Is it going to remain ‘grey’ for weather-protection purposes, although Gannets were never grey. This one should be silver with yellow training bands, or could possibly have been in the standard Gannet scheme of extra dark sea grey top and Sky Type S (duck egg green) undersides?
Albert, as I understand it, as an interested bystander, the scheme replicates as far as possible that which the Navy left it in. It is only on loan to MAM I believe and in the absence of cogent Navy wishes (or help) MAM are putting a “weather-protection” coat on it (as you correctly surmised).
And it really needed it Albert, ’twas a bit of a mess externally, scruffy with dings and dents – even more so in the cockpit and crew areas (some green mould etc). MAM know the thing should be silver really but at this stage, I’ve heard, they haven’t the time and manpower to produce a good enough silver paint finish. A silver paint scheme is very easy to get wrong unless there are good spray-bay and drying facilities, silver looks really naff if brushed or rollered on.
The idea of duck-egg green and dark grey was broached generally, not least by myself, but I understand no suitable (and readily available in sufficiency) paint could be uncovered within the resources afforded. Personally I would have liked to see it in those colours as that’s the way I “remember” Gannets, but it’s not to be at this time. If nothing else, MAM’s Gannet will have a “make-over” (as with the Hunter lately) which, hopefully, will see it through the next couple of years.
My own thoughts are that this airframe seems to be a lower priority than the Argosy in resource and manpower terms. I guess they have to slice their bread accordingly.
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