The Little World

And we know what colour that is because it featured in a folk song…

The shade of green that the Martin B 10 wears as a Chinese Nationalist Air Force plane is speculative – there are a number of sources that insist upon olive drab and an equal number that place the hue closer to a blue-green. I have settled upon GSI Creos Mr. Color No. 302 as quite plausible. Detractors may line up in the rain at the curb-side.

I showed the finished model to a friend via email – he’s a young Chinese chap from the mainland who works in the photo trade here. I said I was grateful to the Chinese Air Force for not overloading their planes with insignias, numbers, graphics, etc. I can home-print the sun emblem and airbrush the rudder stripes if necessary.

He suggested there was a practical reason for this – lack of paint at the time. The army and government was scrapping to get weapons and food for the forces anyway and there was little money left over to get pots of paint. And there weren’t enough planes to warrant a complex numbering and squadron reporting system.

This suits me fine. I look in horror at some of the commemorative schemes that adorn modern planes and find that they put me right off copying them.