Modern RAF paint set vol.

British display teams and test flying

Few aircraft are remembered as well as those that fly in formation over the heads of spectators. From the fifties onward the British display teams went through several types and with them through several striking finishes. The six shades in this package are put together for exactly those and add to them the colors of test machines.

The oldest layer is represented by the deep black carried over the whole surface by the jet fighters of the team that performed at the close of the fifties. Next comes the lemon yellow of the small trainers of the first half of the sixties and two reds: the older cherry, carried by the machines of the best known British team until 1979, and the brighter signal red, used to this day.

The white and blue of test aircraft

The remaining two shades belong to the finish nicknamed raspberry ripple. The upper part of the fuselage and the wings are white, the underside dark blue, and between them is set a red stripe that shares the attention with the white. That is how the machines of the British test and research establishments flew, and it is one of the most easily recognizable color schemes of all.

A collector's subject in itself

Models in a display finish have an advantage that camouflaged machines lack: the finished work is visible across a whole room and does not disappear in a display cabinet among gray airframes. A saturated area, however, will reveal every unevenness of the surface, so sanding and filling the joints calls for more attention here than on a camouflaged aircraft.

All the paints are acrylic and thinned with water. On single-color finishes over the whole surface it pays to spray in several thin coats over a light base, because a saturated red and yellow need an even foundation, otherwise the panel joints show through.