I'm slowly building my way through a collection of R.A.F. reconnaissance types from W.W.II. I have Scale Aircraft Modelling's "Combat Colors" #5 on Mosquito Recon birds and it has photos and a color
3 view of the PR.IV ser. # DK310 which ended up in Switzerland after engine failure. They show a 2 tone upper surface camo scheme in their 3 view BUT! The one photo of the ship, taken after she was interned sure looks like there are 3 colors on that upper surface. Anybody else have a reference on the "Mossie" with another picture of this bird?
Hi Bill, I haven't time to trawl through all my mossie references at them moment, but I'm looking at the photo you're referring to (p8) and would concur with Paul Lucas, it's a two colour upper surface camouflage scheme, and I would trust his research if he gives a definite set of colours used - if there is doubt or a best guess he usually says so.
As to the three colours that are evident in the photo there are several possible explanations-
1 The aircraft was wet and is drying out - wet and dry areas of the same colour in the same light conditions can appear dark and light respectively, and this can affect different colours to different degrees hence the variation of the Dark Slate Grey areas on the fuselage and not on the Sky Grey areas. Note the middle ground of the photo is misty, what appears to be puddles in the foreground and fairly long shadows - I'm speculating here the photo was taken early on a misty summer morning and the dew/mist/rain is burning off.
2 Old weathered paint versus fresh paint - this could account for the darker patches of Dark Slate Grey on the dinghy stowage hatch behind the cockpit and either side of the squadron code and around the fuselage roundel, and also the complete stbd outboard flap section and port elevator.
3 Repaired/replaced sections in primer - stbd outboard flap and possibly dinghy hatch and surround.
4 Different reflection at different lighting angles - which may explain why the port elevator appears darker than some of the tail plane
Personally I'd go for a combination of 1 & 2 - the stbd outboard flap section definitely looks like a replacement
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