PERIOD REF'S

[NARSES2]

Just finished watching all 7 hours or so of "War in the Air" the 1954 BBC series on WWII period air combat (1935 to 1950). Absolutely fascinating, not just for some of the footage but for the tone, which was classic unbiased BBC, the way it should be.

Couple of hi-lites were Lancasters with the code letters repeated on all 4 engine nacelles.

How to paint D-Day stripes by slap and dash.

Yugoslav Hurricane IV's in action, with the red stars being added very carefully to the roundels.

And an end of war Luftwaffe hangar scene which showed some very clean aircraft in footage that was pure Matrixzone from the site - it really did look like one of his fantastic photos.

Some great footage a lot of which I havn't seen and some of the markings were an inspiration. Of interest was the extent of the weathering on a lot of the aircraft. Suprisingly perhaps it was not that significant on the RAF European stuff - a case of Warrent Officers finding work for "idle hands" even in advanced bases ? Or maybe it just shows that most aircraft had a very short service life ?

I got my copy a few years ago in VHS format - Now I've retired I finally got around to watching it 

Chris

[Jeffry Fontaine]

How to paint D-Day stripes by slap and dash.

Now that topic alone could become a source for great argumentation between the two notorious factions known for their views on correct paint applications and the critical colour demarkation lines.   

[NARSES2]

There was one particular shot of Typhoons having invasion stripes added and it clearly was a case of using whatever brushes were at hand ! The difference between individual aircraft in the same unit was remarkable.

[B777LR]

One would wonder why modern day P-51s and Spitfires with D-day stripes, are painted painstackingly strait using methods that are historically incorrect.

[jcf]

One would wonder why modern day P-51s and Spitfires with D-day stripes, are painted painstackingly strait using methods that are historically incorrect.

Because they are not 'incorrect', for every photo of hastily applied stripes one can find a photo of an aircraft with precisely applied stripes.
The accuracy of the stripes varies by aircraft, unit and chronology and are not simply D-Day stripes, the stripes were retained long after the invasion - plenty of time for precise re-application.

P-47 lost July of 1944:


Go browse through the photos on this site:
http://www.web-birds.com/

Jon

[NARSES2]

Exactly. There was footage of aircraft with imaculate striping - especially Typhoon's post D Day. Really was a matter of how much time was available to do the job and the materials they had to do it with.

[Aircav]

My father use to know a chap who was in the RAF during the war and he said that the D-day markings were on and off the aircraft so often that at the end they were applied with a yard brush.