Instructions have no color pattern. Artbox and refs show a dark brown dark green light blue pattern. Actul plane is “68” with a tiger graffiti and ten kills marking. Pilot is Cpt Olders of 3rd Sqadron AVG.
I think it is RAf green brown and azzure blue.
Confirmation anyone?
There was a thread recently involving this topic. I’m getting an error when I do a search. Look back and I think you can find your answer under Flying Tigers.
These planes were painted in the U.S. with American paint and were approximations of the British colors in use at the time. The upper surfaces are Dark Earth and Dark Green while the belly was supposed to be “Sky Type S Gray”. The story behind this color and its name is a long one so I won’t tell it here. Due to confusion in the US about this color, Curtiss painted the bellies of these aircraft with Dupont’s equivalent of Sky Gray. Sources quote this shade as being close to FS 34463 or something close to Sky type S but not Azure blue. Many folks have painted their AVG aircraft with a belly color that is very gray…color photos show this to be incorrect though the exact shade, while close to 34463, will probably remain hard to nail down.
Hope that helps!
Joe Youngerman
This question comes up so often that it should be stickied. Most researchers agree on the close equivalent of RAF Dark Earth & Dark Green in a disruptive pattern on the upper surfaces, but there is disagreement on the underside color. Author T. J. Clements did an exhaustive research of Curtiss records and concluded that the factory fresh birds eventually sent to the AVG had the lower surfaces painted in a light grey, most likely Aircraft Grey. I have color photos in my collecton of reference material that clearly show several birds with light grey bellies. But as Joe claims, there are also photos that show at least some of them had a light blue underside. I’m in the light grey camp & thats what I use if doing an AVG P-40. If you go with a blue, it certainly would not have been Azure, and to my eye Sky Type S ( the S designated Smooth, or semigloss rather than full matte) is too much a greenish blue.
Color photos are really lousy at capturing the color!
The colors were close approximations to RAF Dk Green and Dk Earth so I would not use those colors. FS 30118 would be good for the brown, but FS 30129 looks better. I’ve painted one using both of the browns. FS 34079 would be much closer to the British green. I like FS 34092 for the green.
Use whatever light grey you fancy.