-
There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.
If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.
Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.
The Staff of SOH
Douglas A20 Havoc
- Thread starter Milton Shupe
- Start date
Blackbird686
SOH-CM-2025
Thanks Huub! I've been flying the A20 off and on with just the base livery, but with your new paint and Papi's panel.. she'll be out of the service hangar and back in the air real soon.
Cheers -- BB686
Cheers -- BB686
Steve, wow! More awesome paints; we are in livery heaven here me thinks. 
Huub, that livery is special and is beautifully rendered, a great gift to the community; thank you very much.
Huub, that livery is special and is beautifully rendered, a great gift to the community; thank you very much.
Seahawk72s
SOH-CM-2023
wellis
SOH-CM-2025
Steve, wow! More awesome paints; we are in livery heaven here me thinks.
Huub, that livery is special and is beautifully rendered, a great gift to the community; thank you very much.
Wow! indeed..spectacular paints gentlemen..keep it up!
Authentic colours......
Just a small intermezzo:
As most of you will know I'm attracted to the bad guys planes. And most of my repaints are done for German or Italian aircraft. That hasn't to do anything with sympathies for a horrible regime or political preferences, but I just consider German and Italian aircraft and liveries more attractive and in most cases more colourful.
And although "Green Hornet" definitely wasn't my first US repaint, I did some research to find the correct colours for this repaint. In the past I had already found out the Federal colour standard 595 isn't the best source for WWII aircraft as it was only developed in 1956, 11 years after WWII ended.
An interesting read made me realise that US aircraft colours were defined in a directive, issued in 1940 by the Joint Army-Navy Aeronautical Board (ANA). And that all fighters and Bombers had a finish in dark olive drab (ANA 41) with medium grey for the lower surfaces.
Well really I thought that was nice and clear information, which left no room for confusion!
But colours are never simple, so the story continued. The colour dark olive drab was replaced by olive drab in April 1943 (ANA 319) and replace again in September 1943 by a lighter shade of olive drab (ANA 613). In the same period the medium grey was replaced by sky grey. However aircraft manufactures were informed too late and by the time they were ready to introduce the new colours, aircraft lost their camo paint and were polished instead......
It is also stated that dark olive drab faded very fast. And that shade from different manufactures didn't fully match... ((but you just told me there was a standard???)
It even gets worse. The US aircraft often came to places were the British RAF or Australian RAAF was already present. As they already had a logistic system in place, field modifications and repairs were often done using RAF or RAAF paint, according this writer.
So for Green Hornet I though will lets stick to the standard ANA colours "faded dark olive drab", medium grey (less faded as its the under surfaces), with medium green blotches.
Medium green blotches? But that wasn't described in the directive! And what would "faded dark olive drab" would have looked like, according to the author, who did serious research and even published books about it, it should be more brown than green. But that doesn't tell me how brown or how much less green. Well at least Medium grey shouldn't be a problem. Or should the aircraft have sky grey for the lower surfaces as this was introduced already in 1943 and this repaint shows the aircraft in 1945.
Well I got lost somewhere and when I compared all so called "authentic colours" I realised that nobody really knows. Or can anybody explain me why "authentic colours" from Humbrol differ from "authentic colours" made by Tamiya, or why we have 15 different scans of paintchips from which the owners tells us they are original paint? And does anyone know how faded, faded paint looks? The standard might have been clear, but in my opinion nobody knows what has been done with it.
But nevertheless I hope you all like "my version" of authentic faded dark olive drab, medium grey and medium green blotches
Cheers,
Huub
Just a small intermezzo:
As most of you will know I'm attracted to the bad guys planes. And most of my repaints are done for German or Italian aircraft. That hasn't to do anything with sympathies for a horrible regime or political preferences, but I just consider German and Italian aircraft and liveries more attractive and in most cases more colourful.
And although "Green Hornet" definitely wasn't my first US repaint, I did some research to find the correct colours for this repaint. In the past I had already found out the Federal colour standard 595 isn't the best source for WWII aircraft as it was only developed in 1956, 11 years after WWII ended.
An interesting read made me realise that US aircraft colours were defined in a directive, issued in 1940 by the Joint Army-Navy Aeronautical Board (ANA). And that all fighters and Bombers had a finish in dark olive drab (ANA 41) with medium grey for the lower surfaces.
Well really I thought that was nice and clear information, which left no room for confusion!
But colours are never simple, so the story continued. The colour dark olive drab was replaced by olive drab in April 1943 (ANA 319) and replace again in September 1943 by a lighter shade of olive drab (ANA 613). In the same period the medium grey was replaced by sky grey. However aircraft manufactures were informed too late and by the time they were ready to introduce the new colours, aircraft lost their camo paint and were polished instead......
It is also stated that dark olive drab faded very fast. And that shade from different manufactures didn't fully match... ((but you just told me there was a standard???)
It even gets worse. The US aircraft often came to places were the British RAF or Australian RAAF was already present. As they already had a logistic system in place, field modifications and repairs were often done using RAF or RAAF paint, according this writer.
So for Green Hornet I though will lets stick to the standard ANA colours "faded dark olive drab", medium grey (less faded as its the under surfaces), with medium green blotches.
