Queen's Flight Heron Day Glow Red paint scheme

I remember XH375 being delivered to Southend for conversion to a Saunders ST-27 along with XM295 which was converted by Aviation Traders to become the prototype ST-27 CF-XOK.

I do remember that XH375 appeared to be a very bright red, almost dayglo. It was definitely a lot brighter than any Queens Flight Wessex that I saw over the years.

 At the time I understood that XH375 was also going to undergo conversion to an ST-27 at Southend but for some reason that didn’t happen and having had the registration CF-YAP applied at Southend it seems to have found it’s way to Canada before conversion.  

According to Lee Howard’s excellent Haynes manual on the Westland Wessex, the shade of red used on Royal Flight aircraft was Gloss Signal Red with Dark Blue cheatlines. Presumable the Heron and other Royal Flt aircraft would have been to the same colour spec.

Dayglo would have been far too tatty for Queens Flight aircraft. As said by Viscount above, the paint was highly polished bright red. Almost a pillar box red.  

I loved a Dash of Dayglo, I remember Harvards, Meteors Vampire’s  and I think a Gannet in Dayglo back in the late 60s early 70s

I always remember the Queen’s Flight Heron and Wessex as being a very bright and well polished red.  The day-glo as applied to RAF training aircraft was a quite different shade red, quickly fading to orangy shades and was normally applied as adhesive patches not as an overall paint finish.

With long shadows, I wonder if the early or late bright but low sunshine is providing a misleading cast to the colours.

Will be interested in following the subsequent discussion – I seem to recall page after page entered on this forum several years ago regarding day-glo v red paint on Royal Navy Sea Princes.