Getting ready to paint a few Sidewinder missiles and the landing gear on my F-18A. Sidewinders call for FS17875 which is just white (or Insignia White…). I was wondering if that was flat white or gloss white? And same goes for the landing gear color, I know they’re white but gloss or flat?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks
Gloss
Really, even Sidewinders are glossy? I always figured they were flat.
The first digit of the FS number denotes the sheen of the finish.
The Sidewinders should be Light Ghost Gray 36375. AIM-9s have not been white since the early 1980s. Hornets came into service in the mid1980s.
Huh, thank you guys, that’s some good information right there.
Just out of curiosity, what are the yellow and the bronze bands for on the real thing?
Yellow bands mean a live HE warhead. If it is a dummy round those are blue. Brown bands on teh rear section are for a live rocket motor, blue on that section is for a captive training round that can not launch. The bronze bands are connectors for the sections of the missile.
What’s with the white fins on the gray body?
In most pictures, the fin and missile seem to have the same shade of color. I use dark ghost gray (FS36320), same as the FA18 upper surfaces. It is true for the Sidewinder today no matter what airplane it is on.
In the F/A-18A/C kit released in the 1980’s, the instruction will call for painting the Sidewinder insignia white. It was correct for that era. The operational squadron of F-18A was formed in early 1983. Production switched to F-18C in 1987. The early Hornet were seen with white Sidewinders. You can find this example of white missile on the Swiss 18A airplane walk around. But either colors are correct.
Except for training missiles with inert rocket motor which was painted blue. It was funny that all the ad pictures of the Academy 1:32 scale Hornet showing the training Sidewinder. I am not sure what training mission load out configuration they tried to model.
Landing gear are gloss white.
Older build fins being put on a newer build motor section. IIRC the missiles are kept in storage disassembled, and taken out then assembled by armorers as needed.
The silver band you see just to the rear of the seaker head is the rocket motor igniter ring. A spring loaded pin in the launcher makes contact with the ring. On launch current is sent through to ignite the rocket motor. The umbilical cord relays info to the missile and the missile relays a tone to the pilot when it is locked on and ready to fire. I have heard pilots call the firing tone a growling dog sound.
On the topic of F-18A Hornet ordnance-
Finding lots of conflicting info on what type of ordnance the April, 1986 Marine Libya Raider F-18A Hornets carried, how they were painted/ marked, and on which station on the wings? The USS Coral Sea has a website with color pics from the time…looks like HARM missiles, Sidewinders on the wingtips, and possibly Shrikes?
The color photos on the USS Coral Sea website show the USN Hornets at the time- April 1986- with HARM missiles in all white with red noses…anyone know how the various ordnance was painted- Colors? Any stripes? Stencils?
Would really appreciate any pics/ references, as there’s conflicting info out there…they were tasked with taking out SAM and radar sites, so HARMs and Shrikes seem reasonable, with Sidewinders on the wingtips?? Anyone out there?
I got the old Hasegawa A/C Weapons set C, and the HARM must have been brand new at the time (1980s?), because Hasegawa gives decals and decent painting info for all the other 25 or so types of ordnance, but the only comment on the HARM is that it’s “new and believed to be painted white- little info is known at this time!”
Many thanks!
Best, Christian
Here is a photo of a HARM from that time and place. White airframe, yellow stripe for live warhead, brown stripe for live rocket motor, red stripeby the aft fins, but I do not know what the significance of the red striping is. Some small stencils can be seen.
another photo. the red tip is a protective cap over the seeker head.
The landing gear is white everywhere except where the oleo area shows. This is the area between the scissors, and it should be a shiny silver. The oleo seals polish the bare steel in this area during operation.
Hay Don
Ether gloss whit or gray for the missiles
Same for the landing gear.
Pete
As stik mentioned, ghost gray was the new color chosen after the mid 80s or so but then we see pictures of white missiles being used as late as 1991. I ran into this issue while building my last Tomcat from Desert Storm. During my research, I saw several pictures of the VF1 cats firing white AIM54s in 1991. [:O]
I asked someone who retired from the US Navy and worked with the Tomcats about the color question. He told me they used whatever they had in hand and tried to cycle out the older weapons first. You may see a mixture of both colors in some pictures as either spare parts or re assembled components such as the white fins on a grey body as an example.
Yes- except for the oleo area.
I have several (read: 10-12) of the Hasegawa Weapons Sets, including one of the new “E” weapons sets; for the AGM-88 HARM, I used the decals that were supposed to go on the old AGM-45 Shrike (and are in the same Weapons kit) for the HARM just to make it more interesting. I know it’s not very accurate, but it’s better than an all-white missile with nothing on it.
They MIGHT have had Shrikes in '86, there were a few still in service in the '80’s (probably leftover from Vietnam), although if it’s a SEAD/DEAD mission they might also have carried Rockeyes (since it’s a Navy aircraft). If it’s the picture(s) I THINK you are referring to, it looks like the F-18’s were carrying ordnance (primarily AGM-88’s) on stations 2 and 8, fuel tanks on stations 3, 5 and 7, and AIM-9’s on stations 1 & 9. There are also several pictures of the ordnance techs pushing a lot of AGM-88’s and CBU-59’s (Rockeyes) around so, yeah, if they were carrying anything other than a HARM, it would’ve been a Rockeye (those things are good for taking out SAM personnel).
In the pictures, I don’t see anything on (conformal fuselage) stations 4 and 6. The F-18 would normally carry an AIM-7E on these stations, but since the Navy F-14 pilots probably didn’t want the “ground-pounder” Marines doing any air-to-air on that mission, and stealing their thunder, they left those stations empty (that also allowed the Marines to have a lower “bring-back” weight, which probably also increased their range slightly).
Dude - you’re posting on 4 year old threads…
AUSTanker revived this thread early last month and we had a bit of discussion going on. Then it died off, until the recent disinterrment…