1/48 Mauve P-40 |
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Gallery Article by Stefaan Bouwer |
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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).
Click on
images below to see larger images
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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
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