Hungarian use of red white and green for tailplanes

[Cpt_Farrel]

Hello!

I'm currently working on a project to create a pack of textures for the flight/combat sim IL-2 Sturmovik. The goal is to make the aircraft as historical as possible while still keepin a generic feel to them. Impossible off course but I'm doing my best

For the Luftwaffe aircraft I have the knowledge I need but now I'm working on German aircraft used by Hungary. I've noticed that some Hungarian aircraft wear red white and green stripes on the tailplane while others don't.

At first I thougt that early aircraft had these stripes while later didn't. That idea don't seem to hold though as I've found early Gustavs without bands and late gustavs that do have them.

Can anyone shed some light on how and why these markings differed? Is it area-related as with the Luftflotte 4 markings for example?

Thanks in advance! / Anders

[Dénes Bernád]

Officially, the red (top)-white-green (bottom) national colours were mandatory on the tail and both sides of horizontal stabilisers starting from March 1942 on. However, the usage gradually changed with time, i.e. the white was initially painted over with grey, or grey mottles applied over it (including the white cross in the national markings), then the white disappeared altogether, leaving the original camouflage colour(s) visible, and, finally, the coloured bands were not applied on at all.

There were no 'cut-off' dates when these changes happened. Any combination could happen at any time. That's why the only proper way to do your artwork is to use original period photos as source (and not profile drawings!).