Interesting stuff, the lower camouflage colour of MAP/Lend Lease
aircraft has been the cause of many a vociferous argument on a
number of Model forums.
For many years it has been the accepted "gospel" that "Sky Grey"
(being a form of medium to darkish Grey) was the colour painted,
on MAP/early lend lease aircraft because US aircraft manufacturers
got it wrong, in US modelling circles.
However during those times, the British had technical staff in the US
working with US industry including Sir Huge Dowding. I really don't
think Dowding would have allowed grey to be painted on his aircraft and the British requirements were quite specific.
Anyway some research has been done and over what Dana Bell
published.
The Dupont colour for RAF MAP/early Lend lease should be as
described, a Blue-greenish grey commonly known as:
US Dupont 71-021 Sky Type S-Grey
In terms of modelling, paint wise, Humbrol 23 Duck Egg Blue (before they changed the formula) was a pretty good match.
The only other colour close but not perfect would be Tamiya Light
Blue (23) but really needs a tweak with a touch of green
Following on with painting, I had some Correspondence with
Barf (Nathan) (thanks Dave) from the Air Force Museum and in his E-mail he stated that replacement paints would have either been sourced locally/Australia, and not the exact same as the original.
For anyone interested here is blog by a gent who who has done
a lot of research on this, good stuff
amair4raf.blogspot.com/Regards
Alan
