RAF colors special “Battle of Britain”

The summer of 1940 over southern England

When the fighting over the Channel flared up in July 1940, the squadrons of the British fighter force were flying in a camouflage that had settled only shortly before. The upper surfaces received an irregular field of dark brown and dark green, while the underside went through several changes within a single year. That is precisely why the finish of the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the Battle of Britain is so rewarding for modelers and at the same time so treacherous.

The set contains eight shades and aims exactly at this period. Beside the pair of upper tones to the British Standard it holds the light undersurface colors, that is Sky Type S, the greenish tone known as Eau de Nil and the light blue shade that was called duck egg. The black recalls the period when the underside of one wing was deliberately dark, so that observers on the ground could tell their own machine by the difference between the two halves. It is completed by a green tone and a gray-green for the inside of the cockpit.

A procedure that proves itself

The camouflage of 1940 had sharp prescribed boundaries, not sprayed-out transitions. It comes out most faithfully when the brown and the green are sprayed through cut stencils laid tight against the surface, or through thin modeling putty. It is a good idea to spray the cockpit before the fuselage is glued. The paints are water-thinnable and will take brush application too, but it is as well to divide the coat into two thin layers.

The package contains paints only. The kit, decals and masking material are not part of it.