Colour Schemes of the Air Racers of the 1934 Centenary (MacRobertson) Air Race

I am not sure if this is of any help , but , there was a superb collection of 1/72 scratch built models of all the participating aircraft which for quite a few years was displayed in the Historic Village at Tauranga here in the Bay of Plenty NZ . When this museum closed I believe these models were sent to Paraparaumu , north of Wellington , for a proposed new museum . These models were of the highest quality .

The ‘Irish Swoop’ was with drawn from the race. Melrose’s Puss moth looks like it was silver and Jacqueline Cochran’s Gee Bee R-6H QED was dark green posibily Olive green.

Dave

I seem to recall that ‘Irish Swoop’ was Green and White and the Monocoupe Red and White. The B.A Eagle may have been very pale Blue.

John

In those days most British aeroplanes were painted in ‘British Standard’ colours made by the likes of Cellon Docker …

Good point, but many of them weren’t British – like two out of the three first finishers’ finishes. 😉 – red, silver and grey, respectively, I think!

Colours are certainly tricky. The Flight Archive photo section has a selection of high quality b&w photos of the aircraft prior to the start.

Hi Gary,

I think you can safely assume that the DH88 Comet G-ACSR was in fact British Racing Green. This aeroplane was owned by Bernard Rubin, one of the ‘Bentley Boys’ who raced Bentley’s at places like Le Mans and in fact won the le mans 24 hours race in 1928. I am pretty sure he would have wanted his machine in Bentley colours.

British Racing Green in 1934 was actualy Deep Brunswick Green BS381C

I hope this helps, will you be setting up a web site dedicated to the race by any chance. I am involved in the restoration of G-ACSP ‘Black Magic’ hence my interest.

Good luck with the project

Ken

In those days most British aeroplanes were painted in ‘British Standard’ colours made by the likes of Cellon Docker so there were not that many to choose from. By recollection there were: Flame Red, a Scarlet Red, a Maroon Red, Green (not as dark as British Racing Green), a ‘Kermit’ Green, Oxford Blue, Cambridge Blue, White, Black, Chrome Yellow, a darker ‘Trainer’ yellow, Silver and of course Cockpit Green. There was probably a grey too, but that was about it. I suggest that Humbrol will have the matches, but you will probably be able to pick them out from car colour ranges as they are probably the colours used on British vehicles of the time.
Good luck!

Flight and Aeroplane ran some pretty detailled articles on the race just before it started – next time I am in my loft I’ll have a look-see, but I do not hold out high hopes to get anything like the ‘right’ colours for modelling!