Skua L2987 colours?

[GrahamB]

Hi All,

I'm tempted to paint my Special Hobby 1/48 Skua in the simplified markings of L2987 as iilustrated on page 150 of Matthew Willis' book.

This aircraft was a guide, or pathfinder, for a batch of Hurricanes launched from HMS Argus on 17 November 1940 bound for Malta. For a variety of reasons the formation got lost, all the Hurricanes ending up in the sea (all pilots killed) while L2987 managed to find a rough landing on Sicily.

The only photo of this Skua that I have is that printed in Peter Smith's 'Skua!'. Clearly taken with orthochrome film, almost all the dorsal fuselage is dark-toned, along with the rudder. While the artist in the Willis book has quite reasonably interpreted this as an overpainting with Dark Slate Grey - this does show up dark in orthochrome prints - I wondered if the rudder might have been yellow (also dark in this film type). If the Skua was formation leader it may have had some high-visibility markings to assist its flock of Hurricanes. I have a vague recollection of seeing an article (possibly in a model magazine) about similar markings but cannot remember any details - it may have had something to do with the Takoradi (Gold Coast)-Egypt run.

Does anyone have any views on this - or evidence for such formation-leaders?

Many thanks.

Cheers


GrahamB