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The Hawker Hurricane in 3Sqn RAAF Service - Page 3

Hurricane P3967

At first glance this is the standard Temperate camouflage of Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces, with Sky lower surfaces.  However a close perusal of the large scan shows that this airframe has originally had the Sky Blue areas added to the nose for the additional camouflage. The upper and sides of the nose have had it painted out with fresh dark paint, which I assume is one of the upper surface colours (I have used Dark Earth on my drawing as that is the predominant colour in that area). 
Sky Blue
is however still discernable on the lower part of the Tropical air intake.


Photo J.Hamilton

 
Hurricane Mk.I (Trop), P3967, 'OS-B', F/Lt J.Perrin, Benina, Feb or Mar 1941.
Temperate camouflage of Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces with Sky lower surfaces.  Spinner and serials in Black with Medium Sea Grey code letters.  Note the area of repainting of the Sky Blue areas on the nose as per notes above and the old style fin flashes.  Paintwork is very patchy, with areas that are starting to lift off on the fuel tank cover showing bare metal (possibly a replacement part).

Hurricane P3765

 
Photo A. Rawlinson

This photograph of P3765 showing Peter Jeffrey beside his machine was once again taken at Benina by Alan Rawlinson. It is hard to tell, due to film type/ or filter being used, but it appears to be a Temperate scheme with the additional Sky Blue & Brown 'Spaghetti' camouflage on the nose.

On this type of film, this scheme always look to have a much higher contrast than on traditional Panochromatic film.  I don't think it is a Desert scheme which is the other possibility.  The mottle on the nose is a soft spray again but noticeably heavier than on P3822.

 
Hurricane Mk.I(Trop), P3765, 0S-J, S/Ldr P.Jeffrey, Benina,Feb or Mar 1941.
Temperate camouflage of Dark Green/ Dark Earth upper surfaces with Sky lower surfaces. Nose and Spinner have the additional Sky Blue colour with Brown overspray as per above. Serials in Black with Med Sea Grey 'OS-J' code letters.

Hurricane P3818

 
Photo via P.Malone

This photograph of Tom Trimble's P3818 shows it in a scheme that is remarkably similar to Blake Pelly's P3822. Even the first letter of the serial is overpainted similarly.

The main differences are that the demarcation to the Sky Blue on the nose is harder edged & the 'Spaghetti' camouflage appears to be a closely knit overspray of small patches. The overspray also appears to consist of two colours, so I have used Green and Brown on the profile.


Hurricane Mk.I(Trop), P3818, Tom Trimble, Benina, Feb or Mar 1941.
Colour scheme is virtually identical to P3822 above except for the denser Green/ Brown overspray on the Sky Blue areas. 

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