75SQN Vampires with Fern leaf roundels - Gold fernleaf?

[phil]

Having bought the new Airfix Vampire, I got hold of the Euro Decals set Worldwide De Havilland Vampires (https://www.scalemates.com/kits/euro-decals-ed-72103-worldwide-havilland-vampires--162571).

It has gold fernleafs (fern leaves?) instead of the silver I would have expected. But... While looking on the Air Force Museum photo archive I found the following picures of 75 SQN Vampires with the fern looking decidedly darker than I'd imagine it to look if it was silver. You can see it is a similar tone to the yellow or even the red of the diamonds on the tail boom.

It is nowhere near as pale as the white of the roundel.

Did 75SQN use gold for the fernleaf in their roundels?

[dilligaf]

The ferns are definitely NOT Gold. The ferns were decals, and very expensive for the time so they only ever made them in Silver. Saying that, the decals did yellow a bit in the sun, but not enough to be considered 'Gold'. The ferns are quite fine, with black outlines around the silver portions. This makes them look quite dull in B&W pics as they blend into the red.

[Dave Homewood]

That makes sense.

[phil]

Interesting article reproduced on Ventura's webpage:

www.venturapublications.com/news/publish/rnzaf-roundels.shtml

'a silver fern decal in mint condition tended very much to blend into the red background, making the marking often indistinguishable from the RAF roundel, even at comparitively close quarters.'

Seems like Euro Decals have messed it up making it look gold.