camouflage question

[John Beaman]

The 49th FG when working up in Australia in the Spring of 1942 received some "reverse" lend-lease P-40s from the RAF. Were these in Dark Earth, Dark Green and Sky Type S matching RAF colors, or where they in a US interpretation of these paint colors attempting to match RAF colors, including a pale blue instead of Sky-S?

[kurlannaiskos]

1) depends on what model of P-40
2) depends on if it had USAAF or RAF serial numbers.
(or both)
3) if they were painted here in the USA they were most likely Dark Green/Medium brown/light Grey (no pale blue)
if the RAF re-painted them after delivery then they could be in BSC's
(British Standard Colour)

any possibility of posting a photo or two ???

[Nicholas]

Tricky one - a veritable can of worms. I thought you would be flooded with replies on this!

Upper surfaces: Du Pont DUCO 71-013 Dark Green - close to FS 34092, Methuen 25-26 F 5, Pantone 553U. Du Pont DUCO 71-009 Dark Earth - close to FS 30219, Methuen 6 D 5-4, Pantone 4635U-4645U. This colour is frequently referred to as "sandy earth". Du Pont also used another, darker 'Dark Earth' - 71-065, closer to 30118, associated with desert schemes but it may have been used later in the P-40E production run resulting in a lower contrast upper scheme.

Under surfaces: Curtiss were initially confused by references to 'Sky'. There were at least three identified undersurface colours: Aircraft Gray, a pale gray close to FS 36473 and believed to be the intended match for RAF Sky Grey. Pastel blue, probably based on the Spec 14057 colour #27 Light Blue - a slightly greener version of FS 35526 or a lighter, bluer version of FS 35414, believed to be the intended match for RAF Sky Blue. Neutral Gray - possibly an anomalous, expedient colour.

For specifics: ET603 (Star Dust) undersurfaces probably Neutral Gray; ET604 (wreck examined by Geoff Pentland) probably Pastel Blue (described as "darker and stronger than Sky Blue" with a greenish caste - may even have been a deteriorated Azure Blue. ET615 (Scatterbrain) probably Aircraft Gray (Sky Grey).

Bear in mind that supply demands could and did result in paint batch variations and the use of expedient colours. The demands on Curtiss at this time meant that production could not be held up because paint of the exact colour was not available.

This is a summarised response. The subject of P-40 camouflage deserves a detailed and definitive study in its own right.

[John Beaman]

Thanks to you both for the very good answers!

John

[Franek Grabowski]

John
The question is were they really reverse L-L. Several batches of P-40s were delivered to USAAF with factory applied British camo (BSC was not in use by then), so this may be misleading.
Cheers

[kurlannaiskos]

again, let's get down to some specifics.
exactly which aircraft are you interested in?
a subject for a model ? if so what kit and version ?

A.F.A.I.K. - B.S.C.'s were actually made official as early as 1931.

some aircraft were 're-possessed' aircraft.
originally ordered by the British and received US-equivalent colors for the colours requested by the British and even some with RAF serials , but after the attack on Pearl Harbor many of these aircraft were then given USAAF insignia and sent to bolster the defenses at US bases.