That camouflage - green spattered over bare aluminum - apparently started out as a crude, Russian technique. I can imagine them at some remote airstrip, with 10 cans of newly-arrived paint - and no spray equipment, or even masking tape - just 10,000 square miles of spruce forrest, all around. You wouldn't want to just pour paint over the aircraft - that would be very heavy and also a tremendous waste. So: dip a pine bough in green paint and slap it upside the aircraft, here, there and everywhere - I think that's exactly what they did - or perhaps they did have sponges or rags, but that was essentially it. And also pretty much what the Japanese were reduced to doing, later in the war.

But beyond that, I think it actually made for a pretty effective camo. As you mentioned, it is quite disruptive, visually. Also the silver would reflect every shade of blue sky - here a little darker than the green, and there a little lighter. If the sky was dark and overcast, then the reflections would be darker as well. So it probably blended well against the landscape below, regardless of the weather. I read somewhere that the USN experimented with a mottled green/aluminum finish on (at least one) TBD Devastator(s), just before the war.

The only drawback I can see is that the paint splotches would roughen the surfaces ever so slightly - but again the resulting drag might have been more than compensated-for by weight savings from the reduced paint load, overall.

Anyway, I picked that camo precisely because it was strikingly different: in person, the model looks something like a Christmas ornament! Thanks for the kudos, Donny!

Cheers,

-Matt