Canso42 wrote:
Thanks for the Tiger Moth pix ,Roger. Could you give me a bit of background on the color scheme of the a/c?
Until someone better qualified comes along, I'll give it a go...
Looks like a pretty standard RAF Training Command scheme to me, pretty accurate overall, too. I think the pattern's about right, and the main colours look about right too; a neat touch which is very nice to see is the 'shadow shading' of the lighter camouflage colours on the lower wing. IIC that was dropped later in the war, and lots of restorations miss it on aircraft because it's not too obvious in photos.
The 'NL-838' is unusual, but certainly occurred - the standard should be NL838, but there were variations in service - that may be absolutely correct for this aircraft. The nose 38 would ID the aircraft on the flightline among (potentially) hundreds of others, and was quite common - they weren't always numbers off serial, but sometimes allocated 1-100 or whatever at that base.
The gas detector patch on the rear fuselage is a nice touch. Generally dropped by '42 or so, but the roundels make this an early scheme anyway.
Picky details - the struts should be the colour they stand on - this was another thing dropped for serviceable utility, not sure how far it was ever applied to Tigers. Tailwheels were
never seen on Wartime RAF Tigers (grass fields and no brakes) but make sense for modern ops in this case, obviously. The DH logo on the wheels often disappeared in service. The only nitpick I'd make is the red of the roundels is too bright - it should be a dull red, but that's a minor beef in a lovely scheme.
Happy to be corrected on any of that!
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It was not unknown for the aircraft to catch fire after touchdown...