#Done# Indian Navy F8F-5 Super Bearcat, 1951

[AndrewF]

You're welcome Kit - thanks for the idea. I like how this has unintentionally developed from one single profile into a timeline of one aircraft in the service of different users and time periods.

[perttime]

I was looking at more Indian photos. Looks like the Chakra was on a white background when on a dark colored aircraft, but only blue when the aircraft was light colored or bare metal.

Many old photos do look as if there was a different, lighter, color in the centre. There's also photos of a bare metal (or silver) Tempest in an Indian museum, with orange/saffron color in the centre. That is a bit confusing.

[PR19_Kit]

There's also photos of a bare metal (or silver) Tempest in an Indian museum, with orange/saffron color in the centre.

Which is probably where M'box got their ideas for the decals from.

[AndrewF]

I've been doing a bit of hunting around as well and I found this comment on Britmodeller from an Indian guy :

Thing is there existed more than one version of the chakra , some of which are -
1. Navy blue on white background - as my model.
2. Navy blue on pale yellow background .
3. Orange spoke , green wheel , white background .

Since every photo from the period is black and white , it is impossible to tell which one is appropriate for which airplane but if the matchbox decal fits above description , go ahead .

Here's the link: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235019658-airspeed-oxford-indian-air-force-172-az-model/

And I've seen modern photos of a restored Spitfire with a yellow background...

[AndrewF]

So here are a few images pinched from the internet:

• the top one looks like the central boss and spokes of the chakra are the same colour as the front part of the fin flash (i.e. saffron), and the outer wheel bit is much darker - could be green, could be dark blue. But taking into account the shadows on the curve of the fuselage I think it's the same colour as the fin flash, so green.
• the middle one looks like the central boss and the outer wheel are the same (dark) colour, again could be green or blue but it looks very similar to the green bit of the fin flash. The spokes of the chakra look even lighter than the saffron part of the fin flash (seems to be closest to the Matchbox version).
• the bottom one is a restored Spitfire I found on Twitter with dark blue chakra on yellow background.

[AndrewF]

I think I like this version better, it's more colourful:

[PR19_Kit]

You and me both, and more 'Indian' somehow too.