I tried a google image search and found several variations.
Sidewinders: either white or grey but some blue with black tips and then some had black and yellow tips
Sparrows: either grey with white tip or all white.
Do how do I know which one is right colour scheme? I know with artillery rounds colours have specific meaning, but even that is just a coloured band on the OD round. Are Air Force missiles the same in that regard?
Depends on the era you’re building. I’ve seen Eagles in the '80s with white sparrows sporting black fins, and early sidewinders had black noses or were solid white. Late in the 80’s, they started using grey for the missiles in order to blend them in to the a/c’s camo. Blue missiles, though, are for training. What aircraft are you building?
Glenn
As above- until the late 70’s/early 80s, the mssilles were pretty much all white with the exception of the seeker heads, which varied by the model of the missile. In the early 80’s with the switch over to low visibilty schemes, the missiles bodies were produced with matching Light Ghost Gray bodies. On most of the later post Vietnam Sidewinder models (D/G/H/L/M), the seeker heads and steering canards were left in the anodized bare metal with the seeker itself in the colors of the materials used. Rear fins could still be in white or the new gray. On Sparrows, again the bodies went from white to gray with the fins often being in a seperate dark color or white. The radar seeker head is often in an off white natural fiberglass color. Stripes are color coded- Brown for a live rocket motor, Yellow for a live HE warhead, and blue bands in place of the Yellow/Brown bands or blue bodies indicate training rounds.
The missiles are essentially modular in construction with rocket motors, war heads and seeker heads being seperate units, and the fins being attached prior to loading on an aircraft. That is one reaason you will see older and newer parts combined.
Getting the fins right is a challenge in a/c modeling. If only for the not looking like some arbitrary decision to paint the pieces-parts “funny.”
Which is not helped by “scale effect” at all. Some of the subtleties are only visible at 4, 5, perhaps 6’ away in real life–that’s 1/4 - 3/4" (6 - 12mm) away at 1:48 scale
I’m doin an F-18 in Desert Storm era so it sounds like grey bodies with coloured tips.
Thanks for the insight
Here is a Desert Storm Sidewinder for you… courtesy of Life Magazine, on an A-7E, but your Hornet’s should be identical
Getting ready for an attitude adjustment somewhere I’m sure.
Thanks!
huh!!??