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David E. Brown said:Gents,
I thought that I might add a few thoughts to the colour discussion of this aircraft.
By way of introduction, Dave Wadman and I did a detailed analysis of this aircraft (amongst others) for our first Experten Decals book (1993). This was based on a number of available photographs from Jim Crow and Tom Hitchcock's collections, and others, and of course, our knowledge of Luftwaffe camouflage and markings at the time. Since then, we have learned more about the subject and we shared our knowledge with fellow researchers Larger, Deboeck, and Poruba for their JaPo series.
With respect to "Blue 12", Werknummer 500570, of 8./II./JG 6 there are numerous photos of this aircraft, and most importantly, one in colour ( a Kodachrome slide from which I received a copy from the original). These 500000-series aircraft appear in a number of "hodgepodge" camouflage schemes, likely reflecting their manufacturing process of assembling various components built by widely dispersed subcontractors. The aircraft generally follows the Braunviolett 81 / Hellgrun 82 scheme.
On the fuselage, following a coat of green-blue (grunblau) shade of RLM 76 on the sides, Braunviolett 81 was along the fuselage spine up to and including the gun cowling cover. This was followed by Hellgrun 82 over-sprayed on the gun cowling on top of the 81, and forward of the rear fuselage insert up to the canopy. RLM 82 was applied to the spine over the RLM 81 from the base of the fine forward to the jacking point.
The Jumo engine "power-egg" was delivered as a complete component to the final assembly facility that completed this aircraft. It was most likely given a single coat of RLM 76. When attached to the aircraft, it too was given a coat of RLM 81 on its uppersurface, followed by a second coat of RLM 82, which appears darker given the darker underlying colour. In addition, a new photo of the port side of the cowling shows that the making "(E3)" is incorrect and is actually (and more appropriately) "(213)".
Our original interpretation was that Blue 12's upperwing colours were Grauviolett 75 and one of the primer grey colours, or Hellgrau 77. Re-interpretation of extant and new photos of Blue 12 and other aircraft permit a re-assessment. This is particularly based on photos of an Fw 190 D-9, White 16, WNr.500636 of 1./JG 6, that clearly reveals its upperwing camouflage scheme as a combination of Braunviolett 81 and the fuselage side and undersurface colour: the green-blue (grunblau) shade of RLM 76. Again, the best references for this are the photos of White 6.
The aircraft's underside colour is a combination of RLM on the forward half, and the remainer left in natural metal. The control surfaces were completed by a subcontractor and finished in RLM 76.The fuselage underside is in natural metal only from the wheel wells back to the tail. The rudder was another subcontracted part and was painted in RLM 75 with a mottle of RLM 76 applied. The fin was another subcontracted component given an overall coat of RLM 76 upon which was applied a dense fogging of RLM 81.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
David
The top wing camo is a mystery to me so I'm not sure what I'll go with but this will be a model with lots of individual "character" that's for sure.