I was recently thumbing through photos of this past year’s air show (cleveland national airshow) and saw a marine hornet with an interesting camo scheme. It was all over dark ghost grey with darker grey tiger stripes all over. My first thought was it was an anniversery scheme or special livery colors but their was no special text markings on the plane to note anything like that. It simply had it’s normal squadron call-out’s so I was wondering if it was a special edition or is there a marine squadron out there with this scheme? anyone know?
Your refering to the USMC Tiger scheme that was used on an F/A-18D two seater assigned to Marine Squadron VMFA(AW)-224 Bengals. This was a special paint scheme applied to plane WK00. The AW stands for “All Weather” attack.
http://image.flymcaa.org/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=428
This is a very hard scheme to replicate even with an airbrush. Should you even attempt it your going to need to apply a lot of masking, but it can be done.
Air Master
thanks airmaster…and yeah! it seems to be an intimidating idea for a paint scheme!
Its just to bad they didn’t do it up in black and orange! That would have been really cool! Academy’s 1/32 F-18D has decals for that bird and shows that paint scheme in intructions… I decided right off to not even bother!
My personal favorite camo scheme is this Marine Hornet:
Just a little bit of masking required. Ooorah.
Andy
I didn’t know the Marines flew airliners [:D] I bet you were gonna post the same pic I was… diggy?
ain’t i lucky,VMFA 224 is another one of the squadrons that calls MCAS Beaufort home
and to think ,they cancelled the last Blue Angel appearance here,but at least i get to see an airshow of sorts everyday between MCAS Beaufort and Warner/Robbins AFB in nearby Savannah,GA
Ya know Lone, I used to like you [:D]
I love that Digi Bug camo! Awhile back when I first joined FSM someone here actually painted the Digi camo on thier Bug and it looked AWESOME! This is why I said it would be difficult but not impossible to do the tiger scheme, you just need the right tools and heck of a lot of patience to airbrush it on. It can be done! You never know until you try it.
Air Master
that my next F-18 paint scheme. Thanks for the photos Airmaster. Where’s my iwata?
Eizzle Bro,
As a matter of fact the rudders on the other D bugs of VMFA(AW)-224 have them painted in the orange and black tiger stripes and I do believe there is a decal sheet of these markings somewhere.
Brookss, if your refering the the tiger scheme pics your very welcome, if its the Digi Camo you need to thank AH1snake.
Air Master
Was it this one?
YES, YES, YES!!! That is the Digi Bug! I love that paint scheme. I can only imagine how difficult was to do and the patience involved in doing is amazing. My painting skills still have a long way to go before I’ll ever be able to do a scheme like that.
Thanks for posting the picture Frank!
Air Master
Take my word for it…it takes little skill to do it. It does require patience, but if you have a straight edge, a knife, and some masking tape…it can be done. If you saw this model up close, you’d see its FAR from perfect, and the colors are wrong. At least it photgraphs well!
Frank, accuracy aside, if it brings a smile to your face as it does mine then thats all that matters, I still consider it a well done representation of the Digi Bug and I am sure others will think so also.[:D]
Air Master
Like AirMaster said, it is an awesome build, even if the colors aren’t exact! You got skills bro, I love that paint job!
Thanks AirMaster, I have the decal sheet for the bird with the black and orange rudders, but I mean I think it would look really cool for the CAG bird to have the top half painted orange with black tiger stripes, but that is going pretty far out there for a paint job for a warbird, just because [:D]
Not really Bro, there have been F-14’s painted with yellow with cheetah spots. These special paint schemes are mainly for showing off at air shows. I am pretty sure the birds are repainted when used in combat operations.
Air Master