Hey guys, I’m painting this my second bad boy Beaufighter in the dark earth, middlestone, and azure blue scheme. Tamiya is calling for blue rockets with some kind of purple shade for the rails, this can’t be right? Can any one help? Thanks.
The rocket rail pylons were always the same colour as the Beaufighter’s undersurface. The rails and rockets themselves should be a semi-gloss or satin black.
Blue or Blue-marked ordinance and ammo is for training, not warshots… Allied rocket warheads in WW2 were usually in the same color-codes for artillery, usually meaning OD with yellow markings for HE…
My Tamiya instructions say to use the same colour mix as the underside for the rails and X-18 (Semi-Gloss Black) for the rockets and fins.
I think you read X-18 as XF-18, which is Medium Blue.
Thanks to all that responded, I guess I misread the painting codes. I shall proceed. Thanks.
If in doubt, paint it black? to me, in photographs, rockets always look to have been painted the ubiquitous Olive Drab.
Not olive drab for U.K. ordnance, bronze green (same as British Army colour) is the more likely for the explosive warheads, plus a red H.E ring, with the body the same green or black (I’ve seen references to both colours.) Solid shot 25lb heads were black.
Edgar