I was wondering if anyone knew the right colors for a vietnam era B-52’s camoflauge scheme.
I built a Monogram !/72 last year & it had a flat black bottom, sides & vertical stabilizer, & the top of the wings, nacelles, fuselage & horizontal stabilizers were
a tri-color scheme of dark green, earth brown & dark gray or gray-green. You’ve
got you’re work cut out for you, believe me!
The colors for this scheme are Tan FS34201, Grey-green fs34159 and Dark Green FS34079 with undersides and tail Gloos Black FS17038. Have fun with your project.
The only B-52’s I ever saw were so far up in the sky, that the onlt thing I saw was the bombs blowing Laos a new a#$hole, and covering us with enough dirt debris to start a landfill, and we were at least 10mi. away. awesome spectacle. I did actually see a B-52 at anderson AFB Guam, on static display, but it was painted completely black. it was suppose to represent one of the aircraft used in rolling thunder. hope that helps. semper fi, mike
I have a couple of hi res pics that I took with my digital camera this past year. Both are B-52D’s with the black bottom/top tri-color camo scheme that the others are talking about. One at Edwards AFB & the other from March AFB. Drop me an e-mail if you’re interested & I will e-mail you some or all.
Ever noticed how much those Vietnam BUFFs resemble Lancasters in their scheme? Black all the way up the sides and Brown/Green combos on top. Red data over the black. And that gloss black, which was supposed to come in handy during Linebacker and other night raids, was not the best color. I was watching a Wings documentary about development of F-117 and (having read about the pains Skunk Works went to to come up with perfect scheme) how they hit upon a pastel splinter scheme. Air Force directive came down from above saying paint 'em all black! I liked the reply of the Skunk Works engineer they interviewed for Wings doc: He said black is not optimum for night camo, but that “Real men don’t fly airplanes with all these pastel colors, so the Air Force demanded black.”
Ain’t that typical. And does anyone make markng for that early splinter scheme, or is there a profile of it anywhere with callouts? Or can you get the bird with the giant flag on the belly? Boring scheme is what’s kept me away from F-117 (that, and lousy kits. How’s Tamiya 1/48 compared with uninspired and inaccurate Monogram and Testors?)
Not to take over the thread here but…
Here’s a three view for the camo scheme carried by F-117 FSD-1:
(Despite what it says, this scheme was worn by FSD-1, not FSD-2)
Senior Trend Experimental Scheme 1
How accurate the FS colors quoted are is anyone’s guess, but this is the best that I’ve come across so far.
You can find three shots of FSD-1 in this scheme HERE. There is also one image of the ‘Flag’ scheme worn by FSD-3.
There’s also another version of the story on this page as to why they’re painted black. If anyone has an interest in the Black Jet, check out the rest of that site as well…
Fade to Black…