Dark Blue and other ‘lost' colours of the US Navy 1941 – 1943

Unlike the majority of the ColourConundrum articles that have appeared in Scale Aircraft Modelling over the last few years, which have been almost entirely based upon the author’s own research, this article is more of a compilation of research carried out by other people that has been published in a number of places over the last forty years or so. Their names and publications should become self-evident upon reading.

- Paul Lucas

The questions relating to the use of a colour called Dark Blue by the US Navy first came to the author’s attention as a result of the research carried out into the colour schemes of the Malta Spitfires of 1942 that subsequently appeared in SAM under the title ‘A Malta Story’. The first of these articles briefly examined the idea that some of the Spitfires that were deployed to Malta from the USS Wasp might have been repainted whilst aboard using some sort of paint that was provided by the US Navy. Following the publication of ‘A Malta Story’ in the December 2016 and January 2017 issues of SAM, a discussion on the Britmodeller website under the title ‘Malta Blue Spitfires’ led to US aviation historian Dana Bell posting the following on 9 April 2017.

‘I can’t claim to have seen Paul’s SAM articles from last year, but Wasp was one of two carriers sent supplies of an experimental USN paint called Dark Blue, which was a supposed near match for Deck Blue stain. Half of Wasp’s air group was supposedly painted in the new color. If the Spits matched the F4Fs, they could have all been using the new Dark Blue.

That is just another possibility – and I’m not claiming that this happened with any certainty – but it’s a strong ‘cudda-bin’.

Mr. Bell went on to make three further contributions relating to Dark Blue in two further Britmodeller threads. The first of these was entitled ‘Some interesting air crash finds and trace of Blue paint on a Spitfire Aileron’ and contained two posts dated 19 November 2019. The first of these read as follows