Special Mil Colour Schemes

[tartare]

A bit geeky I know, but I've always wondered.
We often see fast jets painted in amazing colour schemes for anniversaries, airshows.
I'm thinking of Tigermeet etc.
Given that your average pointy military jet is these days covered with all manner of radar avoiding, low observable paint and coatings - how do they do that?
I'm sure it's a little more sophisticated than the crew chief and the lads sitting down with an outline drawing of the jet, coming up with a design and then heading off down to B&Q to grab a few cans of spray-paint (although I note that some Vietnam-era BUFFs and even a few Op Corporate Harriers were literally hand painted with brushes at times for operational reasons).
Does someone on the Squadron designate a particular jet that is to be resprayed for such display purposes?
Is there a special type of paint that goes on over generic "RAM Fast-Jet Grey" and able to be washed off a few weeks later (cos I'm sure they don't strip em back to bare aluminium and composite).
What happens if you balls it up?
Crew Chief - "Jenkins - that is the most ****e Tiger stripe I have ever seen in my life you horrible little man..."

[MAINJAFAD]

Given that your average pointy military jet is these days covered with all manner of radar avoiding, low observable paint and coatings - how do they do that?

Only stealth aircraft I've ever seen with special markings was an F-117 with a huge US Flag on the under side. I would suspect that on most normal military aircraft those areas of RAM paint, which are in limited areas like intakes are left original colour, as are radomes and aerial housings. The majority of military aircraft paint is low observable in IR, not RF frequencies, though RAM 'Iron Ball' paint does exist, it needs special application to make it effective.

I'm sure it's a little more sophisticated than the crew chief and the lads sitting down with an outline drawing of the jet, coming up with a design and then heading off down to B&Q to grab a few cans of spray-paint (although I note that some Vietnam-era BUFFs and even a few Op Corporate Harriers were literally hand painted with brushes at times for operational reasons).

It is, somebody designs it, either a bloke on a unit or they get some artist to design it (or a mix of both) and they get a professional painter to paint it, Either service painters or civil contractors or a mix of both. Car paint has been used in the past (though it would normally be a two part epoxy paint). In the case of the UK (RAF definitely and most likely the other armed services), the design has to be approved by CinC Command and the Camouflage Working Group and the unit has to pay for it. More than 25% repaint requires aircraft to be reweighed (and re-ballasted if out of limits on C of G). In a few cases there is a major use of vinyl decals which are printed, applied and then sealed down

Does someone on the Squadron designate a particular jet that is to be resprayed for such display purposes?

Yes, normally the OC, though in the case of the Germans its based when the aircraft is next due for deep maintenance. In the case of the one I was slightly involved with the original jet selected (the boss's one) couldn't be used due to the fact that it was pinged for a deployment and when the design was going through the chain to the CinC, the CinC No. 1 Group asked if an aircraft could be painted in Desert Pink. The aircraft selected for that scheme was the only only left in service which had flown in the first Gulf war.

Is there a special type of paint that goes on over generic "RAM Fast-Jet Grey" and able to be washed off a few weeks later (cos I'm sure they don't strip em back to bare aluminium and composite).

The temporary paint for normal airframes is Alkali Removable Temporary Finnish (ARTF), and it tends to peal off rapidly. In the case of RAM surfaces, it is noticeable that the majority of stealth aircraft are very lacking in any colour other than a few shades of grey. They most likely have special paint and you're limited on the colours. Most high quality paint jobs on a normal aircraft would need some form of airframe prepping to allow the new coat to key to the paint surface already there or it would peal off in a very short time as ARTF does. This prep ranging from a wash, though a light rub down to a complete strip and re-prime. In the case of the majority of airframe specials, the finish is permanent and the aircraft will have a full strip down and repaint on its next depth servicing, one of the reasons that the RAF limit their 'Operational types' specials to just the Tail and Spine.

[tartare]

Very intriguing, thanks for that.
I saw an interesting system used on an Air NZ 747 around about the time of the Lord of the Rings special colour schemes.
Went into the hangar and up on a scaffold. Viewed up close, the graphics were made up of thousands of what looked like tiny fish scales, applied like a vinyl transfer.

