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Heinkel He.III Luftwaffe bomber.

The existance of the Luftwaffe was first revealed by Germany in February 1935 and until that time it had been building in secret,since the Treaty of Versailles conditioned Germany to building only civil aircraft.Such types as the Heinkel III,easily converted to a bombing role,were built as civil transports.The civil registrations looked strange on the Dornier Do.17 & Heinkel aircraft being flown with early segment camouflage consisting of steel grey,dark green,mid green and brown done in a curved pattern on the upper surfaces of the aircraft,later this was changed to a straight splinter camouflage,prior to this factory finished machines left the works in an overall steel grey and the additional camouflage was usually added in the field in many variations with the squadrons.
In 1936 the German Air Ministry had invited tenders for large quantities of dopes and paint finishes,the winning company was called Ikarol,this company produced huge quantities of basic brown primer,camouflage green,aluminium base silver,light blue,white and sea green,they also developed a finish similar to the British velvet black RDM2 called 'caput mortum' meaning dead black.
Dark green uppersurfaces with light blue undersides were normal for most German bombers in the early war years,progressing to the splinter camouflage finish mentioned above.Another way of quickly changing the finish from a daylight bomber to one suitable finished for night operations was to spray on a temporary coat of black,this was made from non drying glyptal resin which would easily hose off if required quickly for other tasks.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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Commonwealth Air Training scheme 1940-1942.

On the outbreak of World War II, Oxfords were selected as one of the favoured trainer aircraft in Canada, Australia and New Zealand as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) or British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), and trained many Fleet Air Arm personnel. The BCATP evolved following a meeting of Government representatives from United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in Ottawa, and signed an agreement to set up the Plan in December 1939, converting Canada into what President Roosevelt later termed "the aerodrome of democracy." The first schools opened in Canada in April 1940, and by 24 November 1940 the first trainees from the Scheme arrived in the UK. A total of 8,751Oxfords served in Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, and the Middle East. In total 137,000 aircrew came to Canada from all corners of the globe to earn their wings in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. One of the main training schools was at the RCAF Station, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the Royal Navy had the eastern side of the airfield whilst the RCAF flew anti-submarine patrols in Cansos from the other side of the field.
The aircraft were finished in overall trainer yellow dope finish with natural metal cowls and the school number appeared on the side of the fuselage in large black figures,the serial number which consisted on a four digit was placed on the rear of the fuselage and on the undersides of the wings reading in opposite directions as the aircraft flew overhead.
Avro ( Canada ) Ansons,Tiger Moths ( with coupe cockpit & heaters as well ) Harvard Trainers,Bolingbrokes were all painted in this attractive training colourscheme.
Canada was chosen as host country because it had so much usable air space and because it was far from the battlefields of Europe. Yet it was close enough to ferry aircraft and crews across the Atlantic to the war-torn areas. Prime Minister Mackenzie King enthusiastically supported the plan hoping that in this way Canada could make a contribution to the war without having to send a huge army to Europe. The first school opened on April 29, 1940, and by July 1942 the entire plan was in operation. It continued until 1945.The all yellow aircraft will always be associated with Canada and their immense contribution to the war effort.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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American Navy colours Douglas Dauntless April-December 1942.(lower)
Grumman Wildcat December 1941-March 1942.(upper)


In December 1941.aeroplanes of the U.S.Navy were mostly painted in a greyish-green on the upper surfaces and were doped pale grey underneath,there were as usual exceptions to this rule and some were painted pale grey overall,U.S.Navy aircraft operating in the Pacific byt the close of 1942 were the Grumman F4F-3 and F4F-4 fighters,the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers,Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo-bomber,the Consolidated PBY Catalina and PBY2Y Coronado flying boats and the Martin PBM Mariner flying boat in addition to the many catapult seaplanes and other reconnaisance aircraft.
The primary training aeroplanes of the U.S.Navy serving in 1941 and 1942 were painted in a chrome yellow colourscheme overall,the advanced trainers featured silver fuselages and chrome yellow wings and tail.The transport fleets were finished in a silver finish usually represented by the natural aluminium finish.
The lower ilustration above show the change after the attacks on Pearl Harbour whereby the red was removed from all National markings carried on all U.S aircraft.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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Hawker Hurricane,73 squadron France 1939-40.


