| Prior to World War 2, RNZAF aircraft color schemes simply followed RAF practice – overall silver with RAF roundels and flashes with sometimes black or dark green turtle decking and blue fuselages flashes in conjunction with red, blue or black codes.
A suprising variety of color schemes appeared on RNZAF aircraft during the war however, particularly since the number of aircraft involved was only about 2,400. It was customary for most wartime aircraft to serve for months or even years in the American, British or civilian schemes in which they were delivered to the RNZAF before eventually most were repainted in color schemes of local origin.
The RNZAF required, by necessity, during this period to have its paints mixed in New Zealand by local paint manufacturers. Prior to this time many paints were imported.
Being a commonwealth country with close ties to Britain it was only natural that BS381c Standard would be chosen as the paint mixing guide. However, in most cases, New Zealand mixed paints were only a near match to BS381c colors, and on some occasions there was quite a difference in the final paint used on various aircraft, even though specific BS381c numbers were given for them.
There are several reasons for this, the most common one being a shortage of paint. Consequently, the paints were hand mixed on stations and bases, with perhaps no more than a faded aircraft, or part of an aircraft, to match the color with. This resulted in many variations of a given color. For example, it was quite normal to see various machines of the same type in different shades of Ocean Blue, Duck Egg Blue or Yellow etc, even though they were all intended to be the same.
To add further to the confusion, there are many other reasons why a shade varied from one aircraft to another, e.g. fading (especially in the tropics), abrasion, different batches of paint, top coat applied over different colored primers/undercoats, differing paint thicknesses, etc. If it were possible to have had painted all wartime aircraft of a given type, using exactly the same preparation in the way of primers, undercoats and topcoats, from the same batch and tin, with the same person spraying each aircraft in exactly the same manner , then it might have been feasible to look down a line of parked aircraft and say “they are all the same color” (this to a large extent equally applies to post war aircraft).
You often see in many publications from time to time comments regarding the actual shades on a certain aircraft as being “slightly lighter” or “slightly darker” than the color originally sated. The fact of the matter is that probably all are correct!
Over the years there has been much confusion with some of the New Zealand mixed paints. One particularly controversial color is a Blue/Grey shade used on Ansons, Harvards, Kittyhawks, Hudsons and Venturas . It has been called all manner of names such as “Pale Blue”, “Blue/Grey”, “Dirty Blue””, “Pacific Blue” and most commonly “Ocean Blue”. Officially it was “Blue Sea Grey” BS381c No 636.
I will cover this color in the next installment |