Jump to content

Question about color in weapon rails of the F-14


Recommended Posts

Hi Guys, I have a question.
I can see in many photos of Low Viz Scheme Birds on all the AIM-54 fairing and the weapons rails do not match in the color of the scheme (FS-36375.)
But what color are they? Maybe FS 16440.

 

I leave a photo of what I say.
Http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-rail-aim54-01.htm

 

f14-detail-jdam-05xl.jpg

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/F-14D_Tomcat_VF-213_with_LANTIRN.jpg

92c7087a52e8442409afc0c2ac1513a9.jpg

 

Sometimes the weapon rail is darkest
F-14_Tomcat_ROVER_antenna_circled.jpg

 

An in other times the plane is 36375 in lower surfaces but the AIM-54 fairing is in other color and the weapons rail are other different color. Three different colors. Look the left rail and the left Phoenix fairing in the picture above.

 

Many thanks for the help!! 

Edited by Fefster
Link to post
Share on other sites

Top picture looks like jet and forward fairing are 36320 and the rail is 36375. 

 

Bottom picture is of a 35440 jet and 36375 rail. 

 

Oftne the tails arent painted at thr at the same time as the jet so fading, weathering, batch of paint don't match. 

 

Brian

Link to post
Share on other sites

Rover on F-14 was only flown with VF-213 and VF-31, and only for a short time on their last F-14 deployment- November 2005 to February 2006. We modded the airplanes after we got to the Gulf, and deconfigured them when we left.

 

 

Edited by Neeko
Link to post
Share on other sites

The reason why the Weapon Rails were a different color than the aircraft is because they are not considered part of the aircraft and not painted when the aircraft was painted, in fact, it was illegal to paint the rails (and any other missile launcher/pylon) when the aircraft was painted without specific authorization from the Intermediate Level Maintenance (I-Level maintenance) activity.

 

All launchers, rails, pylons, bomb racks, etc are what is called AA&E (Armament and Ammunition Equipment) and are therefore painted by the I level folks during rework. There is no scheduled for repainting, only when the item requires it or that scheme is changed, therefore it was not uncommon to see launchers, pylons, etc a different color than the aircraft.

 

Since the Weapon Rail system on the Tomcat is made up of four different components (Weapon Rail, Phoenix Fairing, Phoenix Fairing Adapter and LAU-93, LAU-132 or ADU-703/BRU-32) it is possible to have all four components a different color/shade.

 

Depending on when the component/item was last reworked would determine what color it is and if it needed a complete repainting or just touch-up (touch-ups were never the same color of the original paint color no matter how much you tried to match the FS number).

 

hth

GW

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...