P-51 Dooleybird - Blue or Yellow?

[Smithers]

Hello all. New to the forum here and my first post so be kind to me please

I know the question has been asked and discussed a number of times before on whether the correct colour for Dooleybird should be yellow or blue for the canopy frame and along the nose below the anti glare stripe. I won’t repeat here the history of why it may be one colour over another as that has been discussed before  

I just wanted to post to say that I decided to see if I could use any AI to automatically colourise the two black and white photo’s I’m aware that exist. I didn’t suggested any colours into the AI tools I tried, I just thought I’d see what it made of the original photos and what colours it thinks they translate to. Results on some of the tools I used only coloured the grass though so no real help there! This came back after trying different one’s out and I thought I’d share and see what other people make of it. It blew me away when I saw it TBH.

Credit to the original poster of the image and I’ll look to upload the other picture tomorrow should people be interested.

[Scimitar F1]

Great idea. While the usual caveats to AI apply, you did not suggest any colours and that the Dooleybird text is not visible I would give this a high degree of confidence in being right. 

[MilneBay]

As it is a 19 Squadron aircraft then blue seems like a sensible choice. That's my 2 cents worth (that 2 cents in real money plus $5.98 will buy you a $6.00 dollar cup of coffee) but if we factor in flight colours then yellow could also be a good choice. I agree that it has been discussed many times.

[Work In Progress]

Mine's blue to match the nose chequering, the same colour as other examples of early post-war 19 Squadron heraldry. Can't prove it's right or wrong, so I did what makes sense to me. 

No generative AI tool has any actual judgement or understanding of what it's doing, so while it's a fun experiment I don't think it can be any more than that. 

[Britman]

It was always blue for me since Matchbox introduced the scheme to me many moons ago. I painted my Airfix 48th Mustang thus as logic suggested to me. If it was yellow then I was yellow then where is the evidence of the other flight colours? 

 

Keith 

[rod mcq]

After the Guideline Publications book Camouflage and Markings No.1 RAF Fighters 1945-50 UK Based came to the conclusion that the trim was blue,  Scale Aircraft Modelling published a letter from someone who had seen fifteen of the 19 Squadron aircraft at Acklington in July 1945.

 

3 aircraft had coloured trim under the anti-dazzle panel and around the cockpit canopy. These were reckoned to denote the squadron leaders and flight commander's aircraft

 

He recorded KM272/QV-V as having yellow trim with "Dooley Bird" in red. KM193/QV-J with blue trim and KH742/QV-A with red trim.

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, rod mcq said:

After the Guideline Publications book Camouflage and Markings No.1 RAF Fighters 1945-50 UK Based came to the conclusion that the trim was blue,  Scale Aircraft Modelling published a letter from someone who had seen fifteen of the 19 Squadron aircraft at Acklington in July 1945.

 

3 aircraft had coloured trim under the anti-dazzle panel and around the cockpit canopy. These were reckoned to denote the squadron leaders and flight commander's aircraft

 

He recorded KM272/QV-V as having yellow trim with "Dooley Bird" in red. KM193/QV-J with blue trim and KH742/QV-A with red trim.

discussion here

 

TL:DR

Ducimus got photos of S.Doley and said blue

An eye witeness said later they used flight colours

 

@JackG

 

 

 

note in this the roundel ring is a good tonal match to the trim.   I presume the medium blue was a mix or maybe some found some Deep Sky ?

 

 

19 Sqn at Peterhead in '45

 

HTH