Sowar

pilot's seat were fitted with safety belt B10 then B11. there was no shoulder straps

On french military airplanes, interior surface of cockpit was blue grey (pale to dark shade) until december 39. Morane use "gris marin clair" (light blue grey) and Breguet, Potez, Latecoère & Dewoitine "gris bleu" aft dec 39, "bleu de nuit" (midnight blue) replace the blue grey. The wheel well, oleo struts, inner side of ldg fairings of airplane, single or twin engine, receive a coat of same color as underside. Inner side of engine cowling was same as underside(Breguet 691/693) Interior of fuselage(except cockpit) and wings and other area unex

IFF

HTH

On the ground, On B & C models, the doors are mechanically locked in up position when ldg is down. The weight on LDG strut lock the ldg handle in down position. On D model, the door are maintained closed by the hydraulic pressure. After engine shut down, to lock the ldg handle in down position, the pilot pull the emergency ldg handle, this action release the pressure and the doors could opened by their own weight

Mk IX had one downward reco light under the fuselage center line, below the pilot' seat and Mk VIII had this reco light at the mid of rear fuselage and one light under each wing near the wing tip seam.

According T.O. No 07-1-1 camouflage aircraft, markings & insignia, the camouflaged propeller is painted in black except 4 inches of the tip of the blade will be yellow lacquer, shade No48.... From 1947, yellow tip will be 6 inches for propeller bigger than 15 feet diameter. NAA Specifications P51, section Finish color scheme for fighter airplanes/exterior surfaces/propeller blade tip : "identification yellow enamel from tip to 4 inches from the tip." HTH Waroff

Also, N-5 and subsequent had - wheels 27" instead 30" (14,3mm vs 16mm at 1/48) - bomb shackle for 250# under each wing instead 6x30 - no electric tab on port aileron but a protruding tab as at starboard. - auxiliary gun sight: there was bead only, the ring was engraved in armor glass of windshield - landing gear indicator(yellow peg protruding the leading edge when the ldg was down and locked) - gun camera located in front of starboard ldg fairing. ...

There was pattern for some aircraft models: leO 451, Potez 63x... and MS 406 build at Toulouse. but, generally the french camo was different for each aircraft to prevent the memory of colours and shapes. A nota on the technical drawing of MS 406, "general paint" specifies: "the repartition and shape of colours must be varied from one aircraft to another". The four colours used for the camo were: - Gris bleu clair (underside & wheel well & oleo struts) Camo (topside) - Gris bleu foncé - Kaki - Brun mat

these are formation lights. Position or navigation lights are as Geoff said. The clear, or white lens of tail lights, could be replaced by narrow beam lens, red or green on both side as required.(recognition air to air)

In many films of archive(98,180, 320sq), we can see that pilot don't have shoulder straps. One view of inboard shows the pilot, there is the parachute harness on his shoulders only. I think that the safety belt was US type (B11 type, whithout shoulder straps) on RAF Mitchell.

externally P40B/C and H81A2/3 Tomahawk are same. They differ by steel blade propeller for H81 and steel or dural blade on P40. the Pitot head is cranked on H81 and straight on P40. the armor glass is straight on H81 and had an lateral offset on P40. many others differences, but not visible, as the gun fire protection of fuel tank, armor plate, flying instruments(no artificial horizon on H81)....

if the blue is specific to french airplanes, each constructor had his own blue 1934, this pamphlet was edited on Caudron request and describe the C460. may be the blue ink which was used on the cover was make to be similar to the paint to reminder the airplane color?

OD 42 or MG 42? MG 42 seems greener than OD 41 on this pic P40E could carry a belly tank, 52 US gal only

On this pic we can see the area under rear windows, on 2nd and 3rd aircraft, painted before paint the external area with the same shade, OD 41.