Spitfire Oil Stain Colours

If it is a Spit, then it is British. If it is British - it must leak.

This is based on general engineering knowledge, and not the Artificer's handbook.

There are two main "lubricants," a hydraulic fluid, and a damping fluid in your beloved Spitfire. We can see these since most seals of genuine English manufacture are guaranteed to leak. Bob Swaddling (an American modeller and Spitophile)does a VERY nice impression of the gear lubricant finding it's way out of the hub-cover (spinner) mating line. This is a light grease, and "on the shelf" is a schwarz-schwarz-grun, glossy to the touch. Try a mix of 2:1:1 RLM 71/22/26, with a dab of 00 to highlight the gloss.

Engine lubricating oil is typically (for the period) a castor-based oil with a greenish-brownish yellow tinge, and a glossy reflectance. "Carbeurized" oil, that returning to the crankcase, and lubricating system, after contact with the furl in the cylinder blow-by area is browner, and becomes more so until it all leaks out and is replaced by new, or the a/c is shot down.

The Oleos are filed with a hygrophilic damping fluid, that is typically tinted red or blue (in some cases green) by the refiner, and as it becomes exposed to moisture, turns a "noticeably" lighter shade of the original colour, to indicate time for replacement. (e.g.: "Ruby Red "Go 90" hydraulic fluid will turn "Pepto-Bismol Pink" just before it fails completely. I hate to say it - but you gotta check your refs, and ask old English artificers on this one.

The last oil type is the glycerine based oils used as damping fluid in the instruments. It should be clear, or at worst (high hour, heavy moisture entrainment), "wheat" coloured.

Take your little tins of Humbrol, mostly in greens, dark greens, blacks, browns, blue's yellow's and greys, feel how many "hours" the airframe might have on it, and "make it so."

Mark

A British Mistel!

No, I'm not high...that would make a VERY cool "what if", don't you think? A Spitfire tacked atop a Mosquito with its nose full of explosives? Colors for the "Mos-tel"... Well, one would presume they'd use an older airframe, so I'd do a simple Ocean Grey/Dk Green scheme on the Mossie with overpainted squadron codes, pretty heavily weathered, and if you were to do a test aircraft, you could do it with a yellow bottom as a prototype...personally, that would be a bit TOO colourful, I think. If you carve a warhead, make sure it's nice and aerodynamic...the Brits were big on that sort of thing, at least for a while :-). Also, did the RAF have a "special ops" squadron like KG200? That's the codes I'd put on the Spitfire. Simple. Put No 617 Sqdn codes on the beast...

(Editor's note: These are a couple of nuggets of information I got off the Hyperscale Discussion Board and thought I'd share with the Aircraft buffs. Some where along the way I've lost the names of the gentlemen who wrote these messages. Who ever you are I thank you.)

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