Medium green blotches? But that wasn't described in the directive! And what would "faded dark olive drab" would have looked like, according to the author, who did serious research and even published books about it, it should be more brown than green. But that doesn't tell me how brown or how much less green. Well at least Medium grey shouldn't be a problem. Or should the aircraft have sky grey for the lower surfaces as this was introduced already in 1943 and this repaint shows the aircraft in 1945.
Well I got lost somewhere and when I compared all so called "authentic colours" I realised that nobody really knows. Or can anybody explain me why "authentic colours" from Humbrol differ from "authentic colours" made by Tamiya, or why we have 15 different scans of paintchips from which the owners tells us they are original paint? And does anyone know how faded, faded paint looks? The standard might have been clear, but in my opinion nobody knows what has been done with it.
But nevertheless I hope you all like "my version" of authentic faded dark olive drab, medium grey and medium green blotches
Cheers,
Huub
Nice one Huub, looking forward too "Joker".
I have also been gaining new info which has led too this 1946 Aeroflot scheme, this aircraft was used on photo mapping duties by Aeroflot from early 1946, sometime in 1949 the aircraft was painted white too stop confusion with VVS aircraft. So today I will mainly playing with this one.
Steve
I have also been gaining new info which has led too this 1946 Aeroflot scheme, this aircraft was used on photo mapping duties by Aeroflot from early 1946, sometime in 1949 the aircraft was painted white too stop confusion with VVS aircraft. So today I will mainly playing with this one.
Steve
Attachments
wellis
SOH-CM-2025
Huub, thank you for sharing your research. Good stuff. It has taken me awhile to sort out why "olive drab" on one US plane was more like "olive brown" (no such color of course) on another. So your discussion is most enlightening. That general lack of color on US WWII military aircraft is one of the reasons I like the early North African campaign schemes.
I like it Steve! Is the white version of this aircraft the one you posted in post 527?
Huub
jamminjames
Charter Member
You're right Huub, as an avid modeller olive drab comes in several shades. Different aircraft manufactures NAA, Douglas, ect. bought paint from several sources. None quite the same. Also some units received bare metal finishes and painted their planes in the field, colors varied depending on what stock was handy and how much it was thinned. Your Green Hornet is an outstanding paint and looks just right..
wellis
SOH-CM-2025
I like it Steve! Is the white version of this aircraft the one you posted in post 527?
Huub
Steve,
What Huub said
I like it Steve! Is the white version of this aircraft the one you posted in post 527?
Huub
Steve,
What Huub said
Aye it is.
Steve
'cry havoc! And let loose the dogs of war'
Milton and all of your team,
Many thanks for your great rendition of this unsung hero of WWII. The beta version I have been flying around is a joy and everything I like about flt simming virtual a/c produced by you and your team.
Have been away for my annual family re-union in Pembrokshire, S Wales and trying out the A-20 versions on my return was really rewarding.
Your selection of this light attack bomber is an outstanding choice as it fills such a gap in the general perception of 'great' WWII a/c. The thousands that were constructed and transported by convoy to the UK and Russia arrived at key moments to play their role in the middle-east theatre and on the Russian front. All credit to the Douglas design team who appeared to see the certainty and immediacy of WWII before the 'Europeans'.
The proliferation of this a/c into every WWII theatre of operations ensures the future production of many many interesting skins by all the great painters out there. The variation of markings for French Air Force a/c alone is an indication of what is to come. The 'Green Hornet' is fronting the wave at present - thanks to you all again.
Mal
Milton and all of your team,
Many thanks for your great rendition of this unsung hero of WWII. The beta version I have been flying around is a joy and everything I like about flt simming virtual a/c produced by you and your team.
Have been away for my annual family re-union in Pembrokshire, S Wales and trying out the A-20 versions on my return was really rewarding.
Your selection of this light attack bomber is an outstanding choice as it fills such a gap in the general perception of 'great' WWII a/c. The thousands that were constructed and transported by convoy to the UK and Russia arrived at key moments to play their role in the middle-east theatre and on the Russian front. All credit to the Douglas design team who appeared to see the certainty and immediacy of WWII before the 'Europeans'.
The proliferation of this a/c into every WWII theatre of operations ensures the future production of many many interesting skins by all the great painters out there. The variation of markings for French Air Force a/c alone is an indication of what is to come. The 'Green Hornet' is fronting the wave at present - thanks to you all again.
Mal
gastonj
Members +
Hi,
Wonderful, i can't wait for this
!In your collection have you done a Vichy scheme?
Are you interested in the list of all French DB7 from the beginning of the war to the fall of France including the fate of them which fought in the battle of France?
Cheers,
JMC
Hi,
Wonderful, i can't wait for this
In your collection have you done a Vichy scheme?
Are you interested in the list of all French DB7 from the beginning of the war to the fall of France including the fate of them which fought in the battle of France?
Cheers,
JMC
Hi JMC.
So far I have only painted the early white cheat line Vichy scheme on both a North African Cammo and a European cammo. The red and yellow stripes I have not done yet, are in my list too consider once I have finished my current batch of schemes. So far I have 11 schemes completed pending the odd pilot or two. I have 9 schemes started that need updating too latest spec's and general paint stuff,and that is just on the C models. I also have 5 or 6 G models that need things doing too them.
As for Info, can never get enough of it.
Steve
