AAM color scheme

[alftien]

Was looking at my 1/48 AAMs and was wondering what color to paint em.

Any one have any ideas? Any screen shots of missiles? Or should I follow USN missiles with the yellow and brown stripes on em?

Can anyone help?

[David Hingtgen]

Yellow/brown is pretty much world-wide for all armed forces. Red's about the only alternate color you'll see--I think Norway does red... They're intl' warning safety-stripes. I could look up all the colors if you want, but yellow means live warhead, brown means live rocket motor. Overall body color was white for about 30 years, which is what you see on screen most of the time for Macross. Now that they're 36375 grey, Macross has changed to follow suit--thus you see grey missiles in M Zero.

PS--fins are bare steel, nosecones usually white. (Until we make grey nosecones---nosecones are made in color, not painted--and we've got a LOT of white ones to use up)

[alftien]

cool! thanx!!

[Berttt]

The coloured stripes indicate what explosive filler is used. Yellow for high explosive, brown for low explosive. I can't quite remember what red is for, but it might have something to do with white phosporous or with fusing. White (or light grey if you prefer) on missiles or rockets indicates a live weapon, olive drab for bombs and stuff.

Berttt

[David Hingtgen]

Umm, no. Body color means nothing. Only stripes have meaning. Blue stripes=dummy. Yellow/brown=live (since it indicates the explosive type, as you said). All bombs are olive drab, both live and dummy. Stripes on the nose indicate live or not. Same with missiles--all of them are white or grey, stripe color indicates live or not.

Same with torpedoes---generally metallic green or orange overall, dummies have blue stripes, live ones have yellow. (Since there are no rocket-powered torps, none have brown)

[Berttt]

Well maybe over there it is, but in Australian service practice rounds have are blue over all, with clearly visable "INERT" stenciled on them, all live bombs are OD green (including mortar bombs,claymores and grenades) with the relevant stripes, and all rockets and missiles are white. I thought that this was NATO standard, but after what you said that might just be the colour of the stripes only.

Berttt

[David Hingtgen]

Well that's definitely not NATO standard AFAIK. I was pretty sure Australia conformed though. We do have some all-blue weapons, but those are pretty much only weight simulators used for training loading crews and the like. Generally only see AIM-9's like that here.

Here, it's stripe color, and nothing else. Pretty sure Belgium follows that method exactly, I'd have to look up most other nations.

Maybe NATO only specifies "blue" for dummy, and it's left up to individual nations to decide how that blue should be applied. I mean, I've never seen anything BUT blue for a dummy round. There's always pink bombs though, at least we've got some.

I always presume way too much about where people are posting from, sorry.

Edited December 17, 2003 by David Hingtgen

[Knight26]

Actually over here completely inert weight test rounds are also completely blue. A Blue stripe with a brown stripe would be a telemetry round, live engine, no warhead.

[David Hingtgen]

I knew all-blue had something to do with weight, never knew exactly what. Should have asked our resident missile designer.

PS--Knight26, what about ACMI pods etc? Usually all-blue or even all-red I think.

[Berttt]

Well that's definitely not NATO standard AFAIK. I was pretty sure Australia conformed though. We do have some all-blue weapons, but those are pretty much only weight simulators used for training loading crews and the like. Generally only see AIM-9's like that here.

Here, it's stripe color, and nothing else. Pretty sure Belgium follows that method exactly, I'd have to look up most other nations.

Maybe NATO only specifies "blue" for dummy, and it's left up to individual nations to decide how that blue should be applied. I mean, I've never seen anything BUT blue for a dummy round. There's always pink bombs though, at least we've got some.

I always presume way too much about where people are posting from, sorry.

Well I think I've exhausted my knowledge things that go bang. It was back in '98-99 when i last had anything to do with that stuff. It's too complex a system to apply rules of thumb to anyway.

So David Hingtgen do you have a background in the military, or is it justa passing interest?

Berttt

[David Hingtgen]

I just read a lot, that's about all I can say. Also, I take little for granted, I usually always check things out for myself. "If 3 books all have the exact same numbers, then that just means all 3 copied the same source". If they disagree, then one of them went out and measured/checked for themselves. Find the one correct source, not just one that copied somewhere else. Even official sources can be wrong. Boeing's own 720B drawings and stats have a few errors---the tail IS different than the 720, yet they describe it as being identical.

[Berttt]

cool i'm sure we'll bump into each other again.

[muswp1]

Ok, since I build a lot of models like those, if you want the scheme to replicate the missle in the pic, use Light Ghost Grey for the body and fins, black for the nose and brown/yellow/red for the various details. Up until the early 1990's, the US was still using white missle bodies with silver fins on AIM-9's so the scheme would depend on the time period involved.

EDIT: spelling

Edited December 17, 2003 by muswp1