At the outbreak of war in September,1939,all home based fighters of Fighter Command were camouflaged in the sand & spinach finish on the upper surfaces and had the undersurfaces painted black & grey as the illustration above.As considerable numbers of biplane fighters such as the Gloster Gladiator & Gauntlet were still in service especially with the Auxiliary air force units these machines were camouflaged in the same way with both of the wings finished in the black/grey scheme with the exception that the top wing undersurface was a slightly lighter shade of grey but in some odd cases the upper wing was totally black on the undersides.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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Kiwi

Further to the notes about the Black/Grey(?) undersurfaces this may help.
"
" On the 24th April, 1939, The Air Staff issued A.M.O, A.154/39, amended on the 27th April, 1939, by A.298/39, in which the specifications were laid down for aircraft currently in Royal Air Force service, or coming into production. The orders as applied to fighter aircraft called fot the upper surfaces to be painted in a disruptive pattern"
"on the 8th September 1939 the Directorate of Technical Development (D.T.D.) issued a memorandum 332, Issue 2 under the heading 'External Colour Schemes for Aircraft'. This showed the breakdown of the applicable camouflage pattern(s) indicated by the type of aircraft and it's role.
For single engined fighters Air Diagram A.D.1160 was applicable and it was upon this that all patterns for fighter aircraft camouflage was based.
The undersides were to be painted 'with the lower surface of the starboard plane and half the the under surface of the fuselage to be painted white. The corresponding port side is to be painted black'.
This instruction was open to mis-interpretation, and many aircraft, although the areas specified were Black and White, the undersides of the fuselage forward of a line across the fuselage level with the leading edge of the wing and aft of a line drawn across the trailing edges of the wing were painted Aluminium (silver) doped finish, as were the undersides of the tailplanes.
On fighter aircraft no national insignia were to be painted beneath the wings and those applied to the upper surfaces of the wings, and also on the sides of the fuselage, were to be Red and Blue type B roundels.
Immediately prior to the outbreak of war a telegram dated 2nd September 1939 (Ref X119), was sent to all Commands advising that (as air operations would undoubtably take place over the European Continent) all Royal Air Force machines that were to fly over France were to have Type A Red, White and Blue roundels painted beneath each wing."
"On the 6th June 1940, new orders were promulgated whereby the Black and White under surface finish on aircraft of Fighter Command was to give way to a new under surface scheme of Sky, Type S. All roundels on under surfaces were to be removed from the new scheme. This Order was to be brought into immediate effect on aircraft already in production, and those in squadron surface were to be repainted as and when time and operational requirements permitted. The aircraft for repair, etc., at Aircraft Servicing Units (ASUs) were also to be painted in the new scheme.
A further revision to the camouflage and markings fo day fighters was brought into effect on 1st August ,1940 from which time the size of the Red, White and Blue fin flash was standardised as being three 8in. wide bands of 27in. height."

Kiwi

Here is some information to enable you to be historically accurate when modelling these aircraft from a very colourful time in aviation
Squadrons: the sqdn number appeared on the fuselage sides followed by a letter indicating the purpose of the squadron (e.eg. "B" for bomber, "F" for fighter etc) which was followed in turn by the number of the aircraft within the squadron.
Air stations used a basically similar system except that an abbreviation of the station name was substituted for the squadron function letter except in the case of an operational squadron which used both the station letter and the squadron function letter separated by a hyphen.
On June 1,1931 the use of 20 inch wide coloured bands around the fuselage of section leader's planes was directed, and chevrons of the same colour were to be painted on the upper wing surfaces of all aircraft of the section, the chevron enclosed the individual number of the aircraft within the squadron. In addition, the leaders plane was to have a coloured engine cowling, the number 2 plane having the upper half of the cowling coloured and the No.3 plane the lower half coloured. Airscrew tips were to be painted with three bands of four inches each (red at the tip, yellow in the center and blue last) The same order permitted the use of distinguishing colors on the tail surfaces whenever two or more squadrons flying the same type of aircraft operated together, but no restriction was placed on the selection of colors.

