Are there different BS ranges? I seem to recall some issues the MoD guys had with BS colours and although they used the same colours, they gave them different names.
There are; the original BS381 came out in 1930 and some colours in it were selected for use on aircraft. During WWII aircraft colours were standardised by the Ministry of Aircraft Production and this set of ‘Standard’ colours (it developed during the war) was later absorbed in to the new Ministry of Supply( MoS) in 1946.
BS381C came out much later, in 1964 and absorbed some, but not all, of the MoS colours that were applied to military aircraft in the preceding period. Generally colours which retained a post war practical application ‘survived’, such as Sky, due to its continued use on Naval aircraft. However, many of the WWII period colours never made it at all – including Red, Yellow and Blue (the dull wartime shades for roundels and fin flashes) and even Ocean Grey, a colour used in huge quantities from 1941 and in to the immediate post war period, but which had almost disappeared by the early1950’s.
The example I like to use is the upper wing surface of say a 1944 Spitfire in the Day Fighter Scheme – only one of the five colours on it found its way in to BS381C – Dark Green!
More recently BS4800 has been issued, although more of an architectural/commercial range its often the first that comes to mind with 21st Century paint suppliers.
I would also warn that many of the older surviving colours in BS381C have experienced some degree of ‘development’ in the intervening years since the 30’s/40’s and caution should be used before they are directly applied on wartime period schemes, particularly as most of these shades were not selected from any British Standard at their time of first use but were independently created and only subsequently (some 20 years later) issued in the 1964 BS.
I’ve never heard that neither, I know in model circles great debate has always surrounded the exact colour type. Some say the Sky colour is same as RAF Sky, which to me seems more pale than what was used by FAA.
That is a view I share, in effect the 1964 BS381C Sky (#210) does seem a little darker than the Sky employed twenty years earlier in wartime but is most certainly correct for post war FAA schemes.
Anyone has a BS colour number for ‘Alpine’? I cannot find it on my chart. There is ‘Opaline Green’, of course, (275) but that’s a very bright light green.
There is no BS number for ‘Alpine’ as far as I am aware, however it is a name that a number of car manufacturers have adopted for white and ‘off-white’ colours over the years.
One thing that will slightly affect the way the colour looks is the finish – gloss will make it look much darker than a matt or satin finish.
Very true – perhaps one reason for the WWII Sky colour appearing ‘lighter’ than its post-war FAA manifestation.
Sign In
