I've actually started this little gem of a kit, but day fighter or night fighter? If I do the day fighter, as I only do rattle can, I need a close match for the underside camo, Beige green? Would any one know of a close match by modelmaster or Tamiya[in rattle can].

Hey Robert.

Unfortunately Model Master doesn't make the paint you are looking for. They have discontinued a lot of their original colors every since Rustoleum took over. Sky was one of them, as they stopped producing all of their RAF colors. I don't think it was available in a spray can in the first place though.

Tamiya makes one similar but not exactly the color you're going for. The problem is that the spray cans are not a great choice of colors.

The Tamiya "Sky" color you wanted to use on your BP Defiant is XF-21 in bottle form. Here's the Tamiya color chart that shows XF-21

It's not available to my knowledge in a spray.

The closest other color is called "Gray Green" which is XF-76 in a bottle. This color is available as a Tamiya spray with the part number of AS-29.

However this color might be a little too dark. Please look at the charts to get a rough idea as to what I mean.

These are the color charts from Tamiya's web site. The spray colors start with an "AS' prefix.

Hope this helps...

Actually, it was the bombers that had black undersides. In late May fighters still had black/white split and even showed serials too.

There was a night fighter version in Night overall, but that’s different again.

The Sky choice is correct for later production.

I think that Rob is on to something here with the white / night undersides. It makes sense as many RAF planes were painted like this during this era.

What really made me think it was "Possible" are these two photos I found online...

If you look real close at the BP Defiant in the back ground... The Port side wing that is closest to the camera. It almost lines up with the bumper of the truck in the fore ground. It looks to be more than just a shadow, as the underside of the other (Starboard) wing is well lit by sunlight.

The odd thing with this picture is the plane parked next to the truck also appears to have a black undercarriage door. This makes the tire almost invisible. However you can see the other tire and the inside of the gear cover... Just like the plane in the back ground.

The inner side of the main landing gear cover appears to be "Black"...

in this next photo that has an accompanying illustration...

I know that artists renderings are not always correct, and often contain errors... and the plane in the back ground of this photo has what appears to be a solid "Sky" color underneath. Maybe this photo was taken during the transition period ?

But it looks to me as if this could be an option Robert.

Please look at these photos I found online and judge for yourself. In the end you're the one that needs to be happy with how it looks.

Hope this helps.

You can't go wrong with that color choice... and the new tool Airfix stuff is hard to beat. They offer an excellent value for your money and have some very nice detailing.

Good luck Robert, and I'm looking forward to seeing this one ! 🙂

Hope all is well, mine are grown, but you never shake them. Yes, I will be doing the shark mouth, a British invention, right?

Do the decals the way one always does - on a gloss surface. Don't worry how they're printed. Flat coat afterwards.

Looks good Robert ! Pretty soon and you'll have the "stickers" on it... 🙂