[Graham Boak]

I suspect a redrawing of original documentation for the book. Judging from the detail of the patterns presented, it is at least based on original period documentation if not a straight copy: there is much more than could be expected from analysis of photographs. It shows four of the schemes: A, A2a, B and B1a for the Ju86E. Patterns A2a and B2a are presented, in very similar format, for the Do17 in Ullmann and also in Merrick (Classic Vol.2) but here there is no mirror effect: possibly an error in the original documentation that neither author spotted? Pattern A2a is the same in both books but pattern B2a in the later books is just the pattern A in the oldest. Although clearly the same pattern, the one in the Dornier views has been trimmed to exclude the outer parts.

It occurs to me that other possible combinations of the colours were possible, the exchange of the colours not being a simple rotation. No reason is given for the restriction to three possibilities.

The three books do include a number of photos of the Ju87A, but (in my opinion) these don't significantly help to answer Denes' question. I would say that, although some of the colour differences could reflect the effect of weathering on RLM63 (i.e. the front of the spat compared to the nose), the very bright appearance of the rudder and fuselage band does not.

Edit: for the Hs123, Merrick states that the aircraft plan view was not central but was offset one square - he doesn't say which but it is to the left from a photo and a piece of artwork. The artwork is plan A2a with the green and grey exchanged (not listed as a standard) the photo A2a (On my interpretation, assuming the brown is the darkest colour.) Neither of these agree with Scheme B as presented in Uhlmann, which would be A1a according to Merrick, but they all have the same pattern without any mirror. This may suggest that the pattern system was indeed simplified to remove the mirror examples, but it seems that the Do17 and Hs123 do not agree on just which alternatives were chosen.

My brain hurts - I hope I haven't misidentified any!

I have not (yet) attempted to study Do17 schemes based on these patterns -perhaps for another thread.