The Arsenal VG40 - an Anglo-French mix that almost happened - FIN

[Gondor]

I can't find a single scheme that uses the 'Brun Negro' colour anywhere. 

That's because the paint in that set is Brun Fonce rather than Brun Negro, assumeing that you bought HTK-BS16 Early WW2 French Air Force paint set

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

OK, it's 'Brun Fonce' then. I still can't find a scheme that uses it.

[Gondor]

I might have found out why. In the IPMS Stockholm website, the page for French Aircraft says that Brun Chocolate and Chocolate were used by Night Bombers. So it's possible that the Brun Fonce is the Chocolate version of Brun.
Of course, this is all supposition and hypothesis, so I could easily be wrong, but it would explain why you can't find a scheme with that colour.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I'm painting the VG 40 as if it was a D.520. It makes it looks a lot more believable. 

[Gondor]

I'm painting the VG 40 as if it was a D.520. It makes it looks a lot more believable. 

That'll sort it 

[PR19_Kit]

Whoever devised those Armee de l'Air colour schemes was a sadist!   

Painting the VG 40  has been a  nightmare, strange colours in strange places, weird patches all over the place etc. I'm sure they were just reandomly painted  by 'Les Erks' as and where felt like it .

Anyway, it's done as much as it's going to be now, and un-masked too. A coat of Klear and it should be ready for the rather unusual decals..... 
     

[Gondor]

That's why its called "Disruptive" camouflage Kit 

[kitbasher]

Dewotine D520 meets FIAT G55.  Looking forward to seeing the paint job, Kit.

[PR19_Kit]

There's SO much paint on it now, layer over layer. mostly the WONG layers, that it's about 1/64 scale now  I reckon!

I've knocked up some landing gear struts from my stock of copper wire, and painted them silver as the supplied while metal struts just fell apart as soon as I snipped them off their casting blocks, they were THAT thin! I've also glued the prop in place and painted it, bar the yellow tips. I don't know if French aircraft HAD yellow tips or not but as the VG 40 was based at RAF Hucknall for much of its life, it HAD to have them!

And with that I think the structure's complete.

[PR19_Kit]

Here's the fully painted VG 40, but with no decals as yet.



And yes, the rudder is meant to be painted in an RAF Grey, but you'll have to read the extensive backstory later to work out why that is.   

[NARSES2]

Looks very French Kit    and to be honest I'm not sure If I've tried the Hataka French colours as I may well have used the old White Ensign ones ? Away from home at the moment so can't check.

As for the overall French schemes, some do look as if they were very hastily applied as there's so much overspray when it comes to the demarcartion between colours, no masking used at all  . I'm not sure if it was deliberate or if it was simply a case off speeding up production ?

[PR19_Kit]

I'm afraid my paint job on the VG 40 isn't all that good, it's a definite '3 foot model'. There are so man layers it's contoured!

Plus my decals aren't working too well and I may have to re-print them, darn it.

[PR19_Kit]

This BLOODY model is driving me round the bend!     

I've had to re-print the decal sheets for it THREE times now as they're so darned fragile and fall apart as soon as I look at them! Not only that, they won't stick on the model and come off as soon as I dry them with the recommended 'soft cloth'.

I've got ONE decal to go on it now, and the last one I've printed has just folded up on me, so I've got to print the darn sheet AGAIN!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

If only the blasted decal paper manufacturers would stay in business longer than a month or so it'd be much easier to find set of ink-paper-varnish that works well and I'd stick to them. But no, they try and 'widen their portfolio', grow too fast and go bankrupt!

[PR19_Kit]

And at last it's DONE! I didn't need to print off another decal sheet, the last roundel went on with only a little difficulty, phew!



So here's the one and only Arsenal VG 40, shown in the somewhat bizarre colour scheme and markings during the short period it cavorted around the skies of England in the summer of 1940. Note the EIGHT guns fitted to this variant of the basic VG 33 model.



The unconventional rudder markings are because it couldn't fly in the UK carrying the normal French tricolour rudder markings as France had surrendered to the Nazis some time before, so they painted over the rudder with a standard RAF grey paint and re-applied the French serial over that. All this at the same time as painting RAF roundels and fin flashes on the upper sides of the airframe so the ack-ack gunners wouldn't shoot at it, hopefully....



However, what they DIDN'T do was paint over the tricolour roundels on the underside! Not too subtle I'd have thought!



What the VG 40 was all about, the nice beefy Merlin III grafted onto the nose in place of the Hispano-Suiza 12Y.

For the full and complicated back story read here, https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=53949.new#new

[The Rat]