Proper Spitfire Mk I colors

Hi Sean
Sorry, but guessing at colours like that is OK if you want to fictionalize the colour scheme of Douglas (certainly not "Doug") Bader's aircraft. Douglas' famous Mk IIa was P7966 and was painted standard RAF camouflage of Dark Earth/ Dark Green with Sky undersides. The fuselage band and spinner were also painted Sky. It was apresentation Spitfire and carried the legend "Manxman" on the starboard side. However he was shot down August 9th, 1941 in a Mk Va s/n W3185 which was still in the same camouflage colours as above. It was also a presentation Spitfire and carried the name "Lord Lloyd I". On the 15th of August, 1941, RAF day fighter camouflage changed to Ocean Grey/Dark Green camouflage with undersurfaces Medium Sea Grey. They still carried the Sky spinner and fuselage band but their code letters were changed to Sky too.
There are many model paint manufacturers who offer all the proper colours so why would you want to take a guess? Just curious.
Cheers
Bob S.

Depends on what plane you are building. If you are doing Doug Bader's plane, I would say to use dark tan and dark green on top, and robin's egg blue.

QUOTE: Originally posted by djmodels1999 <...>Now for the inside bits, wasn'it that Duck Egg Green colour Humbrol had (still has) you need??? <...>

Actually Duck Egg Blue was the color for spinner and tail band (in some cases). Many sources claim, that insides - cockpit, inner structure of the wings etc. were painted cockpit green (Humbrol 78), which is somewhat greyish. Another colour is interrior green (Humbrol 158). If You check photos of remaining a/c in museums, You can see that some are painted H78, others H158. Then again, museums are not allways right . As for the wheel wells, usualy they were painted same as the wing lower surface. At the first stages of war Spitfires were usualy painted dark earth/dark green over "sky" or black/white (this scheme wasn't used too long). There is no point in trying to get the "exact" color, because in battlefield condition no one cared if the shade of "sky" is absolutely correct. The shade also varied depending on received paint batch. Besides at that time paints were not as resistant to weather conditions, ar they are today.

Well at least thats, what I have read

Yes Migs.
Prewar and Phoney war and Dunkirk all saw Spits with B&W bellies. The earliest Spits were simply painted aluminum underneath. Night and White was applied late 1938 or early 39 and lasted till June 1940 when the still highly disputed colour "Sky" was mandated.
Cheers
Bob S.

the black and white undersurfaces schemes were known as the 'Munich Crisis' colours and were presumably pre-war ?(ish)

The A and B schemes mentioned earlier were mirror images of each other. One was even serial numbers and the other was odd. I forgot to check which is which.

Actualy it was done for the benefit of the army!!! And also the pilots, they were not keen to be shot at by their own side,or the other!
Dai

Hi Fish
Yes the port underside was painted "Night" and the starboard underside "White" up to June 1940. Be sure that you get a reference photo of the a/c that you are doing as there were still two camouflage patterns seen then, the "A" pattern and the "B" pattern.
Don't forget that entire undercarriage was painted the same colour as the underside too, including the wheel wells, oleo legs and fairings, and even the wheels.
I strongly recommend Guideline Publications book "Camouflage & Markings No.2 - The Battle For Britain - RAF May to December 1940" by Paul Lucas. In it you will find answers to when the RAF switched to Type "S" paint. The "S" stood for "Smooth" which was really a satin finish like an eggshell, not dead flat and not glossy either.
I have been using the Testor's Model Master line of enamels since they came out with RAF paint colours and find them much better than Humbrol which I used to use. I wish that I knew how to post a photo here, maybe you could e-mail me direct and I will send you some pics.
John P...I looked at your Spitfires. The Griffon engined Spit is a Mk XIV.
Dai Jones...There was a period when the undersides were simply painted "Aluminum" then late in 1938 they went to the "Night and White" scheme. Ther were also Spits with the port wing "Night", starboard wing "White" but the fuselage and tailplanes "Aluminum". As for the canopies, the early flat top canopy was quickly replace by the flat sided canopy with a blown top. It had the "Direct Vision" knockout panel in the port side. Propellers were two bladed very early on but also check the radio mast, the early Spits having a tall and narrow pole type before the shorter streamlined type was introduced.
dkmacin...The underside ID worked for both sides...if you saw a black/white underside and you were British you knew he was "one of our" and if you were a German, you tried to shoot him down.
Cheers
Bob S.

