I’ve been avoiding painting my 1/48 scale navy pilots due to lack of correct paints in my collection (and lack of skill). I’m going to order more paints. Does anyone have the correct colors for USN (and USAAF) aviators’ flight gear, and any brand recommendations for brush painting figures? My Vallejo Model Air paints will, I think, be a little too thick for the scale. Thank you!
Part of this depends upon the theater of operations. Generally speaking Naval Aviators in WWII in teh PTO are gonna be wearing a khaki colored flight suit. Occasionally the brown goatskin flight jacket was worn as well. Mae West life vests are yellow in color. Parachute harness is white or off white cloth. flight helmets are either khaki cloth or brown leather
USAAF WWII Flight gear tended to have more variety. Khaki or Olive Drab flight suits or uniforms, leather or cloth flight helmets, differing types of leather flight jackets, Flak vests and helmets, shoes or boots…
Much-appreciated. I was hoping to find some precise color callouts so as to avoid guesswork with my paint bottles, but perhaps it’s not that crucial if I eyeball the photos and take a stab at mixing the colors to match. I love that first photo of the pilots huddling in front of the Hellcat.
Basic uniform colors are khaki and olive drab. There is a LOT of variation in fabric dyes as the uniforms age. Color call outs depend upon the brand of paints that you prefer to use. For the leather items such as flight helmets, boots and jackets, the colors are more uniform and less prone to color shift. For the flight helmets, AAF shearling (sheepskin) flight gear, and Navy leather jacket, a darker deeper brown works best, while for flight boots and the AAF flight jacket, a more russet brown shade is in order.
One other variation in Navy flight uniforms is for the enlisted flight personnel (gunners) to occasionally be wearing their blue dungarees with flight gear. The khakis worn by officers were either their service uniforms, or later the single piece overalls.
That’s pretty much what I do. I use the callouts as a starting point, and then take into account weathering and age, and check reference photos.
A tip on the goggles–I paint mine brown and call 'em tinted lenses.
Adam 148, I accurately painted my WWII Navy or Marine Corps 1/48th scale pilots with the classic small-bottle flat Testor’s paints back in the 60’s, and they had plenty of flat colors to perfectly match their real-life subjects. My local high-end hobby store still carries a full rack of those paints to this day.
Navy & USMC flight clothing, either shirts and pants or flight suits and cloth helmets, were khaki tan. Shoes, usually ankle-high field shoes (called “boondockers” by the Marines) were medium brown, or a gloss medium brown for Naval aviators’ low-quarter shoes. Goggle frames and straps were usually light gray, rimmed in silver around the lenses. Parachute straps were dirty white, and Mae Wests were yellow. Gloves were tan, or a yellowish-tan.
That’s about it.
what I use is model masters sand for the uniform white for ths straps field drab for the parachute yellow for the vest and military
brown for shoes forgot sand for head gear.color is subjective what looks good to you colors vary from uniform to uniform then when you use washes they change again its all good its supposed to be fun