Putting together the artwork for Bently Priory’s Hurricane replica soon to be installed.
Other illustrators have used the standard size BoB fuselage roundel on modern sideviews however, on photos around that time they appear slightly over sized (as was their codes!)
any comments before I commit.
cheers
Baz
By: Jayce - 22nd August 2012 at 01:31
Code sizes and font style seem to vary quite a lot in 1940. Each squadron seemed to have it’s own peculiar quirks. If there were specific instructions for code applications it seems to have been limited to the colour of the paint used.
It’s also worth noting 32 and 610 were both Biggin Hill based. So it seems it may’ve been handled on a station by station basis, as well as squadron by squadron.
By: Tin Triangle - 21st August 2012 at 23:53
I’m sure I’ve read that the oversized fuselage roundels seen on some BOB aircraft are simply due to rushed repainting on some squadrons.
The official order was to replace the blue/white/red roundel with a yellow/blue/white/red one of the same (smaller?) outer diameter (i.e the blue/white/red bit became smaller so that the overall outer roundel diameter was not increased by adding the yellow ring)
However one common misinterpretation of this order, or simply a short-cut to save time was simply to paint the yellow ring around the outside of the existing roundel without decreasing it in size, which is why you see the huge roundels almost falling off the sides of the 32 squadron Hurricanes here, and also on the famous shot of the 610 squadron Spitfires in flight.
I don’t know about the codes, maybe they were another case of somebody misreading an official order?
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August 21, 2012 at 10:41 pm