'Standard' USAF Viper Schemes
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Has anyone got links to good reference material for the various colour schemes? I believe the Viper was, at some point, a 5 shade scheme which was later simplified to the 3 shade Hill scheme. Later vipers are painted as the darker Have Glass V scheme. I’m painting an '83 block 25, 83-1144 from 144th ANG, and it appears to have the older 5 shade scheme.
Federal Standard numbers would be a huge help, but any reference material is greatly appreciated
PS - when I say 5 shades, I’m referring to underside, topside, fin, nose, and the area below the cockpit. This was later simplified to just 3 colours for nose, underside, and top side.
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To me, the F-16 has always been 3 greys - 4 if you consider the nose, but that’s an exception, read below
I don’t think in FS but in aircraft modelpaint (gunze) It’s H305 (gunship grey FS36118 ) for topside, H307 (FS 36320) for front top fuselage and tail and H308 (FS36375) for undersurface
the nose is normally left unpainted but it’s a material very prone to weathering and colour may vary. the aircraft model world refers to this colour as H306. But basically you can do whatever you want as it’s a weathering issueWhat changed is that the early 3 greys scheme also had H307 on top of the intake and on both face of the ventral fins. this tended to disappear over time and the top of the intake and the ventral fin were of the same grey as the undersurfaces
On modern jets, that 3 greys Evolved to a 2 grey (again not considering the unpainted nose) where H307 (FS 36320) and H308 (FS36375) have been replaced by a unique grey wich is often H307 (the darker of the two)
the wingbags and missile rails often painted of the lighter grey (H308 )There was also a variation of the border between the gunship grey (darker grey) and the front fuselage grey which was either in front of the rear canopy and later moved backwards behind the rear canopy
and then came have glass scheme which is a real nighmare to get right, especially the early have glass 2 very prone to weatheringSome paints have the walkway lines, some don’t have the lines at all
It’s a very vast subject -
I would always recommend doing research for one specific vessel to a given time. Thanks to Internet you can find a lot of photos for your project. When you have choosen a certain Viper with its given serial# you will see what colours you’ll need or could post or better pm (copyright) me a photo, best with full side of aircraft visible in good light.
Doing have glass is pain in the…… I’ve built a Hasegawa F22 in 1/48 and it took me a lot of time and mixing colours to simulate a realistic Raptor sheen. Which kit and scale are you building?