Aim-9G sidewinders

[Aircav1980]

I am finishing up my 1/32 F-4J Showtime 100. During the mission Cunningham was carrying 4 Aim-9G sidewinders. The twobobs decal set I have shows an all white missile with natural metal forward fins and what appears to be a blue tip on the seeker. The problem I have is some of the online photos show the entire front end of the missile from the tip of the seeker to just behind the fins as some kind of dark metal. Can anyone tell me what the correct coloring of the missiles he was carrying would be?  

[airmechaja]

Main body is white. The seeker head is a dark gray -green metallic color. 

[Dave Williams]

There are photos of the actual Showtime 100 that show the missiles have the entire forward section is a dark metallic finish.

 

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-4J_VF-96_Showtime_100_in_flight.jpg

 

These photos would have been taken prior to the mission as the aircraft was lost on the way back.

 

Not sure where TwoBobs got the info for their decal sheet, as I’ve never seen a white nose G model.  I know they did more than one sheet with AIM-9 markings, and on later sheets they drew the missile with the entire forward section in dark metal.  Might have just been a mistake.

[mrvark]

48 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

Not sure where TwoBobs got the info for their decal sheet, as I’ve never seen a white nose G model.  I know they did more than one sheet with AIM-9 markings, and on later sheets they drew the missile with the entire forward section in dark metal.

 

They used my drawings, which reflected an early test missile. I advised them to change the color of the seeker and fuze section, but they didn't do it. So, my fault, kinda. The seeker section was anodized and, as previously stated was a widely varying gray-green-olive color with a metallic sheen. I'd go with a darker color during Vietnam, but they WERE NOT BLACK!!!! The fuze section was also unpainted, but a metallic color--steel would probably be a good choice. The seeker window was an opaque gray color. The first band just behind it was often an unpainted metallic color as well. 

[Aircav1980]

Thanks all

[BillS]

For the seeker window I find that painting the very tip of the seeker white followed by Tamiya’s clear “Smoke” looks pretty convincing. The little metal band directly behind the window looks good painted Testor’s “Chrome”. Something else you can do to tart up your AIM9s is to use a small drill to hollow out the motor nozzle, but not too deep. The inside should be the kind of rusty orange and in the very center there was a white cap over the nozzle itself. Rollerons were dull metal color and if you want to go really nuts, there was a piece of plastic string attached to the rolleron which crossed over the rocket nozzle to the opposite rolleron,  When the rocket motor fired, the string burned allowing the rollerons to deploy. I noticed Tamiya’s late AIM9s have the helon bottle panel, not appropriate for USN missles I think.

[BillS]

My bad. Correction. L & Ms were joint use with Argon cooling, not helon. The P was USAF only. My memory is jacked on some of this stuff. I should just keep my trap closed! I was around so much of this stuff for years and think I can contribute to posts I see here and other places. When I stop and ask myself if I know the the right answer I frequently realize I really don’t remember stuff exactly. I hate that. 

[habu2]

56 minutes ago, BillS said:

....When I stop and ask myself if I know the the right answer I frequently realize I really don’t remember stuff exactly. I hate that. 

 

I blame Agent Orange.....  😞

[mrvark]

The cord was only on AIM-9Ps—the trailing edge of wings were flush with the back of the motor. The motors on the AIM-9CDGHLM extended about 1.9” behind the wings, so running a cord between the roller one wasn’t possible.