Spitfire mk12 undercarriage bay colour

[Dave W]

I'm currently building the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire mk12.What I'd like to know is what colour to paint the undercarriage bays.Early spitfires were done in green primer.later marks had silver bays.Airfix say to paint them the underside colour of medium sea grey.I think they are wrong and silver is the most likely colour.Any one know for sure what colour they should be?.

[stona]

One of life's great imponderables.

The general consensus is that up until very late Marks (22/24) the bays were finished silver. The real question is whether they were considered an interior or exterior area. If interior then they would have been silver,exterior,well,the exterior colour.

Late in the war the colour for interior structures changed from aluminium to green.The fact that the Spitfire 22 had green wells is an indication at least that they were indeed considered interior.

The problem arises with aircraft that were resprayed due to changes in authorised camouflage,movement to a new theatre or just routine maintenance. It seems unlikely that the U/C bays would have been masked (there's nothing in there that will be adversely effected by paint) and that as a result either the underside colour or at least an overspray of the same would have been applied.

In my opinion a Mk XII would have started liufe with silver wheel bays,they may later have become the exterior underside colour. I don't think they would have been green.

Whatever you do noone can say that you are wrong

Cheers

Steve

[Dave W]

Thanks Steve.Id like to think Airfix would have researched the colours properly.But I recently made a pre war mk1 and sprayed the underside sky,as per the Airfix instructions.Have since read an article that stated pre war mk1's were painted aluminium underneath!.Mind you,spraying the mk12 wheel bays the same as the undersides would be the easy option.

[stona]

.Have since read an article that stated pre war mk1's were painted aluminium underneath!.

Initially aluminium (silver) ,then night/white undersurfaces,starting with an experimental batch of Hurricanes which reached the RAF in April 1938. Fighter Command wanted all its aircraft finished with this two tone underside. It wasn't until the Munich crisis of September 1938 that the Air Ministry appears to have granted this request and Home Defence squadrons began to be painted night/white up to the centreline of the aircraft. "Field Force" squadrons were not included at this stage and it wasn't until April 1939 that Supermarine got with the program and Spitfires started to leave the production line in this underside finish.

Aircraft already in service were not always finished with this centreline demarcation,the lower fuselage was often left silver/aluminium and sometimes just the two wings were painted. Ailerons were not painted but were left silver for fear of unbalancing them. This led to a number of variations.

The night/white underside colouring was really a tactical marking,an aid to recognition and identification of friendly aircraft. The new Sky undersurface was introduced by an order in June 1940,with the proviso that due to a lack of availability of the new colour fighters could continue to operate in the now superceded night/white undersurface temporarily.

Sky (derived from and the same shade as an earlier colour "camotint") was judged to give a good camouflage against the sky when the aircraft was viewed from below and its introduction coincides with the arrival of new IFF equipment (pipsqueak) fitted to Fighter Command aircraft. This rendered the earlier scheme redundant as the new system enabled sector control rooms to know where their friendly fighters were electronically.

Cheers

Steve