This one's rather interesting:
From Geoffrey Pentland's
RAAF Camouflage & Markings Vol 2:
"This Tiger Moth of No 12 LASU was the first aircraft to land at Kairavu, New Guinea, after the Japanese had surrendered and was used to collect Lt-Gen Hatazo Adachi and fly him to Cape Wom on l4th September 1945. Its colour scheme - unusual for Tiger Moths - was overall foliage green. Standard markings were carried, the codes and serial having been fairly recently applied in medium sea grey."
It's believed to be the only Tiger Moth to have carried a Japanese General. (Not likely to be a long list, anyway!)
From the RAAF Museum Archive:
Taken by wacoykc at Brodhead in 2005 (copied across from the Vintage Aviation Forum).
Tiger 489's colours and role obviously appealed to Alan Reber who seems to have rebuilt a Tiger containing parts of A17-117 as A17-489. Looks like a very accurate scheme; putting the photos together here (always a bit mean!) shows tiny variations like a thicker stroke on the serial numbers and letter, and slightly narrower fin-flash. The blind flying hood, used for training, certainly wouldn't have been around in a forward area, but that's removable, not permanent. All nitpicks on a great scheme, IMHO.
There's a walkround of it here:
http://www.adf-serials.com/gallery/DH82 ... th-A17-117 and details at the ADF serials website of the aircraft under both attributed serials, lined from the above gallery.
Hope that's of interest.
James,
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