Hudson NZ2003 Roundels

[alanw]

Hi All,

There has been a discussion on Britmodeller about RAF Hudson colours at beginning of WWII.

One member posted some photos of NZ2003 along with some other Hudsons
(Cool photo of what appears to be the bomb dump at Hobby in the back ground)

www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234966548-hudson-undersurface-color/page-2

Interesting thing about NZ2003 is the roundel in comparision to other Hudsons starting from photo dated August 1941.

Any ideas on the different roundel on NZ2003 compared to the others?

Thanks

Alan

[Dave Homewood]

I've seen photos of that oddball roundel before. It is like what they were doing with the Wellingtons and other night bombers in Britain at that time so the white didn't show so well in the searchlights. See the film Target For Tonight to see operational Wellingtons with the modified roundels.

Those are great photos. I have seen most before but never so clear.

[camtech]

Damn - keeps telling me the pictures are private!

[Dave Homewood]

You might have to sign up to Britmodeller, Les.

[nuuumannn]

It looks like the roundel has been painted over and just the yellow left. it looks like the roundel interior has been dulled down or muted, but retaining the yellow - for visibility experiments? Note also that the upper wing roundels on all the Hudsons have what looks to be a yellow outer ring.

[Dave Homewood]

I don't get what that chap means that the undersides were orange. The primer looks to be that colour (which is a surprise) but you can't even see the underside in his coloured photo.

[nuuumannn]

To me that looks like a protective coating over the top of the paint scheme.

[scrooge]

Me to, the 'yellow' underside is the same as the blanks on the wing roots, turret fairing etc. Possibly parafin wax to seal the aircraft against salt water.

[Dave Homewood]

Yes I'd agree with that too.

[camtech]

Sept 4, 2014 14:41:31 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

You might have to sign up to Britmodeller, Les.

Quite right, Dave.

Have done so and must say magnificent photos.

[davidd]

I agree, magnificent reproductions of these 1941 photographs. I could not help noticing that a few of the fellows standing in front of the Hudson on ground looked very familiar. The officer on right is F/L J J (Jack) Busch (and pronounced simply as Bush), who was senior flight commander with No. 2 Squadron at Nelson, and had completed a short course in Australia undertaking a Hudson conversion before test flying the first one in NZ after its assembly at Hobsonville. He was later a senior captain with NAC, was possibly the general manager at one stage. Officer on far left is of course George Bolt, and one of the civilians would have to be the Lockheed representative in Australia and NZ whose name I seem to have forgotten for the moment, but George Bolt did have some very interesting things to say about this "ellusive gentleman". The other officers may also be identifiable at some stage.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

I recognised George Bolt too on the left. I'm not sure who the others are.

[baz62]

Anthony Galbraith and I spent a part of yesterday at Ferrymead helping them with a bit of a tidy up of their garden areas. Later on we had a tour of the Hudson with Denys and we were just amazed at the interior restoration. She must be one of the most complete (and accurate) Hudson and Denys's knowledge of what went where and more importantly what didn't belong on our aircraft was quite the eye opener. Reading about this roundel and colour scheme discussion of course had us peering at the roundel on NZ2035. I'm afraid I'm at a loss to explain what I was seeing exactly but there was certainly a lot of different colours on there. And the paint has worn back enough to show her original RAF serial number AE503.

EDIT:
Well well looks like NZ2035 has yellowish undersides but maybe from an original sky blue which had yellow as one of the pigments, check out Anthony's last post on the Brit modellers site!