Hobby color - tmavě zelená BS381C/641

A British dark green from the island standard

The British standard the name refers to served from the 1930s to describe the finishes of aircraft and ground vehicles. In it the number six hundred forty-one belongs to the dark green of the upper-surface camouflage of the Royal Air Force. Paired with Dark Earth it covered the upper surfaces of machines of the Battle of Britain period, and later, on naval and fighter-bomber types, gray was added to it.

How the shade looks on a model

Dark greens tend to go black on a small area. Modelers deal with that by letting the paint show at full strength only at the wing root and around the joints, while the middle of the panel is brightened with a touch of ocher. The result then looks like a surface bleached by service and not like a uniform patch. Soft edges to the camouflage fields correspond to spraying over a mask lifted a few millimeters above the surface.

Typical use

• The upper surfaces of British wartime fighters and bombers
• Camouflage fields paired with Dark Earth
• Commonwealth trucks and artillery vehicles
• Postwar trainers with a predominance of green areas

The transition to the light lower surfaces is covered by a thin line of heavily thinned paint drawn along the rivets; a sharp edge would give the tape away on a model. Let the coat dry properly, because the dark shades of this group stay soft for a while and masking easily leaves an impression in them. Once dry the shade darkens slightly, which is worth taking into account already when mixing.