Bridon Bear,
It's not as straightforward as you might think.
While it looks as if the whole process was pretty simple, each type had it's own scheme and there have been entire books written about it. Not to mention the basic colours changed quite a few times mid-war.
In early years the two main colours were Dark Green and Dark Earth, with either Black/White or Sky undersides. Later on the Dark Earth was changed to Ocean Grey and the underside was usually Sea Grey Medium, but bombers tended to use Night (Matt Black early on, gloss Black later) which ended at various heights up the fuselage side depending on the CO's whims.
In addition there were 'A' and 'B' schemes, with the latter being a mirror image of the former. In early years aircraft were painted in alternate 'A' and 'B' schemes as they came off the production line, but later on this was done on a batch basis instead. Apparently there is one Spitfire sub type of which every one is an 'A' scheme, but I've never managed to find out which one it was.
Each type had it's own pattern, even if the basic ideas were similar, to take into account the placement of canopies, turrets, engines etc. so there was no generic scheme to work from.
In the 70s there was a part-work published called 'Aircraft Camouflage and Markings' (confusing title, eh?...) which dealt with each type in turn, and I have a number of them stashed away. The booklets are well out of print now, and are highly sought after among the modelling fraternity, but I'm sure I could scan a page or three as required........
). Anyway, there was a feature every month on Camouflage & Markings by (I think) Bruce Robertson.
