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Blackburn Skua

ij001 said:
Wow, so much progress over a short space of time. Looks very good indeed, Christian. I believe the black & white wings were supposed to be an 'instant recognition' device in the first year or so of the war. AA gunners had little or no idea what was 'ours' or 'theirs' so an extremely simple and fast solution was needed...

Could be wrong, but I seem to recall reading this many years back.

Ian.
Click to expand...


I believe you are quite right but the moment seems to have pasted quickly for that scheme.

This is the first one I have done. The opposite wing being white surprised me . I thought it would have been the sky gray . Then again there were variations on that idea.

Cheers, Christian B)

Darn, I've been bitten by a bug.... I envision a pair of DO 17's in the not too distant future :coolio
 
phantom II said:
ij001 said:
Wow, so much progress over a short space of time. Looks very good indeed, Christian. I believe the black & white wings were supposed to be an 'instant recognition' device in the first year or so of the war. AA gunners had little or no idea what was 'ours' or 'theirs' so an extremely simple and fast solution was needed...

Could be wrong, but I seem to recall reading this many years back.

Ian.
Click to expand...


I believe you are quite right but the moment seems to have pasted quickly for that scheme.

This is the first one I have done. The opposite wing being white surprised me . I thought it would have been the sky gray . Then again there were variations on that idea.

Cheers, Christian B)

Darn, I've been bitten by a bug.... I envision a pair of DO 17's in the not too distant future :coolio
Click to expand...

The scheme grew out of the development of the UK's air defence system in the late 1930's. The radars of the day had the inland 180[sup]o[/sup] of the signal electronically masked so they could provide accurate position information on an attacking force. The tracking of RAF squadrons tasked with intercepting the attackers was dependent upon the Observer Corps. Difficulties in visually identifying the fighters led to experiments with the black/white wings in 1937. This led to larger scale service trials in early 1938 and the ordering of all Spitfires and Hurricanes to have the port wing painted black and the starboard wing painted white in mid-1938.

Liberal interpretation of a vague order led to many variations (Christian's Skua is an example). Some only had the wings outboard of the fuselage attachment points painted, some met at the centerline. At this same time the under wing roundels were also removed from Home Defence squadrons. By the outbreak of the war all fighters had the ID scheme applied and most of the variations standardized and meeting at the centerline. Under wing roundels were reinstated in May 1940.

This scheme was used until June 1940 when Sky was ordered to be the underside colour and roundels removed. (That's a whole other kettle of fish with the many colour variations that appeared. :D ) August 1940 saw the under wing roundels reapplied. As the BoB drew to a close, a review of markings and camouflage was instituted. It was decided to return to the black/white scheme, partly at the request of the pilots who found it a useful means of identifying friend from foe. The fact that it also identified RAF fighters to the enemy was an acceptable risk.

In November 1940 it was ordered to paint the port wing underside black and leave the rest of the underside Sky. The scheme remained in effect until April 1941 when the black was ordered removed with the RAF's change to offensive operations over France.

FAA Skua's providing air defence for RN bases fell under RAF operational control and adopted the black/white scheme. The markings were retained when the squadrons where embarked on carriers and seen on the Skua's supporting early war RN operations. The over painting with Sky also began in June 1940.

Cheers,
Rich
 
Thanks Rich . Informative piece . It's been many years since I read the info and I'm not sure it was this encompassing.

Also interesting that this one had no fin flash . I picked this particular one because it was different ( and a tad easier )

Cheers, Christian B)

Any progress on the Whitley ?
 
The Whitley stalled while I was hunting down some detailing and painting info for the aft fuselage. I think I have that sorted now, so it just needs to work its way back to the top of the list.

The FAA didn't start applying the fin flash until May 1940.

Cheers,
Rich
 
jknaus said:
What an eye catching scheme Chris. Love it. Cant wait for the Dorniers as well.
James
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Well the one ( New Airfix ) has been mind for some time now but I don't want to give it up for the new idea that you know about . Therefore I'll build two at a time.

The only real problem is acquiring another since they have sort of vanished from the market. :idonno

Cheers, Christian B)
 
RichB said:
The Whitley stalled while I was hunting down some detailing and painting info for the aft fuselage. I think I have that sorted now, so it just needs to work its way back to the top of the list.

The FAA didn't start applying the fin flash until May 1940.

Cheers,
Rich
Click to expand...

That, I was not aware of . The kit offerent all other options with the flash .

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Very cool Chris, I like the black and white!

I'm curious why the white doesn't extend all the way to the center of the fuse like the black. Any Idea why?

It makes it look distinctive though!


:popcorn
 
sharkman said:
Very cool Chris, I like the black and white!

I'm curious why the white doesn't extend all the way to the center of the fuse like the black. Any Idea why?

It makes it look distinctive though!


:popcorn
Click to expand...


Not really Warren . I think Rich explained it very well ( above )

It appears that the Brits issued some poorly written directives which were followed by an equally weak interpretation of the directives.

Throw in the availability of materials and man power and it's all over the place.

A real good example of that would be the Malta birds. Particularly the Spitfires. People trying are still trying to make sense of that today.

Cheers, Christian B)
 
UAU... I had missed the last pics during my vacation. Looks brilliant, excellent job. I wish I could get my planes to look that smoothly...

Excellent work. :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy
 
Hi Alex . Thanks for your positive comments . I wish I had a suggestion to help with that problem :(


I thought I would have a positive update but I do not ... :(

My first discovery this morning was that I had painted these door backwards, so on with more paint :bang head

Skua_landing_gear_001a.jpg


My second discovery was that the hollow part of the gear doors are actually too narrow for the struts . Took the dremel to it :idonno

Skua_landing_gear_002a.jpg


Finally, after mounting all the struts and braces according to the very vague instructions I sat the bird up and discovered the stance to be very wrong , so I'm having to start over :sick:

Well maybe tomorrow will be a more positive day :good:

Cheers, Christian B)
 
moon puppy said:
I'd over help on those landing gear but you know my record. :popcorn
Click to expand...

:rotf Well, you see how well I did by following the ( vague ) instructions ( blindly ) . Then again, the gear would have been like a normal bird.

This is Skua and it doesn't stand like a normal bird. :frantic

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Thanks Edd . I needed evrybit of that this week and probably a few more . Trying to get all those pieces inside that cowl was very frustrating .

Got a few things done to it, like the oil pin wash and added a flat coat.

Skua_painted_001a.JPG


Removed the mask ( finally) . Need some clean up and reattachment of some bits that it has shed and then I'll see what else it needs .

Cheers, Christian B)
 
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