The Little World

And green they are – if not in experience, then at least around the gills at that horrible chromate colour in the aft fuselage. The cockpit is proper FS cockpit green for the Skipper and the co-pilot but everyone else has to work in the cheap section of the plane, and the cheap sections are painted chromate yellow.

I suspect that the purely British aircraft or those ordered before the Lend-lease program when there was some point in the Air Ministry specifying things saw British cockpit green for the entire interiors of aircraft – at least that is how I paint them. Modern day craft, of course, can be blacks and greys – or blues in the case of the Russians, and these are catered for in the commercial paint mixes. But I still value the older photos in colour that let me see the truth about cockpits, fuselages, wheel wells. flaps, etc. Even if the film used was Kodachrome A and there is a marked shift to the colour, you can work off the roundels and any human faces visible.

I have some reservations about the two shades and will be changing them to a slightly darker green cockpit and a slightly lighter yellow fuselage colour when the current stocks run low – I am not going to enter into the forever battles that swirl in the IPMS and Britmodeller sites re. colours – but there is enough evidence to support the change. Ideally, I want to find something in the Tamiya lacquer or Mr. Color range that can be thinned and sprayed out of the bottle. I am of the opinion that near enough can be close enough and any debate thereafter solved with the aid of a sharp kitchen knife. If it is good enough for the little Airfix man with his legs together, it is good enough for me.