BillS

Xtracolor makes international orange fs12. whatever. Kitlinx carries it. Sprays beautifully.

FWIW I’ve purchased the B-36 and B-70. They showed up when promised but broke my back trying to haul all that fibre glass, resin and etched upstairs. They do some nice stuff.

See, it’s just not me!

I ordered mine 2 days ago from sophii on Ebay. I guess that’s Kitty Hawk. Anyway it just hit the doorstep in Dallas. So as to be efficient and not crowd the discussion group with too much FJ prattle, I want to broach the topic of cockpit color. Several years ago Aerojet did a CD on the Fury and part of it was devoted to an old Navy training film on the 2. It was probably shot in a studio using a mock up. The color of the cockpit appears to be a color sort of like RAF interior green. In searching the web I found images of the USS Hornet museum’s restoration jet. Guess what? The same green. Let the fur fly.

On USAF bombs the bodies are any faded Olive Drab. LGB seekers are plastic approximating olive drab in color. Fins, “balutes” (bsu-49) etc. tend to be newer looking and might be semi gloss-like and probably 34087ish. Bolt on JDAM kits are 36375. I wouldn't get to caught up on exactness because the ones I saw were often weathered somewhat and variable. Believe it or not a readily available paint I lean on is Testors Olive Drab in the little bottles. My zietgeist is that color standards are a good starting point but in reality there are visible differences in stuff supposedly painted the same color. Missiles are 36375 except I think you’ll still see AGM-65s in OD. I was never around HARMs but I’m pretty certain they remain white. If you do an online search you’ll find painting instructions for one of the decal makers who did weapons stencils. There might even be technical orders outlining markings for particular munitions.

Ebay always works for me

I’m forever in a quandary at the aversion there seems to be over enamels. Xtracolor and Model Master both make 15042. They airbrush so nicely, can be wet sanded between coats and dry hard. They seem to readily available as well. I just don't understand the logic of spraying a base color then spraying clear gloss and then a final top coat. For virtually all of my gloss sea blue subjects, I spray 2-3 coats of SB, wet sanding between coats then use a VERY thin final coat applied lightly to bring out the final color with a “military gloss” finish. But then, I’ve always been odd man out.

Less than $20 plus free shipping? Yeah, no.

I’m trying to figure out if one of the two styles of turbos in the Tam ‘38 kit is correct for an H. Apparently H models had either a GE B-13 pr B-33. I cant tell what’s what.

In think it’s a refection off off the camera head. I will say our tiseo optics were protected with a hard plastic red cover when chocked. I have pictures of one painted with a bloodshot eye.

Flatish Black with a coating of dust. The correct nomenclature for the clear cover aft of the canopy is “aft transparency” but is sometimes referred to as the “opera glass”. Even with a tinted canopy, the aft transparency is most often clear FWIW.

You might try searching airliners.net on the off chance someone has snapped a pic. I’m certain the donkey thing was a temporary and personal marking that probably didn't last a long time. 361 caught my eye. I had a 79 or 80 A model ‘ 361 at Nellis in the mid 80s. The crew chief was Sean Jenkins, a really good guy raised in South Africa. I reminiscing. Sorry.

You might try using your favorite filler or my fav, miliput. Smear it on and while it is still uncured, etch a diamond pattern in with an xacto blade. Let it dry, then paint. Presto change-o! Poor man’s cockpit insulation.

Here I go again. I was a maintenance officer for 30 years but am NOT an expert on anything. I was a serious model builder for my whole tenure and paid a lot of attention to corrosion control and even got to develop a paint scheme for F-16s participating in a fighter meet. But I only know and remember dribs and drabs of stuff. Here’s what I know for sure. 1. I think the Systems Program Office (SPO) probably directed the color choices for their respective weapons system. I’m sure a 4 star had the final word though. 2. Each aircraft had its own Technical Order (TO) governing corrosion and paint systems along with other general TOs governing paint application etc. TO 1-1-4 was one of those but there were others I can’t remember. 3. The major commands participated in corrosion conferences every now and then to discuss paint issues by system and what fixes would be implemented. I remember notes published at one F-4 conference authorized intakes to be painted with rollers vs. spray. 4. Names such as “Ghost Gray” were never used by anyone and only painters would even know what an FS number was. Light gray was light gray, yellow was yellow etc. 5. There are standards for reflectance and IR signature. 6. Every pilot I talked to about gray camo liked it. It provided some concealment in the air and from above. I used to love watching F-15s at Holloman during sunset. That scheme took on the same color as the twilight. The F-16s dark gray upper was fairly hard to see from above. Concealment with camo is important enough that pilot’s helmets went to gray and I knew a pilot in one of my squadrons who could see a colored helmet at distance. During one deployment we were told to not shine any bare metal (tail feathers) as the glint could expose a guy. 7. Paint DEFINITELY prohibits corrosion in the eyes of the AF and we never let bare or worn paint go long without scheduling touch ups and not with a rattle can. in fact I never saw anything but wheels and a pitot tube get rattle canned. Everything went in the paint barn, preped, masked sprayed and allowed to cure. 8. The AF is VERY strict about standardization, no wild stuff etc. Even color tail flashes denoting squadron are approved by the MAJCOMS 9. As a general rule” full paints” (ie the airframe is bead blasted down to the skin, primed and sprayed) occur or used to at 5 year intervals. Wash, lube, and corrosion inspections were/are every 90 days. Full paints are done in a special closed hangar with ventilation etc and depending on the age of a paint job and degree of maintenance, the depot for a particular weapon system does the full paint. All of these activities are subject to inspection by an evaluator. 10. TAC in the 1980s went wild with major touch ups, washes, wipe downs etc under General Creech. It became such a problem that jets were “putting on weight” during periodic weight and balance checks and it became apparent there was an environmental impact from all this activity. 11. In my experience none of the fighter schemes were generally truly dead flat but kind of satin-like. I give all my model jets a shot of Micro Scale satin to “wake up” the final finish. So, there is a short history on everything you never wanted to know about USAF corrosion control from 1977-2007!

Externally the other considerations are the a/r differences; AF has the slipway, Nav had the probe and light on the right side. Nav also had chaff/flair dispensers on the aft intermediate fuselage, inbd pylons as mentioned and wheel/brake were different. Check ecm antenna placement differences depending on period.