RAF in Africa paint set

Sand, stone and an azure sky

When the British squadrons moved to North Africa and the Mediterranean, the European green and brown camouflage stopped working there. It was replaced by a scheme built on the color of the desert: from above the machines were covered by a combination of brown and sand, and from below a light blue finish hid them against a sky that is considerably more saturated over the Mediterranean than over England. This set of four shades covers exactly that change.

Box contents

• Dark Earth — the upper surfaces of the Mediterranean scheme
• Mid Stone — the second shade of the upper surfaces, sand
• Azure Blue — the lower surfaces of machines in this theater
• Interior Grey-Green — the standard cockpit color of British aircraft

Which machines this concerns

The desert scheme was carried by the tropical versions of Hurricanes and Spitfires, by the American Kittyhawks and Tomahawks in British service, by the twin-engine Beaufighters and by bombers operating from bases in Egypt and on Malta. The boundary between the brown and the sand was usually sprayed soft on aircraft, so it pays to apply the second shade with an airbrush from a short distance and without masking. The sand also wore the paint away quickly — rubbed places on the leading edges and around the cockpit are the rule with these machines rather than the exception, and they are worth suggesting on a model.

The inside of the cockpit, by contrast, stayed unchanged: it was painted the same gray-green shade as at home in England, regardless of where the machine flew off to. From one package you can therefore paint the whole aircraft outside and inside.