On March 15 1937 distinguishing colours were assigned to each aircraft carrier for use as tail markings by all squadrons assigned to the carrier, thereby ending the practice of assigning colours to squadrons and eliminating the confusion resulting when squadrons transferred from one carrier to another. This system remained in use until February 26 1941 when the use of coloured tail markings, engine cowlings and fuselage bands, chevrons etc terminated, the colours of markings, other than national insignia, becoming those that contrasted least with the background.
Carrier tail colours were:Langley - Red, Saratoga - White, Enterprise - True Blue, Yorktown - Black, Ranger - Willow Green, Lexington - Lemon Yellow. (When the Langley was decommissioned Yorktown adopted Red)
A typical US Navy Fighter Squadron comprise six sections of three aircraft, each section being assigned a colour as follows:1st section-red, 2nd section-white, 3rd section-true blue, 4th section-black, 5th section- willow green, 6th section- lemon yellow. Only section leaders had coloured engine cowling and coloured band around the fuselage in the section colour. Section leader's aircraft were numbered 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 or 16.

wonwinglo

Hawker Hurricane,Battle of Britain 1940.


During the Battle of Britain fighter markings underwent a complete revision in June 1940.The black & grey undersurfaces were abandoned and replaced by a single colour which was officially described as duck egg blue,the actual colour is best described as a very pale greenish shade which did vary depending on paint manufacturer and squadron practises ( ie pouring different colours into a single tin to use up valuable paint supplies !) the pre war practise of painting the rudder stripes onto the rudder were abandoned in favour being placed onto the tail fin,this avoided any problems with the balance of the moving control surface.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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Kiwi

Barry, I don't want to appear argumentive but I very much doubt the black/grey undersurface you refer to. Could this be just misinterperation by colour plate illustrators and perhaps cofusion with grime etc giving the appearance of grey? Or is there a reference to this practice somewhere?, If so, is the shade of grey specified?

DTD memo 332 (issue 2) of 8 Sept 1939 specifically refers to black/white undersurfaces. This was primarily to assist in identification of aircraft flying over continental Europe. Sort of a forerunner to the much later invasion markings. This is borne out by the scheme being discontinued by the order issued on 6 June 1940 after the fall of France.

wonwinglo

***This an area whereby we have to be very careful and not take too literally what is written or generally accepted,the generic term 'white' when referred to as a camouflage scheme really means a light grey until June 1940,the best example of this is the Spitfire 1 K9942 in the R.A.F Museum at Cosford which shows an excellent historical record of this particular colourscheme.Just as the duck egg blue colour was more verging into the realms of green the often incorrectly referred to white/black scheme was in fact a very very pale shade of grey,the R.A.F museum staff sourced the paint for restoration to as near to FS37925 the equivalent of HEX FBF8F6,in the field this was often mixed from the equivalent of Titanine dope FS37875 or FIF2EAC with addition of a quarter of black/dark grey whatever was available,the variations were very subtle but acceptable,in some photographs it can be clearly seen whereby spray repairs show colour variations to the very pale grey finish.Some of the greys even used additions of small amounts of camouflage green to get as near as possible.
As an aside my colour plates are generally mixed from Gouache colours matched either to original swatches or known BS shades of paint,or even better actual fabric or metal panels in my collection,whilst it is impossible to get the colours exact due to physical limitations with computer shades etc they serve as a general guide to modellers wishing to use the popular Humbrol/Revell tinlets,I have erred on simplyfying general descriptions rather than get a modeller confused as to the various ( and many ) variations,it is a general guide but still the results of many years research.
Camouflage is a minefield for the historian and with the passage of time can sometimes get confusing,it is important to relate issued orders to field requirements.
PS-As previously stated Gloster Gladiator aircraft & other biplanes used two very distinct shades of undersurface grey,much the same as Tiger Moth aircraft had two shades of shadow shading on the upper and lower top sides of the wings when used in the elementary flying training role in large numbers during the war years.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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Just to show how subtle this finish was here is a picture of the very accurate colourscheme on Spitfire 1 K9942 at R.A.F Cosford,paint chips of the original finish are held with the museum prior to repaint.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/