1/48 Mauve P-40

Gallery Article by Stefaan Bouwer

 

A P-40 Kittyhawk III GL-O "Lady Godiva" used by 5 Sqn SAAF in Italy circa January 1944(White fin tip).  This a/c have been wrongly painted in Desert schemes as seen on RAF a/c, ie Dark Earth/Mid Stone in numerous publications.  (ie the SAM  as an example). 

 

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The photo's in my possession and printed in our SADF Colours and Markings show it as much darker if one compare it to the desert schemes in B/W photo's.

As explained in our and numerous publications it was painted in RAF equivalent USAAF colours.  At that time it was most likely OD(41) and oversprayed by the RAF in a disruptive scheme with RAF Dark Earth.  The underside is most likely Light Grey (FS36640) to get near to RAF Sky.  It is much lighter on the underside than Neutral Grey which we also see on some of our P-40 photo's.  The badge was hand painted as was the writing.  My advice to modelers is to go and take a good look at Allied P-40 photographs in Italy and compare them to the Desert and ETO schemes.  You'll soon notice the colour discrepancies.

Stefaan Bouwer

      

Photos and text © by Stefaan Bouwer