RAF Photo Reconnaissance Units paint set

Reconnaissance Spitfires and their unusual colors

The photographic reconnaissance of the Royal Air Force flew unarmed, alone, and relied on nothing but altitude and speed. Its machines looked the part: single-colored, without contrasting markings, and in shades nobody would expect on a combat airplane. Six bottles cover the whole of this group.

The strangest is the pale pink carried from 1940 by the machines working at low altitude under the cloud base, from the early Spitfires of the PR I version through to the later FR IX. For flight at high altitude there was the deep reconnaissance blue, used on a large scale from 1941 on the undersides of high-altitude fighters as well. Medium Sea Grey went from May 1943 onto the upper surfaces of high-altitude day fighters, among them the Spitfire Mk VII and Mk IX. The package further contains a gray-green for the cockpit interior, which was the British standard throughout the war, then the greenish shade of the first reconnaissance machines converted from the Mk I version, and the royal blue given to the airplanes in North Africa and the Far East, including the Spitfire PR Mk IV and reconnaissance Hurricanes.

Applying them

The line is meant for the brush, but it also suits an airbrush after thinning. Overall single-color finishes are merciless to every unevenness, so it pays to sand the surface before painting and to finish any filling smooth. Both the pink and the blue cover better over a light gray base; on bare plastic they would need needlessly many coats. The result is finally set off by a matte varnish, which captures the uniformity of the finish better than a satin one.