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WWII RAAF colours


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Gents:

Doing a 72nd scale Vengeance of 23 Sqn RAAF in New Guinea.The colour call out calls for Earth Brown, Foliage Green, and Sky Blue. Without starting a gun fight..................Any alternatives? I'm thinkin' Humbrol 29 ( dark earth) Humbrol 120 (matt light green) and Humbrol 4 or 97 (eggshell) or Humbrol 122 (Matt pale blue). Keep in mind, Humbrol is all I have.

Alvin5182

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Australian colours are darker than their UK equivalents. You need to be looking for something darker and perhaps redder than Dark Earth for Earth Brown, and darker and greener than Dark Green for Foliage Green. However, that assumes the colours were these standard RAAF colours. My source (Kookaburra RAAF Camuflage & Markings) states not Earth Brown but Light Earth - and although the main text suggests this is like the RAF colour, the photos show something much darker. That some contrast is visible suggests that the scheme is NOT Earth Brown and Foliage Green, for these have very little contrast. The WEM Light Earth is distinctly dark - so much so that I queried it to John Snyder but he confirmed the hue.

How you would wish to demonstrate a faded version of these colours is beyond my assistance, I'm afraid.

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:D G'day Alvin,

I don't know that it would really matter if the colours were a little lighter than standard, unless of course you want to paint the aircraft as it would be straight after initial acceptance or acceptance back into service after a major servicing. Don't forget that aircraft in the Pacific area faded faster than in the more temperate northern climes. Even the USN and RAAF Black Cats eventually faded to a darkish grey colour. I've said what I'm about to say several times before on various forums and it comes from experience working on RAAF aircraft, albeit in the 70s and 80s, never the less, they still fade very quickly.

Unless a critic was there at the time and took a colour pic of the aircraft it's hard to be pedantic about tone and hue values etc. If someone says to me that model is too light I just tell 'em "it's a model and the real one faded in the sunlight." Are they really going to argue with you? I really do doubt it. The same can be seen on modern aircraft that are or have fought in Iraq, only there there is the sand blasting of the finish to contend with as well. It's just that difficult to be pedantic that it's not worth it in the long run. Even my own memory of the exact tones of the paints used on the C-130s and Mirages I worked on 20 and 30 years ago is gradually fading so what chance a WW2 vet would be able to exactly describe the colours and tones involved almost 70 years hence. Most of them didn't care about such niggly details anyway, they were there to win a war and then return home to the relative peace and quiet of civilian life.

:salute:,

Ross.

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