Grumman OA (Air Corps) color schemes

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Looking for info on the color schemes for Army Air Corps Grumman OA-9 Goose, OA-12 Duck and OA-14 Widgeon. I can find a few postwar aluminum schemes. I’m looking for wartime ones.

2

They were most likely painted in ANA olive drab and neutral gray as every other Army aircraft, since this started in 1941. Look at Wikipedia, and also check Google Images and the Google Life Magazine Images.

Edit: the Air Force didn’t get Ducks until 1948, surplus from the Navy, so they were in a NMF.

3

I think OD/Grey scheme is most likely, I just have never run across any documented evidence. I have searched through the LIFE images dozens of hours. I’ve found lots of other useful photos, no OAs though. Thanks for the response

4

From the few photos I’ve seen of USAAF float & seaplanes, they went with whatever the Navy schemes were for the aircarft… The USAAF OA-10A Catalina here in the USAF Museum is in Intermediate Blue over White

The one wartime OA-9 Goose photo I ever saw was an overall glossy Dark Sea Blue circa 1945. Prior to the war, the 6th Pursuit Group at Wheeler Field had their own Air/Sea Rescue squadron and their OA-9s were painted in the standard Green & Yellow schemes…

5

Thanks for the info. There is a picture of a pre-war OA-9 from the 45th Air Base Squadron at Oakland Airport in the Monogram USAAC 1908-41 book. That is in spec 24113-A Blue and Yellow.

6

Here’s the info on when and where they were acquired:

OA-10 Consolidated (PBY-5A) Catalina 1942 (56 ea. Transferred from Navy 306 ea bought from Vickers Canada)

OA-11 Sikorsky S-43 (5 ea OA-8 [37-370/-374] 1941 (1ea.VIP transport [42-01].)

OA-12 Grumman (J2F-5) Duck 1942 (1ea. J2F-5 & 5 ea. J2F-6 transferred from Navy [41-563/567].)

OA-13 Grumman (OA-9) Goose 1942 (5 ea. OA-13A bought or ‘impressed’ from civilian sources [42-38214/38215]. 2 ea. JRF-5 transferred from Navy [45-49088/49089]. )

OA-14 Grumman G-44 Widgeon 1942 (16 ea. ‘impressed’ from civil users 42-38216/38223, -38265, -38339/38340, -38355/38356, -43460, -53003, 44-52977].)

Think it would be safe to say that the ones recd from the Navy would stay in their colors and the ones acquired elsewhere would be painted in OD/Grey?

7

Actually, given the Army’s proclivity for uniformity, I’d venture a SWAG that they painted all the others in the current US Navy camo rather than OD/Grey… Won’t swear to it though…