For a slightly different modelling project, I am intrigued by Hank Burden's S.E.5a on 56 Squadron. *Hank was artistic and sent home a fully annotated photograph of his C'1096 in 1918.
See Alex Revell's
HIGH IN THE EMPTY BLUE, page 307. *The same photo, is better seen but without the annotations on the bottom of page 38 in the Windsock Datafile Special on the S.E.5a. *Everything from the main petrol tank forward is painted a light colour...my guess is sky blue. *
What's strange is that Burdon's own notes on the colours of this machine don't mention the colour of the nose. *He does note that the St. Christopher medal on the side panel of the fuselage nose is on a sky blue plaque. *Wheel covers are the normal C Flight roundel blue.
Colin Owers depicted the nose as "possibly blue" in his 8-21 April '83 Warpaint feature in Aviation News, page 9.
Earlier (?) colours of the same aircraft appear on the middle of page 38 of the Datafile Special. *Here, the aircraft, marked "3", is fitted with the standard Viper engine radiator and while the plywood portions of the nose appear to be PC10, the petrol tank and metal cowlings and radiator shell appear to be blue. *Here the wheel covers are the blue/white quadrants of B Flight. *Ray Rimmel depcits the lighter cowlings as a greyish PC10 in his colour profile on page 40.
Alain Vallet and his Memorial Flight people are finishing their replica S.E.5a in Burden's colours and it appears they are doing the nose in standard PC10. *Do the forumites think it was PC10? * I'd also be interest to know if the readership think the underwing roundel had the white ring painted white or left clear doped/varnished linen. *My guess is the later but the Memorial Flight people have painted it white. *
By the way, my studies lead me to conclude that the earlier S.E.5 (not 5a) aircraft left the Factory without white paint in the underside roundels. *The Profile and Datafile have got it wrong.
23 March 2002, 03:02 AM
Linear Mode
Similar Threads
