# Favorite aircraft paint or camo scheme, or lack thereof



## gjs238 (Mar 24, 2014)

What is your favorite aircraft paint or camo scheme - or maybe you prefer your planes naked?

I like the F4U blue and the P-51 naked.
P-47 looks good naked too.

Some of the German camo schemes are pretty cool.


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## KiwiBiggles (Mar 24, 2014)

Spitfire PR.IX in PRU blue. The best colour scheme of the best-looking mark of the prettiest aeroplane.


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## pbehn (Mar 24, 2014)

Always a shame to me that the brit aicraft in the main had such dowdy colour schemes, bombers were black and fighters earth and green. I always liked the 109 on the Airfix box yellow nose and light blue on the sides.


But yes the spit in PRU blue was nice.....dunno about that pink they used though


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## herman1rg (Mar 24, 2014)

I quite like the pink Spitfire


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## razor1uk (Mar 24, 2014)

Mm, I'm a fan of flectarn(s) when it comes to clothing, otherwise for aerial camoes, RAF mid-war fighter A (or B), IJN dappled/splotched green and some of the RLM latewar dappled splinter designs too. Now if you could get an A/C in flectarn....


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## fubar57 (Mar 24, 2014)

Any thing in RAF green and grey. Razor1uk, I'll find you one.
Geo


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## otftch (Mar 24, 2014)

Blue Angels.
Ed


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## fubar57 (Mar 24, 2014)

razor1uk said:


> Mm, I'm a fan of flectarn(s) when it comes to clothing, otherwise for aerial camoes, RAF mid-war fighter A (or B), IJN dappled/splotched green and some of the RLM latewar dappled splinter designs too. Now if you could get an A/C in flectarn....








Geo

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## Aozora (Mar 24, 2014)

Having to choose a favourite...that's a tough 'un. I mean do you go for stripes?






or patches?





















Grays with some bling?






If pushed, one of my favourites is the black scheme of the P-47Ms of the 61st FS, 56th FG:


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 24, 2014)

The SAAB Viggen in splinter, my all time favorite.

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## pbehn (Mar 24, 2014)

Why do modern jets even have camo? On the ground they are in well known airbases in the air they are seen on radar long before the eye can find them? is it psychology or am I missing something?


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## Von Frag (Mar 24, 2014)

I'll have to go with JAAF green splotches over bare metal finish.


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## nuuumannn (Mar 24, 2014)

I do like Great War German lozenge:

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## GregP (Mar 24, 2014)

Like this one:


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 24, 2014)

My favorite Fury paint job was the Iraqi "Baghdad Fury"


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## norab (Mar 24, 2014)

I have always liked the USN North Atlantic scheme


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## Crimea_River (Mar 24, 2014)




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## nuuumannn (Mar 24, 2014)

> My favorite Fury paint job was the Iraqi "Baghdad Fury"



You mean like this, Dave?


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## razor1uk (Mar 25, 2014)

pbehn said:


> Why do modern jets even have camo? On the ground they are in well known airbases in the air they are seen on radar long before the eye can find them? is it psychology or am I missing something?



Well it employs a few maintainers to help keep the check and inspect surfaces of aircraft more closely, also helps prevent corrosion/rusting and could lower some radar returns, also because pilots have too much bravado, paperwork and not always the technical skills to do it as well; except when the proverbial fan is flinging tons of poop around. 

Although nowerdays, unless they're low level 'intruding' camo, then if it isn't in strong or bright contrasting colours, even a few seconds of Mk1 eyeball mis-information can aid evasion or counter-attack - radar and missiles though better and advancing, doesn't always work 100% for 100% time of 100% sorties/flights for 100% of service life in 100% of any and all situations. 

Neither too the pilot, but the more things working close to their respective 100%'s, means any slight aid, loss or problem could have a greater effect than itself, especially since most fighter and/or interceptor aircraft only have a radar in the nose.


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## fubar57 (Mar 25, 2014)

When asked why the aircraft were now grey instead of the flamboyant color schemes of the 60-70's, and Admiral/General said, "Better a boring aircraft than missing aircraft".

Geo


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## fubar57 (Mar 25, 2014)

When asked why the aircraft were now grey instead of the flamboyant color schemes of the 60-70's, and Admiral/General said, "Better a boring aircraft than missing aircraft".

Geo


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## tengu1979 (Mar 25, 2014)

Desert RAF cammo Hurricane for me please .....


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## stona (Mar 25, 2014)

Not really a favourite as I like unusual WW2 schemes but I do like this Indian scheme.







