SPANISH CIVIL WAR. LEGION CONDOR AIRCRAFT COLORS

The Condor Legion over Spain

The German air corps sent in 1936 to support Franco's forces became a testing laboratory in which the Luftwaffe tried out both tactics and equipment several years before the great war. Biplanes flew here, so did the first production single-seat monoplane fighters with an enclosed cockpit, and twin-engine bombers on which what area bombing could do was verified for the first time. It is these machines that this set of six shades matches.

The combination consists of an older trio of earth tones: dark brown, green and light gray, which were used on German aircraft in a splinter pattern. They are joined by the light blue of the lower surfaces in the 1938 form, when the prescribed shade shifted, and by a dark pair of greens that came in at the end of the Spanish involvement and then stayed in service for the whole war. The set therefore captures the transition between two generations of finishes.

These are lacquers. They dry faster than water-thinnable acrylics, they give a harder and more durable film and they stand up to later sanding and to more aggressive washing. In return they call for the thinner of the same brand, good ventilation and thorough flushing of the gun immediately after work.

For a modeler the Spanish period is rewarding above all because of the markings on the machines. They carried black discs and St Andrew's crosses on a white field and tactical numbers separated by a hyphen, that is markings that differ from the later German ones at first glance.

Reckon too with the fact that the machines in Spain served in a dry and dusty climate. Their finishes faded quickly, on the leading edges they wore down to bare metal, and around the exhaust stubs dark streaks were left that could not be washed off.