I am tracing any unusual markings on Hawker Hurricanes since I discovered red band around fuselage of two mounts of 303 Squadron painted during Battle of Brtitain. Recently I was forced to make some colour drawings of aircraft flying in defence of Malta. Some of them turned my attention. Two interesting aircraft were photographed on 11 April 1941. Photos of both were published in the book ”Malta – the Hurricane Years” (Grub Street, 1999, p. 181-182). V7116 damaged by Bf 109 and crashlanded at Takali airfield on 11.4.41 shows darker band around fuselage. I though – nothing special. Sky band around fuselage has been overpainted with some dark colour, but what colour?
Another picture of the aircraft with unusual dark fuselage band appeared on the previous page in the same book. Huricane I P3978 arrived to Malta via Takoradi route on February 1941, almost month later than V7116. Photo of crashed aircraft was taken on 11.4.1941 either.
The most confusing for me was closer look to the photographs. Roundel yellow on both aircraft photographs was very dark and shiny – similarly to the fuselage band. I looked through another book about Malta Hurricanes (“Hurricanes over Malta”) and discovered another photograph of aircraft with some band around fuselage. Caption said: One of the early Hurricanes over typical Maltese terrain. Colour of the fuselage band certainly wasn’t Sky and looked more like roundel yellow or red.
Any gues, anybody?
By: Mark V - 4th January 2007 at 18:34
The most confusing for me was closer look to the photographs. Roundel yellow on both aircraft photographs was very dark and shiny – similarly to the fuselage band.
Gretza, the appearance of roundel yellow as a very dark colour in WWII photos is quite common, its something to do with the kind of film that was used and it gives this strange appearance to yellow edged roundels and leading adges. Its possible that the fuselage bands may have been in that colour too and came out dark on the photos. I would be quicker to suggest local over-painting of the band in the camou colour rather than red or yellow but it is possible. If its the same shade as the dark rendered fuselage roundel yellow then quite possibley it is the same colour.
Sign In
January 4, 2007 at 5:08 pm