Usually I wouldn't concern myself with these colors, at least not with interior ones but I'd like to try super-detailing the next few aircraft with some Verlinden kits and if I'm gonna go that insane I might as well get the color right.

-the black was under the port wing btw.

Thanks to everbody for all the advice!

-fish

The only thing I can add to what has already been mentioned is the undersurfaces. Sky Type S was the official designation for the new colour of British aircraft and was introduced to fighters beginning June 6, 1940. Fighter squadrons had no idea what this colour looked like, so the ministry then sent a signal out describing the colour as "Duck Egg Bluish-Green". Various shades seemed to have been used, some might be the fault of manufactures (during WW2) or the fact that in field applications they were allowed only 2 coats over which at that time aircraft had a black/white scheme which might have altered the tone. There was also sky blue and sky grey .... ahhhh decisions.

Dai is correct, both the spit and the Hurricane had a split white /black underside at the beginning of the war. . .easier for i.d., but for who's side?
I think it was right underside white, left underside black.
I have seen both types of finish on WWII aircraft at museums from both sides. I would go with a semi matte finish and call it good.

Don

During the early stages of the war British aircraft were painted black and white on the underside! I can't remember which side each colour was painted but I think that the fuselage was a solit colour ie not split along the centreline.
Cockpit canopies could either be flat or bubble topped, in profile, and could either have a two or three bladed prop. A multitude of possabilities here!
Dai

humbrol no. for interior green is matt 78, and i recently changed from 30 dark green to 195 satin dark green with 29 dark brown. these will cross ref to your model masters possibly, i reckon colour accuracy is more important as scale goes up. RAF WWII Aircraft were somtimes polished for better fuel range, tho often they were pretty mucky from the photo's i've seen.....did'nt get time to clean them i guess !

The British camo colors are all available in the Testors ModelMaster line, including Brit interior green. I believe the factories painted the real aircraft camo using huge rubber matts cut to shape, so the pattern should have a hard edge. I usually use liquid masker, but once in a while I just airbrush it with a feather edge to keep in practice.

Scroll halfway down to see my Spits:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/models_wwii.html

Yeah-- the standard on top is as dj says-- Dark Green and Dark Earth....for the bottom of the plane-- usually duck egg blue although I have seen some with "Sky" appropriately enough....

Interior on the Tamiya Mossie I just finished was as wayne says RAF Interior Gray-Green...or something like that.

By the time you've done pre-shadowing (if you do), mixed your paints with white for the scale effect (if you do), applied washes, drybrushed, weathered, the colours on your model would be quite different from the original paints you applied, and still quite different from what you'd find on a real Spit...

I think farting around for the exact shade is a waste of time. Personally, I'd use Humbrol's 29 Dark Earth and 30 Dark Green for a start. That's what modelers here have been doing for the past... 50 odd years (Aifix just released their original 1/72 MkI in a blister kind of packaging to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that kit!), so it can not be that wrong... Now for the inside bits, wasn'it that Duck Egg Green colour Humbrol had (still has) you need???

As to glossy or dull finishes, modellers tend to prefer flat finishes but you can bet you can name any aircfat and you'll be able to find a pic somewhere where it doeas appear not so matt... I can assure you the Spit at the Brussels Air Museum is in a flat finish, but it's NEVER as flat as the colours that come out of the Humbrol tins... Maybe it's got to do with larger painted surfaces looking different..?

Testors does make a British interior green. It's a pasty grey green similar to the forum background. All the Spitfires I have ever done, all WW2 British a/c have been flat.