And it works!






Cheers

Steve

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## Airframes (Mar 25, 2014)

Ah, inspired by Mr. Singh's shirt factory, on Chullabach Road ..............

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## fastmongrel (Mar 25, 2014)

Always liked the high altitude anti flash white of the V Bombers before they were re tasked with low level attacks and painted in camo


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## razor1uk (Mar 25, 2014)

Valiants, I can't say they look nice, like a chubby goose, but then again, they do look like similar to the smaller B-66


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## Piper106 (Mar 25, 2014)

I like the US Navy dark glossy blue scheme used from about 1945 until 1955 (or so). 

One part that confuses me is that the I have seen photos of aircraft in this scheme where the aircraft base color is as dark as the surround on the national insignia (to the point of them being the same tone), and others where the base color of the aircraft is lighter than the insignia surround. Was there that much variation to the blue used, or am I seeing some other effect???


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 25, 2014)

nuuumannn said:


> You mean like this, Dave?



That's the one! (Great Pics)!


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## gjs238 (Mar 25, 2014)

How about this beauty...


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## pbehn (Mar 25, 2014)

Serious question guys....many of the military colour schemes make them more visible rather than less, what is the thinking behind it?


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## blueskies (Mar 26, 2014)




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## Wildcat (Mar 26, 2014)

I'm a big fan of the allied New Guinea theatre markings of white tail white leading edge


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## razor1uk (Mar 26, 2014)

pbehn said:


> Serious question guys....many of the military colour schemes make them more visible rather than less, what is the thinking behind it?



Some of that would be to enable easier visual identification usually by anti-aircraft artillery defending ground troops etc. This is because very often ground forces would typically fire at any low enough aircraft if they could not be sure it wasn't one of their own.
Even then some gun crews and troops who had been stressed by attacking aircraft previously and the few trigger happy ones would shoot their own out of plane-shock/fear.

That is why things like the higher visibility designs were used in some areas, for example; the IJA IJN usually had long (upto 1/2 to 2/3's wing span) yellow wing leading edges, the RAF too used similar 'thinner' yellow strips, Luftwaffe had typically yellow (mainland Europe) or white (for the Med' Africa) 'theater of operation' and also as AAA ident' wing tips tail bands with full or under nose/engine panels, and also the allied 'Invasion Stripes' too were for aero ground forces ident' to aid in visual recognition between friendly and enemy A/C.


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## pbehn (Mar 26, 2014)

razor1uk said:


> Some of that would be to enable easier visual identification usually by anti-aircraft artillery defending ground troops etc. This is because very often ground forces would typically fire at any low enough aircraft if they could not be sure it wasn't one of their own.
> Even then some gun crews and troops who had been stressed by attacking aircraft previously and the few trigger happy ones would shoot their own out of plane-shock/fear.
> 
> That is why things like the higher visibility designs were used in some areas, for example; the IJA IJN usually had long (upto 1/2 to 2/3's wing span) yellow wing leading edges, the RAF too used similar 'thinner' yellow strips, Luftwaffe had typically yellow (mainland Europe) or white (for the Med' Africa) 'theater of operation' and also as AAA ident' wing tips tail bands with full or under nose/engine panels, and also the allied 'Invasion Stripes' too were for aero ground forces ident' to aid in visual recognition between friendly and enemy A/C.


Thanks, I think the D Day stripes started on the Typhoon because it looked similar to a Fw 190 from some angles. But by D Day there was so much striped paint I cant see why the little that was left was camo paint.


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## pbehn (Mar 26, 2014)

razor1uk said:


> Some of that would be to enable easier visual identification usually by anti-aircraft artillery defending ground troops etc. This is because very often ground forces would typically fire at any low enough aircraft if they could not be sure it wasn't one of their own.
> Even then some gun crews and troops who had been stressed by attacking aircraft previously and the few trigger happy ones would shoot their own out of plane-shock/fear.
> 
> That is why things like the higher visibility designs were used in some areas, for example; the IJA IJN usually had long (upto 1/2 to 2/3's wing span) yellow wing leading edges, the RAF too used similar 'thinner' yellow strips, Luftwaffe had typically yellow (mainland Europe) or white (for the Med' Africa) 'theater of operation' and also as AAA ident' wing tips tail bands with full or under nose/engine panels, and also the allied 'Invasion Stripes' too were for aero ground forces ident' to aid in visual recognition between friendly and enemy A/C.


