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Question about F-5E Aggressors' wheel wells


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Hey ARC, 

 

The title pretty much says it all. I've Googled the begeezus out of this, but my research is inconclusive. It looks like the gear legs vary from metal color to white, but I can't really find anything definitive about the wells or doors. From pictures, it's difficult to tell if the gear well and door interior color is white or a metal color. 

 

I think either white or metal would be OK for the legs but does anyone have any solid info on the gear well and door interior color?

 

Thanks in advance,

-O

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That kind of works in your benefit. Without any concrete evidence of colors in the areas you want, you can take a general approach. 

By the use of "Aggressor", I'm taking it you're doing a Navy Tiger. From what I've seen, silverish main wheel wells/doors, with white gear appear to be prominent. The right side nose gear door appears in white. 

 

Hope that helps. 

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I think a lot depends on the period. USAF F-5s during their heyday in the 80’s had silver gear wells, doors and struts. Struts starting coming out of depot painted white in the later part of the 80’s. Not sure what the Navy colors were/are but I tend to think they would have used USAF tech data vs. a re-write. There very well might have been latitude in colors used though. 

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As Bill S mentioned, it largely depends on the time frame of the Tiger that you're modeling. Early on they were silver/aluminum struts, doors, wheel hubs and gear wells for both the Navy and USAF. Later white started to show up. Some were all white (struts, doors, wells, hubs), some were a mix. These days with the remaining Navy and Marine Corps jets, they usually have white struts and wheel hubs with aluminum gear wells, and gear doors. The gear doors are often trimmed with red, but I have seen them without red, or the entire door painted red. I have never seen gray wells, but never say never. I'll attach a few pics that I've taken over the years. HTH, Fred K

rsz_1rsz_dsc_3890.jpg

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I looked thru several F-5 books I own, and agree with f5guy, it all depends on when and where.

 

The Verlinden book focuses on the Swiss jets and they appear to be gray, including the bay.

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