I just idly wondered,with the plethora of RA camo schemes,were some more effective than others,hence the ongoing changes?
Obviously this would be affected by the area of operation-you would'nt use a desert scheme in Northern Italy and vice versa.
It's something I don't recall being mentioned in books I've read.
Steve
effectiveness of camo schemes
There were three basic sets of camouflage schemes to consider: the pre-war period that that saw hard edged camouflage schemes applied to the top surfaces of RA aircraft. RA aircraft employed in the Spanish Civil are a good example, see the prewar Ba.65s or see Davide Spendore's Ro.37:
http://www.stormomagazine.com/ModelArti ... DS_2a.html
These schemes were then followed by the Serie Mimetica colors (following a directive issued in 1938) that saw the very popular to model but difficult to apply (from a modelers perspective), the three and four tone camo schemes. These schemes were adopted because of experiences gained in the Spanish civil war and if you look at a photo of an RA plane from above using these schemes, it was difficult to spot it. At the end of 1941 the Tavola X colors were issued. Tavola 10 was simply an attempt to standardize across the industry around a group of simple colors. The Tavola 10 colors weren't necessarily better at camouflaging planes.
This image was taken just after Italy's entry into WWII as noted by the white cross of savoy on the tail rudder. Note above the pilot, the darker areas set against the landscape that would characterzie the smoke ring camo schemes.
http://www.stormomagazine.com/ModelArti ... DS_2a.html
These schemes were then followed by the Serie Mimetica colors (following a directive issued in 1938) that saw the very popular to model but difficult to apply (from a modelers perspective), the three and four tone camo schemes. These schemes were adopted because of experiences gained in the Spanish civil war and if you look at a photo of an RA plane from above using these schemes, it was difficult to spot it. At the end of 1941 the Tavola X colors were issued. Tavola 10 was simply an attempt to standardize across the industry around a group of simple colors. The Tavola 10 colors weren't necessarily better at camouflaging planes.
This image was taken just after Italy's entry into WWII as noted by the white cross of savoy on the tail rudder. Note above the pilot, the darker areas set against the landscape that would characterzie the smoke ring camo schemes.
