Trigger

Camouflage is never about what looks good. It's about what works. Helo Drab was intended to let the Apache hide amongst the trees and terrain of the Fulda Gap in Europe. But in the flat, featurless terrain of Iraq, there's no place for a chopper to hide (except behind buildings). Secondly, the biggest threat to helicopters comes from the ground, MANPADs and RPGs looking up against the sky - not enemy fighters looking down. The Navy, Marines and even the Air Force have all realized this and painted their helicopters gray years ago.

Yup, they added the shark mouths in-country. I take it you work at a USMC paint barn?

I know the book you speak of, and in fact, the author is a friend of mine. They are indeed Marine colors. Only the SC ARNG AH-64As wore that scheme during their deployment to Iraq last year. They were repainted at a Marine Corps depot on their way out, hense the colors and scheme. They got back recently and I don't know the status of the colors now that they are stateside. According to the Ft. Rucker rumor mill, the Army is seriously considering going gray fleet-wide. I guess they've finally realized that the biggest threat to their helicopters comes from MANPADs and RPGs, not enemy MiGs. Now,

I was at an airshow in Knoxville TN some years back (early to mid 90s) and an F-15 from the Georgia ANG performed a demo and they had a spare with them. After the airshow, as the crowd was walking back to their cars, we all had to walk past the end of the McGee-Tyson runway, no more than 75 yards. Well the two Eagles performed a burner take off towards us. And they didn't do a viking departure, they buzzed hundreds of people and their altitude wasn't any higher than what's in that video. I've never been bothered by sonic booms, low flying Black Hawks, fighters taking off from the airport, et

I'm sorry, I wasn't specific enogh with my question. What I meant was, were they output via ALPS, offset printing or screen printing?

"This is Growler-2, I've blown my o-ring and I'm coming around for an emergency landing."

Nimrod77 How were your decals output?

Sadly, there is no aftermarket decal sheet available for the F/A-22. Aftermarket decal vendors are waiting for a decent Raptor kit to come out before they'll invest $$$ to production. They figure that is a kit isn't selling well, then am accessories won't do well either, but if on the other hand Super Hornet, Tomcat, Viper & Harrier sheets are selling out... well, welcome to capitalism. I've started work on a sheet of Raptor decals and I've made some good progress, but right now the brick wall I've hit is squadron insignia on the air intakes. Pix of these aren't easy to come by. As far as

Or if they crash. Let's not forget that in today's press; if it bleeds, it leads.

When the YF-22 program ended, Lock-Mart redesigned the -22 into what we see today. Thanks to computer modeling and simulations, that design that first flew in 1997 hasn't changed since (unlike the F-16). Since that time, the Raptor's numbers have been cut and critics still question the need for this "Cold War weapon". Yes, IOC makes cancellation incredibly unlikley, but despite being the Air Force's crown jewel and given the polarized and increasingly unpredictable nature of Washington these days (now there's talk of the Raptor being sacrificed to help pay for the Iraq War.), I wouldn't rule i

LOL! Exactly! (But at least with the F-20, we had a good 1/48 scale kit. Thank you Monogram!) To the Tigershark... :lol:

I'm sorry, but I cannot agree with the 'waiting-for-a-production version' theory. By that logic, we'd never have a Viper kit since those have gone thru so many mods and upgrades over the years. What's flying now IS the production version. Yes, they redesigned it completely from the YF-22 to the F/A-22, but what first flew in 1997 is the same design that's flying today and what is about to reach IOC. And from what we've seen so far, it doesn't look like we're going to see a lot of colorful Wing-King's jets either. But we had aftermarket Super Bug decals for the p*$$-poor Italeri kit (which also

Can you tell us who this manufacturer is, or do they not want to alert the competition? I understand that they want to make sure the aircraft's configuration isn't going to change before investing in tooling - but the Raptor has been flying at Edwards, Tyndall, Nellis and Langley for up to eight years now and given the current state of the program and Pentagon budgets I think it's safe to say the design is locked.

