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World War II
Discuss WWII and the era directly before and after the war from 1935-1949.
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P-51 Mustang with rare cammo
pampa14
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Santa Catarina, Brazil
Joined: March 28, 2013
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Posted: Saturday, June 13, 2015 - 06:01 PM UTC

The link below brings some photos of a P-51 Mustang applied with an experimental paint scheme. Does anyone know the name or if this cammo was used operationally?


http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/p-51-mustang-em-camuflagem-exotica.html


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Kepler
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Genova, Italy
Joined: March 15, 2014
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Posted: Saturday, June 13, 2015 - 08:39 PM UTC
It was a so-called "confusion camouflage", as proposed by Captain Paul Hexter and test flown in mid 1943. Colours were black and white, with standard OD upper surface. No less odd schemes were tried on B24, with multiple nose and tails painted on side of forward fuselage and fins, while another P51 was disguised as a P40 by painting rounded wingtip and tailplanes. No particular advantage was noted in tests, and some time later USAAF chose to simply remove all camouflage paintings.
JollyRoger
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Istanbul, Turkey / Türkçe
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Posted: Monday, June 15, 2015 - 01:43 AM UTC
I remember seeing a photo of a Brewster Buffalo in a similar camouflage. Can't remember where though. Seems like US Armed Forces were obsessed with the scheme at a point of WW2. I have seen a few PT boats and ships with similar trials. I wouldn't be surprised if I see photo of a Tommy Gun with such a camo.
Emeritus
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Uusimaa, Finland
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Posted: Monday, June 15, 2015 - 03:08 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I remember seeing a photo of a Brewster Buffalo in a similar camouflage. Can't remember where though. Seems like US Armed Forces were obsessed with the scheme at a point of WW2. I have seen a few PT boats and ships with similar trials. I wouldn't be surprised if I see photo of a Tommy Gun with such a camo.


It was probably the Barclay camo? Apparently it was tried on some Devastators as well. Really interesting camo scheme!
phantom_phanatic309
#372
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United Kingdom
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Posted: Monday, June 15, 2015 - 03:39 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I remember seeing a photo of a Brewster Buffalo in a similar camouflage. Can't remember where though. Seems like US Armed Forces were obsessed with the scheme at a point of WW2. I have seen a few PT boats and ships with similar trials. I wouldn't be surprised if I see photo of a Tommy Gun with such a camo.



It's based around the same concept of naval dazzle camouflage. The idea their is to fool visual targeting, based of course on the mark1 human eyeball. The aim is to trick the observer into thinking he is looking at a ship moving in a different direction, speed and even class of ship than you really are. So we see a variety of schemes applied which include false bow wakes (on fronts and rears of ships), stripes, block patterns and even counter-shading under gun turrets to make them invisible. From a distance and in rough seas it was often very effective, especially against submariners who would only have a limited view of the world above them anyway. They would be in variety of colours but usually included greys, white, blues, greens and even pink!
A quick example here. One to note is HMS Bentinck, a model of which I recently built, it has a false wake and stern painted on to make the ship appear to be smaller and moving at speed.

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