No such markings on these Commonwealth a/c:
…
I think the question about yellow on the leading edges of a Wellington doesn’t refer to ID markings at all, Wellingtons and I’m not sure what other aircraft sometimes had something applied to the leading edges of their wings to prevent icing, it’s an ugly yellow color. I’m not at home right now so I can’t check what the stuff is called.
This ffom here:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/nqsearch/hodgepodge/pathfinder.html
"If the aircraft had been used the previous evening on operations a typical day consisted of getting to work at 8am and finding out if the aircraft could be used again that evening if they were required, by that I mean, we had to check them for damage from flak etc, see what the defects reported by the crew were and estimate how long repairs would take. Normally any major tasks would be taken over by the 2nd line rectification people while the 1st line servicing would be done by my lads. Any aircraft requiring air testing or compass swinging would be flown by a duty crew and when the aircraft were serviceable we would just wait for news of whether there was to be an operation that evening. If we were to go on a raid that evening I would be told the fuel load and any special requirements for the raid and the armourers would be told the bomb load to be put on each aircraft. During the severe weather in the winter we were often told to apply de-icing paste to the leading edges of the wings and tail plane, this consisted of a thick brown paste and was very unpopular with the ground crew because the only way to apply it was by hand. "
I have a feeling to them it was like painting flames on your hotrod back in the fifties. Plus the solid color rudder made your scoreboard look alot sharper to i bet!
Soulcrusher[oX)]
…as I’ve read in my old instruction of Matchbox 1/72 Wellington kit, it told of this part as Anti-frost or some kind of De-icing paste. It’s not a true yellow but the mixed yellow with some metalic color.
Interesting photo from Flickr that shows a Hurricane MK1 and Sea Hurricane 1b with and without the yellow leading edge panel. I am going by his photo description since I am not familiar enough with these aircraft to recognize the difference. The guy who took this shot has some other really nice aircraft shots on his photo stream…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dynamitedotorg/page1/
The Mk.1 wears a Dk Earth/Dk Gtreen/Sky (BoB?) colour scheme which pre-dates the yellow l/e strip, the other wears the later Dk Green/Dk Sea Grey/Med. Sea Grey scheme during which time the yellow strip was introduced.
Those markings were usually theater markings, IIRC… The “Abbeville Boys” (JG 26) were the exception as the yellow nose was a Group ID since the entire nose was yellow, rather than just the underside & lower fuselage section of the cowl.
Yellow tail bands meant Eastern front; white tail bands (and sometimes wing tips) meant Mediteranean theatre; the yellow under the nose was common to all German fighters…
Early in '44 Reich Defense JG’s were issued their own unique color of tail-band for ID purposes—these ranged from red to black…in '43 staffel/gruppe leaders sometimes had thir entire vertical/horizontal stabilizer surfaces painted white…
Maybe later in the war, but there were a number of fighter units that didn’t use any yellow on the nose, Manny.
Not the entire nose (like mid-war JG26 a/c), but the area where it hinged for bottom engine access…this was extremely common on ALL fighters…
I can think of two Geschwaders that didn’t, at least during certain periods of the war, JG 77 and JG 27…
After the invasion of Russia, the wearing of it was SOP…of course, like everything else, you can find individual exceptions to the rule…but a 10 second glance of my refs confirm a/c from the two units you named wearing it in 1942 and 1941, respectively…
Gotta tell you Manny, seeing your wonderful a/c builds makes me want to ditch the weathering. Those are some superb builds.
I agree… Manny’s Luftwaffe builds are above & beyond…
I think Manny is trying to revive the Lufwaffe all by himself. In miniature though. You have some really nice birds there Manny.
Soulcrusher[oX)]
Thanks, Hook, Hans and Crusher!
Yeah me too. I just don’t get why they are all blue.
By the latter part of the war the yellow lower engine cowling was far from standard on all Luftwaffe fighters.
I’ve just completed a JG77 109 K-4, and based on the photos of the real machine the cowl panel looks to be RLM 76.
Mustn’t forget the Slachtgruppen machines which commonly, though not always, wore a yellow nose band and rudder, sometimes with yellow wing tips or a band under the wings.
As with all these things there are no hard or fast rules, so if you want to be sure, a photo is the way to go.
Karl
True, but based on my refs and research, I’d guess that about 85% of fighters between 1941 and early-mid 1944 carried the yellow under the nose…it did seem to slaken off about Fall of '44, as in these late-war a/c:
Also, it seems that a higher % of a/c in N. Afrika went w/o it as well:
Then there were the odd-ball a/c:
