Hi Massimo:
Thanks for the information,Red Stars 4 is about Lend-Lease planes? Is there another photo of this Hurricane?
Being a clear picture,it looks like that,at least to me,this Hurricane is painted in one solid dark colour.But I?m wondering about the light spots on the side and under the nose,close to the spinner,paint chipping showing the metal surface? ,or the previous camuflage colour perhaps?
Your help is very appreciated,greetings.
Martin
Hi Martin
Red Stars 4 is just about Lend Lease, 220 pages A4, with 500 photos. It's out of print, but i got one last year from the printers, for 24 euro [new price was 48 euro!!] and post, as it has some (very minor) scuffs on the cover. Worth asking about.
Highly recommended, hours of information. I have spotted the odd little error in captions, (eg page 126, the B-25 listed as being the same plane, "white 17" are not even the same subtype, top is a J and next is a D!) and while the colour profiles are very good, not all the profiles photos are in the book, which in the case of a P-47 in what looks like AMT 11 and 12 is rather frustrating.
Anyway, here's the pictures mentioned by Massimo.
Scan is not that great, was in a rush, and blurred it a little to reduce the effect of the printing screen.
I am only now comparing it to the pic you posted, looks to be the same plane, note the paint chips on the starboard side.
The profile shows the exhaust shields, but not the photo.
I did wonder about the tropical filter, but it fitted. My guess is this, this is a plane from the middle east, used for night defence (there is a pic of black painted Hurricanes, i think in Cyprus, maybe Egypt, in a book, which I will scan and post when I can )
It would be a lot easier to supply from the Middle East, and a night defence plane might well have been easier to free up.
(while the RAF hoarded Spitfire squadrons in the UK to be wasted in pointless fighter sweeps over France in 1941 while not sending them where they could made a difference, eg, Malta, the middle east and far east!)
The serial number would allow you to trace the airframe history more.
Anyway....the initial RAF night paint was RDM2A, a
very matt sooty black. The very matt nature of it look a lot like the pics above, as i said sooty (it also weathered badly, and being rough, cause drag. The RAf then switched to smooth night, though test later showed the most effective black was high gloss, as it refracted the light from a searchlight away, while even the smooth showed up as grey in the the beam)
This was also used until 1942 IRRC, you see it on Defiants and Beaufighters for example.
IIRC correctly AMT6 was slightly glossy, and the AII K red is as well, and if this was applied over the existing RAF roundels, which this could account for the "lighter" finish. Makes more sense than using green paint. Finally, note the light, it's been raining, and the sun is from high angle, and the wing paint is showing the sheen of both the black and red, while RDM2 is dead flat.
As i said earlier, RDM2A was noted for for weathering badly, and if this is a used plane from the middle east it could look quite worn.
The serial is probably dull red..... and, well, this should help
look forward to your thoughts on this
T