I am doing an accurate Dauntless in atlantic scheme. What color grey is it and it goes from where to where? I understand the belly and most of the fuselage is flat white, what are the limits on the grey?
My Testor’s Dauntless has been partially assembled and on the back burner for a while - but the instructions call out Dark Gull Grey and White. I’ll have to look at my copy before I would guarantee any details about the limits of the grey - but going from memory - the grey rises almost vertically from the leading and trailing edges of the main wing. The dividing line between gray and white is higher than the line that divides the white and blue in a tri-color scheme or in general some of the other schemes that I have seen on many planes.
Personally - I would tone down the dark gull grey with a little white.
Chris
According to Elliott, there were two Atlantic schemes, one for mostly clear/partly cloudy skies (Southern US, South America) and the second for mostly cloudy/overcast (North Atlantic). The first was nonspecular dark gull gray on the very top of the fuselage, nonspecular light gull gray on the sides, and gloss insignia white on the bottom. The second was nonspecular “gray” on top, nonspecular white on the sides, and gloss white on the bottom. Unfortunately, his words don’t match the accompanying illustrations of the two schemes, which show light gull gray on the sides of both schemes.
The only pictures of SBDs I’ve seen in this scheme - both in color and obviously taken a few moments apart - are an echelon of SBD-5s supposedly of VMS-3 on a nice sunny day. It appears to be a dark gray on top and white (or a really, really light gray) on the sides. The dark gray is on the very top, like an anti-glare area, and covers just the front part of the dorsal fin and does not quite extend all the way to the front of the cowling. It curves down to and up from the wing with the narrowest point being halfway up the fuselage at about mid-point of the aft seat enclosure and the mid-point of the pilot’s enclosure. The leading edges of the wing and horizontal tail are clearly the light color, not the dark. The national insignia is a rather large star and bar without any red. The only marking on the lead aircraft is “S-1” in front of the national insignia, about the same height as the bar on the national insignia.
SBDs certainly weren’t standard on the North Atlantic ASW carriers but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t any.
For what it’s worth, in 1943 VMS-3 was based at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (rough duty) so that’s probably where they were when the SBDs’ picture was taken in 1944, and they should have been in Alantic Scheme 1, which all sources state had light gull gray sides, glossy insignia white undersurfaces, and “areas in shadow”, propeller hub and blades outwards to inner edge of engine cowling - nonspecular white. However, the sides in the picture are as light as the white in the star and bar insignia, and you really have to use your imagination to see any demarcation between the color on the side of the cowl and the white on the bottom of the cowl. I’d go with NS Dark Gull Gray on top, NS white on the sides and the leading edges of the wing and horizontal tail, and not too glossy white on the bottoms.
One last time - This color scheme and marking is also associated with VS-37, which was in business from March 1943 to 8 November 1944 and may have been based at NAF Hato Field, Curacao.
Squadron Publications “SBD Dauntless Walk Around” has a color photograph and a color profile of two Atlantic schemes. Photographs show a squadron of 9 birds flying in formation. They are painted in the ASW scheme of Non Specular Dark Gull Grey (FS36231) over Non Specular Insignia White (FS37875). The Profile depicts an ASW II scheme of NS Dark Gull Grey on upper fuselage, NS Insignia White on fuselage sides, and Gloss Insignia White ( FS17875) on lower surfaces. If you’re building a Dauntless, this reference is highly recommended.
Hey nsclcctl,
Heres a pix of the Dauntless w/ the “Atlantic Scheme”. This the photo that tailspin is refering to.
I’ll see what else I can dig up for you.
Flaps up, Mike