**** DONE: GB-39 1:48 Dewoitine D.520 - Battle for France to Battle of Britain

[N4521U]

Holey moley Geo!
I gotta finish my P-47 so I can catch up..........
Nice references, I must take note, we'll be twins!!!!!
I do see some scratch building possibilities! Yum

 

[fubar57]

Seat is done and awaiting belts and paint

 

[Wurger]

Sounds good.

 

[Wurger]

And this can come in handy... a note though.. the standard camo for the D.520 was the GBC/GBF/V/TdS but depending on the time period and paint resources the Terre de Sienne was replaced with the Brun Chocolate and the Vert with the Kaki.

 

[fubar57]

Much obliged mon frère. My innards will be pretty close to your "bleu nuit". Model Master Acryl, Dark Sea Blue

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Completed seat plus dust, minus belts

 

[Wurger]

Humm.. it seems the Model Master Dark Sea Blue is incorrect. It is too black while it should be more bluish, I would say. My references indicate the FS35044 what is the Model Master 1719 Insignia Blue or acrylic 4742 Insignia Blue.

 

[N4521U]

Boy o' boyo, what we learn.

 

[fubar57]

You know it Bill. Redone did the fuselage as per Wojteks photo that he PM'd me to a bluer tinge.

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Innards painted and awaiting touch-ups, belts and weathering.

 

[N4521U]

Having said and done that. In scale would it be a bit lighter, just from ambient light?

Looking good.

 

[Wurger]

Looking good now.

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[fubar57]

Thanks guys but I and Tamiya may have erred here. The area the arrow is pointing to will be seen in the fuselage cutout to the rear of the pilot and it seems this should be painted a different color. I've read that it may have been painted the same color as the under surface but some photos definitely show a lighter color.

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As French colors aren't readily available, Tamiya has a mix and Vallejo has what they say are French equivalents. Going down to check my paint supplies now. If I don't have the colors I'm going to PG in two weeks

 

[Wurger]

Geo .. do you mean the areas seen throught the rear windows?

 

[fubar57]

Yessir. Hard to find period photos without reflection but I froze some youtube videos to get these...

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The area the arrow points to in my post is the area that's visible behind the cutout

 

[Wurger]

Well the colour of the part of the fuselage behing the pilot has been discussed so many times it could be a thick book now. I was talking about that with Waroff some time ago. He said.. "The area behind the rear window was gris bleu clair or aluminium" However the B&W pictures seem to deny that.
Here are two shots showing the rear windows and the two tones of the colour there. The first one suggest the light colour while the second shot the dark one. But IMHO it is the light trick made because of the glass there , sunlight and the different angles these pics were taken with.

What makes the matter worse the cockpit glass of the D.520 was getting the "dusty" tone very often. Here is a quite close up shot of the cockpit canopy Please note how dusty glass is of the front windshield and how much the gunsight can be seen. The front windscreen glass causes the appearance of the area more dusty and lighter. In the same way the slided back hood with the rear windows do. Pay your attention to the armour plate. It is still dark because it is not covering by the glass. Also the reason for the tone of the area is that the surfaces under the rear windows aren't paraller to the window glasses.

Here is a shot of the D.520 cockpit taken from the front ... Can you see the difference? Plase make a focus on the grey tone of the armour plate behind the pilot and the one of the bottom surface of the rear window seen at the right of the pilot's left shoulder. It is the same grey colour seen in the sunlight. If there would be the lighter colour the difference would be noticed very clearly.

 

[fubar57]

I think I read the talk you had with Waroff, Alberto's build was it not?. I looked for it but couldn't remember where I saw it. Gonna hit some French speaking model sites and see if they know

 

[Wurger]

Yep that's Alberto's built. Additionally I found a couple of pics of the same kite taken these days. The angle, the shots were taken with and the sunlight are quite similar to those seen in the B&W pics above. Of course we should remember that the photo materials are of much better quality than the pre-war B&W ones used during the war. However the differences in tone of the areas under the glass of rear windows can be still noticed.

 

[fubar57]

Found on this French site...DEWOITINE D.520 - GC III/6 (3/6) definitely lighter, you can see a bit of the cutout behind the canopy

 

[Wurger]

Yep and also here..

and here...

the pic source... Crash d'un D520

 

[fubar57]

Beauty.....now what is the light color? The French didn't use too many colors during the war according to Urban's Color Charts. The two likely colors would be Gris Bleu Clair (top, used on the lower surfaces) or Gris Bleu Fonce (bottom, used as upper camo)

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Given that the photos show light or dark it could be either depending on the aircraft viewed. I looked at the photo of "Red 30" but it's not a good photo

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