Super Hornet nav lights color

[DanW]

I wonder what is the color of the Super Hornet starboard navigation lights? I searched the internet and couple of books and they seem to be blue, blueish green or purely green. I wonder whether it is just a matter of how the picture was taken or they really differ depending on aircraft production block or lot?

Edited May 18, 2016 by DanW

[82Whitey51]

When illuminated they are going to be green. The lens covers typically look dark blue when power is off.

For modern jets, I typically use Testors small bottle "Sapphire" for starboard lights ("Jade" for WWII planes/early jets) and small bottle "Metalic Red" for port side.

[DanW]

I am up to put some LEDs to quarter scale Super Bug and not sure which colors should I use.

[DanW]

On the picture I took it looks greenish but as I am looking at night pictures or videos especially on carrier deck they seem to be much more blueish.

[Kent Tomlinson]

This is a timely discussion as the one's that I've seen up close are more purple. I was thinking of using that on my 1/72 jet. Thanks for all input!

Kent

[Neeko]

When you're standing there on the flight line or flight deck at night... they are very distinctly red and green. The lenses seem to vary in color from jet to jet when viewed during the daytime- maybe it's due to fading over time or maybe it's manufacturer/parts lot purchase differences.

Just like the formation "slime" lights, there can be a great deal of color variance between the different installations even on the same plane... it screams to us OCD modelers who look for consistency and symmetry, but honestly every jet is unique.

[BillS]

In all instances left is red, right is green. aft is marked by white or clear. no exception. I was a maint officer on tweets, '38's, F-15s, F-16's, F-111's and was around a host of other military aircraft and never saw an example of anything but green. when the lights are off, the lenses look sort of blueish green. I prefer using clear plastic painted with tamiya clear red, green or orange (if it's a signal light ala ww2.) if i have to paint a sense i start with testers chrome then when dry i use the clear Tam color over the silver. looks pretty good. You might experiment with that idea.

While on the subject of external lights I've noticed navy tankers whether its an F-18, KA-3, KA-6 etc, the anti collision light lenses are green not red. check photo references on this. it's interesting.

[rightwinger26]

While on the subject of external lights I've noticed navy tankers whether its an F-18, KA-3, KA-6 etc, the anti collision light lenses are green not red. check photo references on this. it's interesting.

The anti collision lights on Super Hornets aren't green. They used to be green on the S-3 to make the tanker easily identifiable. For Supers, the strobe light power supply can be switched to blink twice instead of three times to ID the tankers. If there is a picture of a Super with green strobes, I would sincerely like to see it, that would be news to me.

Edited May 19, 2016 by rightwinger26

[DanW]

The anti collision lights on Super Hornets aren't green. They used to be green on the S-3 to make the tanker easily identifiable. For Supers, the strobe light power supply can be switched to blink twice instead of three times to ID the tankers. If there is a picture of a Super with green strobes, I would sincerely like to see it, that would be news to me.

Wow! You just answered the question that I was about to ask. So the Super Hornet is blinking twice for normal sorties and three times when using "buddy store"?

Thnaks,

Dan

[rightwinger26]

No, twice for tanker, three for normal flight. Most of the time they never get switched to twice, everyone knows who the tankers are, they get reconfigured all the time, and in a pinch, a tanker can be a fighter........think of it as a fanker.

[DanW]

No, twice for tanker, three for normal flight. Most of the time they never get switched to twice, everyone knows who the tankers are, they get reconfigured all the time, and in a pinch, a tanker can be a fighter........think of it as a fanker.

Thanks!

[DonSS3]

Spent a lot of time around military aircraft, when turned off they'll typically look blue. Once turned on they will definitely look green.

[rightwinger26]

We're clearly talking about different lights, the anti collision lights are the strobes on the vert stabs, that's what I'm talking about.

[DanW]

We're clearly talking about different lights, the anti collision lights are the strobes on the vert stabs, that's what I'm talking about.

I am struggling with all of them. I was not sure what's the color of the starboard navigation light but the blinking sequences of the strobe lights was another mystery.

Nevertheless I drilled the holes for the nav lights carefully and filled them up with crystal clear epoxy resin. Then I ground and polished the excess. And finally painted them using Tamiya's clear red and blue.

I used green and red smd LEDs to illuminate the navigation lenses. The additional nav lights underneath the wings and on the tips in the corner close to the missile rails are much more difficult to do. I had to use very thin fiber optic. I will post some pictures some time later. Thank you all for answering my questions! I spent a lot of time on youtube especially trying to understand the blink sequence.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures but I was to lazy to unfold the shooting tent and tripod.