Here’s a photo of an F-14D from the USS Abraham Lincoln on March 23,2003. I’ve never seen an F-14 with the nose painted dark grey/black. The nose is usually the same color as the rest of the aircraft.
Is it gloss or flat black?
I’d love to make a model of that plane! Real unique!
It looks like the radome is dark gray with a shadow under the bottom. Are you sure it is black, or just a shadow?
If this is in fact from the Abraham Lincoln then perhaps we could look up what squadrons were assigned to it on March 2003. Then we might be able to search for the schemes used on those same planes. The tail looks orange and I know the Tophatters used to have orange tails with black noses but that was back in the 70s or 80s. My memory might be a little faulty but I do recal seeing pictures when I was younger of this color scheme.
It appears to be an F-14D from VF-31. Some aircraft will have a modified hi-vis paint scemes (CAG, squadron commanders, ect…). If you notice, the national insignia is hi-vis as is the red tail. I’m guessing that the black radome is part of the hi-vis sceme.
Yes, VF-31 is the unit and the black radome is its trademark.
Theres one or two pictures of VF-31 Tomcats in Osprey Publishing’s “Superbase” book that focuses on NAS Fallon, Nevada. Its number 8 in the “Superbase” series and both pictures seem to indicate a fairly worn and dull black radome
The book was Published by Osprey in 1989
Written by Tony Holmes
ISBN 0-85045-929-X
If I recall correctly, Revell Germany released a 1/72 F-14D in VF-31 markings a few years back.
Hope that helps
What’s really interesting about this photo is that the door that covers the in-air re-fueling probe seems to be missing.
The black nose is a tradition with the “Tomcatters” of VF-31, going back to tthe earliest days of ops with the Tom (And even further back with the F-4). Nowadays the black noses, as well as any other colorful markings, are usually only seen on the CAG, CO and sometimes the XO birds. There have been exceptions, however. Unfortunately, the colorful glory days are long gone. And though I really like the look of a Tom in the TPS paint jobs, I rather miss the gull gray over white scheme and all the color that went along with it. Speaking of early Tomcats…
The only other squadron I can think of that had all-black radomes was VF-41, in the earliests days when they carried the flashy tail markings and the gull gray over white scheme. When the overall gull gray scheme was adopted the black noses gradually became a thing of the past, never again to reappear on a “Fast Eagle”.
There’s a third unit that comes to mind as having had an almost all black nose. VF-21 had a scheme variation at one point that saw the black covering the forward spine of the fuselage extended down the side of and under the nose. Really sharp lookin’ paint job and, to this day, one of my faves.
The missing refuelling probe door is a rather common occurrence, though I’ve yet to find a totally satisfactory explanation as to why this is. I’ve read that it has to do with compatibility problems with USAF refuelling baskets as opposed to the USN baskets. I’ve noticed, however, that sometimes both doors are missing, and other times only one is missing. This leads me to think that it may simply be a mechanical issue. But, as an aside, (and to lend further seeming credence to the compatibility argument) all the F-14’s that were delivered to Iran had the doors deleted at the factory. Food for thought, and if anyone knows more about this I’d love to hear about it.
Fade to Black…
It is not very unusual to see the aircraft missing its In-Flight Refueling door. Recently, many F-14’s in the fleet have been so modified, apparently due to problems with these doors.
ECHO, ECHO, Echo, echo… [:p][:p][:p]
Fade to Black…
I am building a 1/32 Tomcat right now.
What are the exact colors I should use on it? What is Gull Gray in Tamiya? If its two tone, what exact colors are they in Tamiya or Model Master Acrylic? I will probably do a black nose like this one, I should use black on the nose… a dark grey for the top, and a light grey for the bottom? Thanks Guys.
The color Gull Gray is FS 36440, I dunno what color of Tamiya’s acrylic line would match this, though I seem to recall that one was fairly close. I forget the colors in the TPS scheme. There are at least two TPS schemes that I know of for the Tom, one has 2 colors, the other has 3. I’ll see what I can dig up, or maybe another FSMer has that info close at hand.
The nose is, indeed, black. Not dark grey over black, but BLACK. Gloss black to be exact. Some have mentioned that it looks like grey on top and black on bottom. The reason it looks like grey over black in that shot is because of reflections on the gloss paint. The light sky shows up on top, and the dark carrier deck (as well as the dark ocean) on bottom, with the steam from the catapults showing up in the middle/side and on the bottom/tip. Also, if you look closely, you can see reflections of the deck crew as well as of the deck markings.
Fade to Black…
Here’s an F-15C I built a few years ago. There are two shades of grey. The lighter shade is Testors Model Master Navy Aggressor Grey spray paint. That’s what color I would use on an F-14. I would use flat black for the nose.
Thanks Guys. I did some googling and found a few pics with corresponding colors, so here is what I found.
4762 Light Ghost Gray FS36375
4761 Dark Ghost Gray FS36320
4746 Medium Gray FS35237
4695 Gloss Black FS17038