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BADLY NEEDED: h-21 blades underside color!!!


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hi everybody.

perhaps nobody in the know has seen my post or no one has an answer or hypothesis to submit, but as fast the matter of the white upper rotor blades received an exhaustive answer, as my not much later post where i was asking if the blades have to be white upper sides and black undersides or all-white, seems to be dragging.

i am stuck in my building process as i am at the stage when i must paint the rotor blades...so HELP ME PLEASE!:crying:

thanks a lot.:worship:

best ciaos, and happy modeling!:thumbsup:

bobo.

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My thought is flat black or flat black green.

 

Doing some research on H-34 rotor blades in 1962 it wasn't just black but a black green. Most guys couldn't tell and only side by side did you see the difference.

 

http://www.daveplattmodels.com/Links/US Military Markings/USAF & USN Markings MIL-M-25047C.pdf

Page 8 discusses prop blades and bright conditions and lists 37038 as the color.

Page 11 discusses main rotor blades.

Page 13 has a diagram of the tip colors

 

HTH

 

Also unless you can find the USAF order, I would probably use light grey on the top not white. Again doing H-34 research the color was light grey on top for all wood blades for the USN/USMC, cannot image they would that different in the USAF in this regard. That said someone will probably prove me wrong on both.

Edited by Tank
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From the National Museum of the US Air Force web site.  I cannot tell if this is a period shot or a modern one so take that for what it's worth (since it's the actual aircraft in the Museum it is probably a restoration shot).  Surely looks like the blade tops on this one are white and the underside is black.

050322-F-1234P-024.JPG

 

I know this is period correct.  1957 airshow with lots of USAF H-21 footage.  The tops of the rotors are definitely very light and the bottoms are dark.  they could be white or light gray on top and black or black green on bottom.

 

 

I would also check here : http://usafhpa.org/24thhelisq.html  E-mail the webmaster, Don Damoth and I bet he can tell you everything you need to know about H-21 rotor blades.  Here are two of the shots from the page.  If you open them in a new window, they are larger than they appear on the page.  It surely looks like these could be light gray, but it's had to tell with old photos.  If you get a definitive answer, please let us know.

 

24th%20Heli%20Sq%20H-21's%20over%20Japan

 

Comingup.jpg

 

Ray

 

Edited by rotorwash
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hi tank, many t(h)anks!!!

i believe that on page 8 everything is very well and clearly stated: in our case, the upper face is to be F.S  17875 (duller than pure white, actually) while underside should be an anti-glare flat black F.S. 37038.

on pg. 11 i find an answer about the colors  which must alternate on the outer blade tips, and as i thought, italeri was wrong when it called for yellow a stripe on yellow tip, rather unuseful, whilst it is light green F.S. 14187.

all in all a very interesting document to read for general knowledge...

again, and again to all arc people, very many thanks. you solved my doubt and cleared my mind!

best ciaos, and happy modeling! bobo.

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hi ray!

thank you so much for all the pain you took in assembling infos and pics.

i believe that the answer is definitive, after the picture taken from above, and all the more so also reading the manual provided by "tank" a while ago at this link: http://www.daveplattmodels.com/Links/US Military Markings/USAF & USN Markings MIL-M-25047C.pdf

pages 8 and 11 are revealing, and the paper is for sure of general interest even though the dispositions were not followed by the book...

 

so: up= insigna white (that is greysh as compared to pure white...), down: flat black.:worship:

 

and the stripes outboard of the yellow tips in multirotor, white, light green and red.

have a look at that manual if you don't know it already. it's enlightening.

(now, i would be curious to know when the military switched to all-black...!):rolleyes:

again, many thanks, best ciaos...and happy modeling!:cheers:

bobo.

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1 hour ago, Bobo1953 said:

(now, i would be curious to know when the military switched to all-black...!):rolleyes:

 

Others may know the real reason but we have lots of rocks in the military and things can be very fast paced so different colors help. In the same USN/USMC manual all the newer (60's) blades that were not wood would be a different color, that way if you had both types of rotor blades you get the correct type for your bird. That's my theory.

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sorry, tank, but i can't catch what you mean to say.

"...all the newer (60's) blades that were not wood would be a different color, that way if you had both types of rotor blades you get the correct type for your bird."

please clear out how having both types (what types?) of rotor blades you can get etc...

perhaps there's something idiomatic that escapes my english, but i really can't understand...:rolleyes:

thanks. bobo.

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BoBo,

 

To make it simple there were two type of blades. Early blades were wooden which were covered with fabric and dope. Later blades were all metal. Wooden and metal blades were never mixed. I was told by an old H-21 mechanic that wooden blades were still in use in Vietnam. 

 

According Tech Order  SR 750-95-5,12 October 1953, Helicopter main rotor blades  would  be painted lusterless gray shade No 3635 and lower surfaces finished with lusterless black shade No. 3725 gray on top and black underneath. This helps prevent blades being installed incorrectly.  I would use gull gray top and flat black bottom .

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