I’m abour ready to start painting the exterior of my first helicopter since around 1982 when I was 12 years old. It’s Italeri’s 1/72 SH-60B Seahawk. I like to verify my colors before painting. The instructions point out one color (can’t remember exactly what it was. I’m at work at the moment. Shhhhh…) but the illustration on the back of the box seems to be slighly different shade of grey. The two different color blocks they show are almost indistinguishable. If my poor memory serves, I think they called for flat gull grey on the ouside. Or perhaps it was light gull grey. Can anyone shed some light on what the colors should be on this type of helicopter? Also, did they have a slightly different shade(s) of grey on the top and the bottom of the fuselage?
Welcome back to the world of rotorhead modeling, Eric! For the SH-60B, the lightest color on the bottom is FS36495 Light Gray and the upper color is FS36320 Dark Ghost Gray. FS35237 Medium Gray is specified for the upper horizontal surfaces. The gray tones get darker from the bottom up. Hope this clarifies things for you!
Thank you Joseph! It did help a lot. With the less-than-clear instructions in the Italeri kit, I felt I needed to verify things. So it’s Lt Ghost Grey on the bottom, Dk Ghost Grey on the top, and did you mean Medium Grey on the vertical surfaces?
Medium Gray goes on the uppermost surfaces that would be seen from above, i.e the top of the nose, the roof, the tailboom spine, and the top of the horizontal stabilizer. The vertical surfaces on the sides of the fuselage and tailboom are Dark Ghost Gray.
Joseph, it you’re out there, perhaps you could help me with one last question. Do you know if the rotor color would be Medium Grey also since it would be an “uppermost surface”?
For the rotor hubs, it really depends on the Det. Underway we tended to repaint the a/c. Top gray was usually used on the hubs. Particularly if we did a D Phase underway. Blades are always side gray (FS 36320).
T8777, I hope that he completed this build sometime over the past 9 years… or the original poster is slower than I am on some builds… [;)] But whenever I get around to the Seahawk in my stash, I will now have this thread to remind me of the hub and blade colors.
LOL! Still working on it. Just kidding! I finished it for the woman who asked me to build it for her. She gave it to her husband who was the actual pilot of that particular Seahawk that was depicted on the Italeri box. It was probably one of the best models I’ve ever done (translation: It was one of the models that came out far better than I could have ever hoped in spite of my mediocre building skills). It’s funny that I still think back to that kit and I actually miss it but I’m glad it went to a very deserving fellow.
That was nine years ago and I still haven’t built another helicopter since then! Oh my gosh. No. Wait. I almost forgot that a couple of years ago my youngest daughter wanted to build the Accurate Miniature version of the Seahawk. She was 6 at the time. I did the glueing (sp?) but she did all the painting. The fire engine red Seahawk with its lime green rotors and a wavy yellow stripe going down each side of the fuselage currently resides in her room. (Siiiiiigh…) [:S]
Eric
PS. Stik, I’m actually a pretty darned slow builder, too! LOL!
Well I’m very happy to hear that the original kit in question here was finished in a timely manner. But I do say that it is time you knock out another chopper. Perhaps an Army Blackhawk? [;)]