1950’s Paint Specifications

Thank you all for the information so far, Dave, would it be possible to have a scan of the full 33B section?

Thank you very much in advance,

Robert.

Colour standards were kept by/obtained from the DTD up to 1946 when they became a supplement to BSS 381. In 1964 they were included in BS 381C but only those colours still in use were included. Grey Green first appears in the 1948 revision of BS 381C.

Yellow is more complicated. It was used from 1937 until 1947 and included in the MoS colour frange as Aircraft Finish No 2. It had an orange cast which seems to have been lost from the later high gloss yellow Aircraft Finish No 405 from the mid-1950s. Neither of these colours were included in BS381C perhaps because Aircraft Finish 405 was so similar to BS 381C Golden Yellow to make the inclusion pointless.

If you want to find out more then “Camouflage and Markings No1 RAF Fighters 1945 – 1950 UK Based” author Paul Lucas is good place to start. I think it is still available from Guidline Publications.

Edit. It is:

https://www.guidelinepublications.co.uk/index.php?GOTO=141&PICFILE=141&STKNR=141&STRH=&ORDN=&RNZ=920868

Thanks very much for the information, is there away of linking a 33B number to colour spec, such as as BS381C?

They were MAP/MoS colours – incorporated into BS381C in the mid 60s. I don’t think (WW2 trainer) yellow was one of them. It also depends which Yellow was 33B/700 – the original wartime one was MoS Colour no 2, there was a later one introduced in the mid 50s (405) which had less of an orange hue and was closer to BS381C 356 Golden yellow

I have an FS595 equivalent for the WW2 version as 33538

Thanks very much for the information, is there away of linking a 33B number to colour spec, such as as BS381C?

DTD 751 Aeroplane doping scheme of low tautness
DTD 752 Aeroplane doping scheme of medium tautness
DTD 753 Aeroplane doping scheme of high tautness
DTD 754 Cellulose finishes and primer

DTD 754 states that the cellulose finishes supplied to this specification shall be of the same formulation as those of the same colour supplied by the same manufacturer to specifications D.T.D. 751, D.T.D. 752 and D.T.D. 753.

To add a little to Antoni’s post the 33B numbers are RAF stores reference numbers.

John

The DTD number is the material specification, the type of paint. The 33B ref is for a colour, material specifaction and container size.

33B/700 – Yellow, DTD 751 – 754, 1 gal
33B/701 – Yellow, DTD 751 – 754, 5 gal. *

* Typo now corrected