It'd be one thing if we were asking about the formula to actually re-create the paint itself. But I'd love to hear the Air Force's explaination as to exactly why knowing what the FS colors the Raptors wears in it's camouflage and markings compromises the security of the program as well as the aircraft's capabilities.

In a perfect world, Revell-Monogram would have a 1/48 Raptor on par with their F-15E and Rafale kits. But Murph's right, the Air Force is SO tight lipped about the F/A-22 (sometimes for very good reason, sometimes for no reason whatsoever) that it'll be a while before we see a new tool F/A-22. I have seen some good Raptor builds (check out the ARC galleries) so it is possible to build a good Raptor, but it ain't a shake-n-bake kit. In the meantime, you could reinforce the langing gear with metal It would be nice to at least have some aftermarket decals for the Tyndall or Langley birds.

I once tested automotive paints from AutoZone with some semi-gloss coats on top (both a silver and a metallic blue-gray on a light gray primer). It wasn't a horrible idea to try, but the metal flake or glitter or whatever that stuff in the paint is was just way too big.

This is coming from Lockheed Martin's own F/A-22 Website Home > Enthusiasts > F/A-22 Model Gallery "The generic Fed-Std-595 numbers of 36173 and 36251 are provided for painting an F/A-22 model" I asked this question to Lockheed Martin Public Affairs a couple of years ago and they told me the same numbers. The lighter gray they state is the same used in the Mod Eagle scheme, but the dark gray is NOT the same (Look at pix of Langley F-15s and F/A-22s in flight from af.mil's galleries if you don't believe me). I would suggest you use these numbers as a starting point and look at pix po

That's an awesome gallery of shots you've got, but that's not the Bird of Prey. That aircraft is the Boeing X-45 UCAV http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/x-45/flash.html The Boeing Bird of Prey was a manned research aircraft http://www.aerofiles.com/boe-bird.jpg http://www.davidpride.com/Air_WP/images/WP4_027.jpg http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/p...4/dvd-223-4.jpg http://www.janes.com/aerospace/military/ne...r021127_1_p.jpg http://perso.wanadoo.fr/association.spica/...birdofprey2.jpg

Hey all I'm going to build a Monogram 1/72 F-105G and finish it in 116th TFW GA ANG markings. In 1983, right before they traded in their Wild Weasels for Rhinos, a couple of them were painted in the SEA wraparound scheme. Does anyone have a TO paint guide for this scheme, or a copy of the TwoBobs paint guide they can scan-n-share? Thanks in advance.

hows the decal sheet? i was thinking of picking the kit up just for the decals then use them on the Tamiya kit I haven't gotten that far yet. They look like the typical Revellogram decals. Markings for the Dragon when it flew the gray scheme (OT 85-835) and the same airframe when it flew out of Tonopah (TR 835) Interestingly, the light gray markings are the same throughout the sheet. That is, the same light gray national insignia you would use on the black finish, you would have to use on the dark Mod Eagle Gray finish. A fifth national emeblem is provided for the underside of the gray mac

I picked up the re-issued Revellogram F-117 "Dragon" the other day. Kit doesn't look too bad at a glance - but my big worry is the paint guide. FS3645 Light Gray and FS36375 Light Ghost Gray. Somehow, I just don't think that's right.

You might also want to order a set of ammo feeds from CC as well. They're a lot easier to use than the kit parts and he'll sell you them seperate from the rest of the set.

No one wants a master jet base nearby, but then they complain "why weren't fighters closer to New York and Washington?" And in typical Floridian fashion, they'll clear cut every tree for 50 square miles around their new developments, then complain about the brutal sun and build covers over their pools for "shade." Where does Jacksonville get it's revenue from; I know it's not a tourist destination. Is it a port city?

Another way is to use Tamiya's "NATO Black" out of the spray can. It dries to a faded black that looks great (it's similar to MM Interior Black) and since all Nightstalkers are overall black, there's no need to fool around with an airbrush (well, maybe for weathering... )

There was talk from TwoBobs about doing this, but hasn't happened for two reasons: 1. Lack of references 2. Have you ever tried painting MARPAT? Let me tell you, it ain't easy! B) :blink: