Polish Air Force Paint Set

Crimson skies over Poland

In the closing years of the 1930s the Polish Air Force had a very distinctive range of colors. While the armies around it were moving toward dark mottled camouflage, Polish machines carried a uniform khaki tone, still called Polish khaki today, and a light blue-gray underside. The shade differed according to the task a machine performed, and it is on that that this set is built.

Four shades and their roles

The darker variant of khaki was meant for the upper surfaces of bomber aircraft, the lighter one for fighters and reconnaissance machines. The blue-gray covered the lower surfaces of both. The fourth component is a metallic silver, with which the insides of cockpits were painted at the time, and on reconnaissance machines the undersides of the airframe as well. The modeler thus gets everything needed for the complete finish of one aircraft, the interior included, in one place.

Recommended procedure

• start with the cockpit and the silver layer, as you will not reach it later
• lay the khaki on in thin coats, as a heavy deposit fills the fine texture of the fabric
• on these machines the transition between the upper and lower surface tended to be hard, not sprayed soft
• coat the surface with gloss before applying the markings

The set serves for painting a model; the model itself and thinner are not part of it. The shades are named descriptively, so they can be used outside the original theme as well, on interwar equipment of other countries where similar earth tones appeared.