Colour of Lancaster bits on the fuselage and tail etc., + the underside colour

[Guest]

The bits:

My Revell 1/72 Lancaster IIIB (Dambusters Special) has lots of tiny twiggy bits and pieces stuck on the fuselage and tail (and a few on the wings). One is probably a Pitot Tube. The instructions call for all of them, on the top surfaces as well as on the bottom surfaces, to be painted the very very dark grey, "Night"?, specified for the underside. But on all the models I have seen, those bits on the top surfaces have been painted in the local fuselage or wing etc. camouflage colour occurring at that position (Dark Earth or Dark Green).

Which would be correct please?

The Bottom Surfaces

Opinions vary on the exact shade of the very very dark grey "Night" colour for the bottom surfaces. The view is that it should not be jet black but have a little red or a little blue added.

Again, which would be correct please?

[Ian M]

Don't know a bout the twiggy bits, I would go the colour they are sitting on as well, unless I could find a photo that shows them otherwise.

Night. Xtracylix do a night black (BS642) which is as black as it gets with out being black. If you want to mix some thing I would suggest Black (!) mixed with dark blue and a drop of red. You could mix a couple of batches, with differing mixes and paint the undersides, in sections of each. Or even just use a thinned out black over an underpainting of blues greens and reds.....:-/

I believe the real version was a mix of black and dark blue with some other colours in. Originally lamp black was used as it was 100% flat and reflected zero light. This was however far to fragile and aircraft needed re painting every time they came back from a flight. Pilots would also get covered in if the touched or brushed up against the aircraft...

Our librarian Stona I recall has a copy of the RAF order for the paint.....

Ian M

[stona]

Cripes! I'm in Istanbul today which is a long way from my books!

As far as a model goes Night/Special Night are essentially black, though the later version did contain a pigment which might give a slightly blue hue. On a model black just looks too stark. I would suggest using some form of grey by adding another colour. On large scale models I add red, but at 1/72 I add a little white.

Tamiya's 1/48 Lancaster



And on a 1/72 German



I always do the dangly bits (various antennae, balances etc) the same colour as the surface to which they are attached like Ian. I don't pretend to be an expert on Lancasters, but neither can I see why they would be any other colour.

Cheers

Steve