That is Reichsluftfahrtministerium colour RLM02, also a mystery colour
But about the Spitfire prototype....
Reports on the colour of K5054 include:
- "This was a shade of blue-grey commonly called "French Grey" and was arrived at by adding blue pigment to a grey enamel base." (Robinson 1977)
- "Also the prototype was painted for the first time, with a very smooth light blue-grey finish." (Price 1982 p. 39)
- "At this stage the opportunity was taken to paint the aircraft in a pale blue finish, ..." (McLelland 2013, p. 49)
- "K5054 at Eastleigh in the cerulean blue finish in which it visited a number of air stations on Empire Day" (Andrew and Morgan 1981, p.216)
- According to Neil Cooper; "R.J. Mitchell gave his son a model truck painted with the same paint as the full size aircraft. We were able to make that paint by contacting the Spitfire museum in the UK, where the toy is held, and getting the colour scanned," (Smith 2019)
- Quill described its accuracy (Tangmere replica) as "99% to the original prototype", although it is non-flying. The overall colour was copied from a desktop model of K5054, believed to have been finished using paint left over from the original machine.
So all experts at least agree to disagree!
When you look at the Tangmere replica, the colour looks different depending the angle form which the picture is taken.
The decal supplier AlleyCat state the prototype has been repainted, which might explain a part of the confusion. The first blue-green finish was close to FS34325 (Tangmere replica) and in December 1937 it was painted in a colour called French Grey, which was a bit lighter and a bit more greyish than FS35414. Now the next problem has arrived. Do a search on the colour FS25414 and you get at least twenty different colours called French Grey, Light blue, blue green, paint blue........
Cheers,
Huub
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