Thanks, I think the D Day stripes started on the Typhoon because it looked similar to a Fw 190 from some angles. But by D Day there was so much striped paint I cant see why the little that was left was camo paint.


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## stona (Mar 26, 2014)

The striped markings on the Typhoon were introduced in an effort to easily distinguish them from the Fw 190. There were instances of Typhoons being attacked by friendly aircraft, one case in which Canadian Spitfires shot a couple down springs to mind.

The 'special markings' for Overlord, also known as invasion stripes or D-Day stripes, are not the same size or configuration.

Despite the special markings many allied airmen were apprehensive about flying over the invasion fleet. RN gunners in particular had earned a reputation for shooting at anything that flew, even their own FAA aircraft.

Cheers

Steve


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## pbehn (Mar 26, 2014)

stona said:


> The striped markings on the Typhoon were introduced in an effort to easily distinguish them from the Fw 190. There were instances of Typhoons being attacked by friendly aircraft, one case in which Canadian Spitfires shot a couple down springs to mind.
> 
> The 'special markings' for Overlord, also known as invasion stripes or D-Day stripes, are not the same size or configuration.
> 
> ...



My Uncle was on an armed Liberty ship during DDay he was in the ROC and his sole job was to identify friend or foe to the American Gunners who were new to Europe. He saw 2 minutes action in 2 weeks but got a commendation from the ships captain. "That two minutes justified to myself and my crew all his training and his presence on my ship". I believe that later they tried to use P38s near the fleet and keep the SE fighters away.


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## GrauGeist (Mar 26, 2014)

For WWI, definately the individual schemes and default lozenge patters of the Germans and occasional Austrian aircraft.

For WWII, the Italian Africa camo was superb followed closely by the Luftwaffe's Afrika camo. I also liked the Nachtjager "mottled" camo schemes.


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## nuuumannn (Mar 26, 2014)

Thanks Dave 

GJS, I'll see your Richtofen's Triplane and raise you six more! (The German Great War colourful schemes were nothing if not imaginative)

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## vikingBerserker (Mar 26, 2014)

I forgot the Polish one with the shadow pics of WW2 Fighter pilots


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## Timppa (Mar 27, 2014)

When i was a kid, we had a Finnish encyclopedia. It had an article about then current military planes. I thought the best ones were with the shiny aluminium finish. I have not changed my opinion.


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## GrauGeist (Mar 27, 2014)

I thought I'd post two of my top-favorite schemes from the "Great War".

Both were highly unusual for their time and were both, oddly enough, on the Albatros and not the more common Pfalz or Fokker.

First one is the Oeffag 153 s/n 53.33 (Austrian built Albatros D.III) of StbsFeldWebel Josef Kiss, Austrian Army Air Service (19 victories), serving with Flik 24 (1917) and later, 55J (1918). What I like about his camo scheme, was the very modern-looking three color scheme of dark-green, light-green and khaki (tan) that would become popular late in WWII and carry over into modern militaries.





The next one is the scheme of Lt. Kurt Monnington, Imperial German Air Service (8 victories), serving with Jasta 15, 1917. His mount was the Albatros D.V (s/n unknown) with a color scheme that was considered borderline "morbid" by his contemporaries due to it's tattered dark-green pattern over a gray base, complete with a skull on both sides. Many other aircraft had the skull or skull crossbones because many of the pilots had been with an Uhlan regiment or related regiments that used the "totenkopf" as their icon.


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## fastmongrel (Mar 27, 2014)

Strange how the RFC and RNAS planes were so restrained with the paint brush compared to everyone else in WWI


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## T Bolt (Mar 27, 2014)

Timppa said:


> When i was a kid, we had a Finnish encyclopedia. It had an article about then current military planes. I thought the best ones were with the shiny aluminium finish. I have not changed my opinion.


That's just how I'm going to do up the 1/48 scale monogram F-105 I have in my kit stash. Not many Thuds had the natural metal finish.


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## kettbo (Mar 27, 2014)

The Bf 109 in the winter whitewash really shows off the beautiful lines on the aircraft
The light blue-gray overall for the high altitude guys (short lived) and late JG300 109s rocks. I cannot find a color picture except of models

While not what I'd call camouflage, P-51 BIG BEAUTIFUL DOLL is sweetener atop a pile of sugar!


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## Capt. Vick (Mar 27, 2014)

vikingBerserker said:


> I forgot the Polish one with the shadow pics of WW2 Fighter pilots



You beat me to it amigo!


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Mar 28, 2014)

I have always been a big fan of the Luftwaffe camo schemes. I just love the splotches and in some cases angles.


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