TAURUS and Storm Shadow operational color?

[SebastianP]

My Revell 1/72 Typhoon(s!) came with a ton of goodies, most of which was stuff I'd been wanting in plastic for a very long time. Considering the mold quality and quantity of weapons, I don't see myself looking for another source for these for the forseeable future...

The two missiles I've assembled so far have been a dream to build, but now it's time to paint them - and seeing as they're already in operational service on the Tornado, I thought I'd go for operational schemes. Except I can't pin down any images of the live item, just various handling trainers and airshow demo rounds.

As far as I can tell, I can safely paint at least the Sidewinder and AMRAAM missiles as if they were US issue (light ghost gray bodies, dark green seeker for the Sideweinders and white for the AMRAAM, gunmetal fins), but what about the rest?

The IRIS-T isn't operational yet, but I'd assume it too will be light ghost gray in the end. The ASRAAM I'm curious about through - what color do the RAF paint theirs in? And what about the Australians (since I'll be doing an Aussie Hornet one of these days, now that I've got some missiles to arm it with...) The same goes for the Meteor.

Then there's the big ticket items, and the ones I'm definitely most curious about - the Taurus and Storm Shadow. I've seen two colors of the Taurus in pictures, those being a flat dark green and a (semi?)gloss light gray. Well, those and a dayglo orange version mounted on a Gripen... Of the three, the green one looked most like a military issue item, except there were no stripes to indicate live weapon. Hints, please?

The Storm Shadow, and the APACHE for that matter, seems to be available in a whole host of colors - I've seen anything from light grays to almost black (perhaps due to aircraft shadow - most of the pics are from long range. MBDA's website sucks rocks, and Wikipedia is no better for this...), and most of the close shots are of glossy missiles with manufacturer's logos pasted all over them. Not the real thing... What do the Airfix instructions for the Tornado GR.4 say?

All in all, I'm loving this kit, though - considering the price I paid for it, you could market it as Revell European Weapons Set III, featuring Eurofighter Typhoon (I and II being the GR.1 and IDS boxings of the Tornado...), and it would still compare quite favorably to the Hasegawa sets in terms of price and number of weapons.

Here's to hoping Revell hurries up and releases a Rafale and a better Gripen in 1/72 after their Raptor. They're definitely needed - the Italeri items look cheap as heck next to the newer Revell and Hase kits.

SP

[Will2K65]

Airfix's 1/72 Tornado GR4 with the storm shadows has them painted camoflage grey (humbrol 156) I think...looks about right to me.

As for the ASRAAMs, not sure on the name of the colour but I use Humbrol 147 (same as for the ALARM missile), which looks absolutely bang on to me - a very very light grey, almost white.

You're bang on with the AMRAAMs - light ghost grey, with white seekers. The fins are all a dark gun metal sort of colour. Bands are as you pick (red/yellow for live weapons, blue for intert training missiles).

Hope this helps!

[Finn]

A couple of Storm Shadow pics are here:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/telic/news1.html

Jari

[SebastianP]

Humbrol 156 is the same as the underside of the Tornado GR.4 (and late GR.1), right? Perfect, I've got a tin somewhere around here.

I've found shots of ASRAAM both in Barley Gray (167) and Light Gray (147) - though judging from the circumstances of the shot, I'd guess that the latter color is probably the live item. (RAF photo shoot celebrating the Typhoon taking over air defense of the realm). That's pretty good news...

(For a boring, "single color" modern jet, my RAF Typhoon will end up being plenty colorful - fully decaled ordnance in three different colors, none of which match the aircraft base color... and the German version will be even worse!)

SP

[Rob de Bie]

I'm building the Storm Shadow from the Revell Eurofighter in the in-flight configuration. Quoting from my web page:

"Operational Storm Shadows are painted in BS381C 629 Dark Camouflage Grey. Humbrol 156 is a good match, and that's what I used to paint my model. Early Storm Shadow training rounds were delivered in Deep Bronze Green, the usual colour for British air-launched weapons (courtesy Enzo Matrix)."

Rob