harriers went down to the falklands with weathered Matt extra dark sea grey top with gloss white underneaths and we’re repainted on ship with fresh semi gloss underneath before with some repainted Matt medium sea grey over camouflage/barley grey during the war 

[Dave Fleming]

I can recommend this book, illustrates all 28 aircraft that took part. Harrier 809 gets a bit mixed up, and keeps talking about the 809  aircraft in overall Barley grey when they were Medium Sea Grey with Barley (Camouflage) grey under the wings and tail planes.

 

 

 

https://shop.navywings.org.uk/products/sea-harriers-of-the-falklands-war-by-chris-sandham-bailey

Edited July 17, 2023 by Dave Fleming

[pat d]

Thank you Dave, I-just ordered it, looks just to be what I was looking for.  As someone said "50 shades of gray for the SHAR"

[Des]

17 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

Modeldecal sheet 66 on the Falklands Sea Harriers will give a good basic guide to to the colours used on which aircraft, but not all the whys and wherefores.

Whereas Modeldecal 66 covered the dark grey schemes applied during the conflict by 800/801/899 NAS the next release Modeldecal 67 covered those in the lighter greys with  809/899 NAS , while the slightly later Modeldecal 70 (800/801/899 NAS) and Modeldecal 71 (809 NAS) covered the development of colours and markings in the fairly immediate aftermath of Operation Corporate.      Richard Ward created perhaps some of the most detailed decal instruction sheets to have been marketed , often almost simultaneously with the schemes entering service (a suggestion made at one time was that he released the decal sheets and the UK military merely followed his lead) and are an excellent reference tool in themselves.

 

Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine Volume 5 Issue 3 from December 1982 covered the Campaign in some detail with many pages of toned sideview profiles covering colour variations on Sea Harrier and other types and when first released included a decal sheet with markings such as the widely differing approaches to overpainting the white out of roundels.

[Dominic McEvoy]

2 hours ago, Des said:

Richard Ward created perhaps some of the most detailed decal instruction sheets to have been marketed , often almost simultaneously with the schemes entering service (a suggestion made at one time was that he released the decal sheets and the UK military merely followed his lead) and are an excellent reference tool in themselves.

Dick definitely had friends in all sorts of places, especially when it came to getting the inside skinny on aircraft markings.  I can't recall which particular schemes were involved, but I do recall my father telling me that modellers in a few RAF squadrons invited Dick to help design their special or anniversary markings.

 

As Des says, Dick's decal instructions are exceptional references in their own right.

[Des]

49 minutes ago, Dominic McEvoy said:

. . . . ., but I do recall my father telling me that modellers in a few RAF squadrons invited Dick to help design their special or anniversary markings.

 

I think the (possibly tongue in cheek) comment that has stuck in my mind about the RAF following Modeldecal's lead may well have come from one of your dad's "Tailpieces" in Scale Aircraft Modelling.

[Alex Gordon]

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