Jump to content

B-52G Paint scheme


Recommended Posts

What shade of green and gray is that on this B-52G? I thought they were painted in a gunship gray/dark green scheme. It looks almost like an olive drab. If I was painting this on the plane, would I use dark green or olive drab?

alley_oops_bold_assault_3.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites
That's the "strategic scheme" (IIRC) that used 36081 and 34086, which is a very dark olive drab color.

J

I tried looking up that shade of olive drab on the Testors web site, not there!! How would I go about getting that shade of olive drab?

Link to post
Share on other sites
I tried looking up that shade of olive drab on the Testors web site, not there!! How would I go about getting that shade of olive drab?

Use Olive Drab and nobody's gonna know. That paint faded *horribly* in-service, which is one reason they quit using it. It's a very dark OD, so I'd start with any old OD and add some black to it (or dark grey) and have at it. Ain't nobody on earth gonna tell you you're wrong. Gar-an-teed.

J

Link to post
Share on other sites
Testors still makes SAC Bomber Green #1793 FS34159 and SAC Bomber Tan #1792 FS34201.

These are in the Model Master Enamel line.

Those are for the old 1960s/70s SIOP scheme. They're all much lighter and different in tone than the OD in the Strat Scheme.

J

Link to post
Share on other sites
I tried looking up that shade of olive drab on the Testors web site, not there!! How would I go about getting that shade of olive drab?

Model Master #1787 Drab Green is FS34086. I picked some up recently at my local hobby shop so it shouldn't be that hard to find. I did see it listed in a google search I just did of several online hobby shops.

Edited by David Walker
Link to post
Share on other sites

I think this (picture) was a variation of the full "strat" scheme that dispensed with the 36118. I may be all wet, but I seem to recall a Dana Bell piece about these schemes that indicated such was the case on some BUFFs. I don't see a third color on this one, do you guys??

J

Link to post
Share on other sites

I actually painted the very first model of that scheme while I was an engineer at the depot in Oklahoma City in the 80's. In essence the idea was for the plane to be entirely118 gray over all with a disruptive pattern of the 089 green on top and the mirror image of the same pattern in the 081 gray on the bottom. If you flipped the model over you saw the same pattern different color

HTH.

Link to post
Share on other sites

You could be right Jennings, the light is very bad and the angel to the the 118 grey isnt good as it was only on the lower surfaces.

The aft gear door seems to be a different shade of grey, that is probably just the light though, but I cant figure out what if anything would cast a shadow of that shape unless its the 118 grey, remember is didnt go very high at all, it was only applied to the extreme low fusalage and under the wings etc

Remember the 081 fade problem could make the 118 seem like a darker grey

I have other pictures on 379th jets and they all have the same scheme of green & 2 greys.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Jennings, I can't say I see anything that looks like 36118 gray in that photo, and as ElectroSoldier noted the lighter gray was only present on the underside in the Strategic scheme. I've seen a lot of photos where fading, color reproduction, etc. make the colors in this scheme tough to distinguish (both greens and grays), but I don't recall ever seeing reference to a "one gray-one green" scheme.

You may be remembering the first "overall gray" scheme (36081) which briefly replaced the earlier Strategic scheme, before the fleet adopted the current overall 36118. Alternatively, before the Strategic scheme (or more accurately before full repaints on some birds), there were some that had 36081 nose sections but were otherwise left in the original SIOP scheme (three greens over white).

Link to post
Share on other sites

My understanding is the same as mentioned previously, that the 36118 was only on the undersides, and would therefore not be readily visible in a photo like this.

Additionally, it's my experience that MM 34086 out of the bottle looks nothing like the color in the photo. If I were to try and replicate that paint scheme in that condition, I probably wouldn't even use 34086 at all, but maybe mix a touch of brown in with some faded OD...

HTH,

Jonah

Link to post
Share on other sites
What shade of green and gray is that on this B-52G? I thought they were painted in a gunship gray/dark green scheme. It looks almost like an olive drab. If I was painting this on the plane, would I use dark green or olive drab?

Like others have said, there is three colors. Depending on the year used and or scale, depends on what colors to go with. They did not bother with the aircraft much since the reason to keep them longer was Desert Storm. In compliance among USSR and USA, these aircraft were set to be scraped, War kept them from that for a few more years.

This picture shows how faded the green and greys can be. You can see spots that new color was applied. Especially the green in-front and on-top of the wing. The greys you can make out mostly on the engines.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA%20-%20A...next_id=0057006

Edited by Wayne S
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...