Night photos on EHLE 13-12-08

[Mad Viper]

That evening was free for everyone as was mentioned.

The Neptune colours are a shame. The grey is the wrong colour, the top should be white and the radar radome should be half black. Etc etc etc.

Go tell them. According to them, this is the right first colour scheme of the dutch Neptunes. (and I remember to see pictures of this c/s to) It should have been decided after "historical investigations". I actually also asked for the white top during the "painting visit" but they said that was a no-go. If you're interested in this painting: 216 at EHKD and I thought another one should be at the RAF Museum Cosford (204 if Vliegtuigerfgoed 2005 is to be believed).

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Only question is, when does they finish the plane?

[frank kramer]

The white tops were added at a later stage (after delivery); first only on the aircraft that were deployed to New Guinea when that was still a Dutch colony (early sixties) to keep the heat down in the fuselage; these were the original aircraft of the P2V-7B type, having a solid nose with 4 machine guns. Interestingly, when things turned nasty there, the white tops of the P2V-7B's were overpainted again in dark grey as the white wasn't much of a camouflage colour to hide from AURI fighters when seen against jungle or tropical sea backdrops.. Evidence of this can be seen in photos, as this was a darker colour grey than the rest of the fuselage.

Later on, the remaining P2V-7B's were modified with an observer's nose instead of the solid nose and thus became SP-2H's, but even then there initially was a mix of all-grey and grey-white Neptunes. Still later, the white tops spread to all SP-2H Neptunes as they rotated to the Caribbean islands (Dutch Antilles) for the same reason. So the scheme (when completed) IS correct for (at least) the early sixties.

Whether you like it or not is a matter of taste (and a matter of memories, if you're old enough to have seen Neptunes without the white top )

Source (if you can still locate it): FC van Oosten, "Op de Grens van zee en lucht; dertig jaar Neptune bij de Koninklijke Marine" (De Boer Maritiem, 1982)