Latvia sold(?) / donated (?) 11 Bristol Bulldog Mk.IIs to Basque nationalists and became part of the Republican Air Force. What paint scheme did they have? I've seen color plates of them in NMF/aluminum dope (stock Bristol/ Latvian scheme) with Republican markings. Or .... sand/olive/brown over blue (Italian looking camo). Or .... dark green metal forward section with rear section aluminum dope. I have not seen any actual photos. Also, any markings showing their Basque connection?
Stray Bulldogs
- Thread starter Sluff
- Start date
The Latvian Bristol Buldogs were painted silver on udersides and fuselage sides. The tops were painted with the greenish khaki paint. On the fusealge the demarcation line between the silver and the khaki colurs was high. The national markings, the red swastika in the white circle on wing tops, undersides and fuselage sides. So being sold the painting could be changed and depended on the operators and the camouflage rules for them. The easiest way for doing that would be to overpaint the earlier national markings either by using the silver or just replacing these with the own ones like in the profile seen below. However there are not too many images of the Republican Bulldog kites. As a result the Italian type of the camouflage is a speculation often. IIRC I saw one shot of painted dark Bulldog a couple of years ago. But it was of very poor quality and it is not sure how the camo layout looked like.
the pic source: the net.
the pic source: the net.
the pic source: the net.
the pic source: the net.