[Martin the Martian]

We have a Camouflage Working Group? Would anybody like to buy them a colour printer, or there are any other shades of grey yet to be invented?

[Sandy Parts]

"We have a Camouflage Working Group?" I think we do.............never seen them though

[tartare]

Sandy
Saw a shot of a Typhoon (modern pointy one) recently with invasion stripes.
Very retro - nice.
There are mentions on the web of camouflage working groups at various points in history, but nothing I can find (ha ha) on RAF.mil
Is it a formal body, or are working groups just brought together on an as needed basis?

[MAINJAFAD]

Formal Body, read Chapter 6.6 on the link below.

http://www.maa.mod.uk/linkedfiles/re...1/chapter6.pdf

As for all grey aircraft, that's the best colour if operating in the medium altitude role in all weathers and at night. That's the reason that RAF Night fighters were mostly medium sea grey from 1942 onwards.

[tartare]

Thanks for that - wow - detailed specifications for everything.
Contrasts with the stories of the B-52s on Guam being deployed for Operation Linebacker - the undersides of which were apparently handpainted matt black, very roughly using brushes - brush strokes still visible for a long time afterwards.

[dragartist]

Mainjafad, Great posts you are clearly the top banana on this topic.
My favourite was the Puma done up for a tiger meet. Can't recall the year but I did have some pics (wet film era).


I also remember the wash off paint. in particular the T4 Canberra pained blue for the anniversary where B Beaumont flew it.


Now then I am surprised the Coff has not come across this thread. it would be 20 pages long and full of wonderful pictures of such things.

[MAINJAFAD]

dragartist

My involvement in the production of one of these ' Specials' was supplying the original multi layer photoshop drawing that the scheme was designed on (Plus showing the guy who designed the scheme how to use items of the photoshop software required to create the design). The bloke who designed the scheme in question wrote an article in a monthly aviation magazine that explained all the hoops that have to be jumped through to get the scheme on the aircraft. As for knowledge of camouflage schemes, having had to do aircraft profiles from the early days of the RFC through to stuff that is still in service, I've had to research the subject to find the correct scheme for an aircraft at a specific time period. In a lot of cases its resulted in a trawl of the bookshops as well as the internet. In a few cases the book explains how the camouflage scheme came about.

[nimbev]

We have a Camouflage Working Group?

Flew on the visibility trials when the Nimrod was first painted Hemp. We flew a pair of aircraft; one white, one freshly painted, against ships and fighter aircraft at a variety of ranges and heights. The Camouflage guys from Farnborough were invited along as observers.

Whole trial was a waste of time as

1. The camouflage group had not been consulted about the new colour scheme and were therefore pissed off to start with

2. The first thing anybody saw were the smoke trails from the engines and then two black dots - didnt make any difference whether one was camouflaged or not.

and finally - the aircraft had been painted the wrong colour anyway (it was nick-named the Flying Turd so you can guess the colour) and the remainder of the fleet was to be painted a different (ie the correct) colour

Anyway we had a few leisurely flights burning holes in the sky and eating Jock Pies and beans. To be fair, the Nimrod colour scheme was intended to provide protection whilst on the ground.

[MAINJAFAD]

That would be this one then, nimbev (Photo posted by Beagle on another thread)



Not exactly British Standard BS381C 389, Camouflage Beige to give the Hemp colour it's official name and British Standard number.

[tartare]

That's bloody hilarious.
No-one thought about the smoke trails...

[MAINJAFAD]

No-one thought about the smoke trails...

Not really relevant, The amount of smoke would be dependent on the aircraft's power settings and the smoke visibility would be dependent on whatever overcast was behind it, I think you would find that the main purpose of the trial was to see if the Brown aircraft was more 'visible' than the White one. Seeing that it wasn't and they were picked up at same instant, the trial was basically successful. As Nimbev has correctly stated the main purpose of the hemp scheme was to camouflage the aircraft while it was sitting on the ground.

The ASW scheme has some documented history to it, Operational research in 1941/2 found that an all white scheme gave the shortest detection range for visual pick up of a Coastal Command aircraft by the crew of a U-boat in daylight (compared with the original day fighter / bomber scheme used) . Thus most of the fleet of Wellingtons, Sunderlands and Liberators were painted white, with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces to help camouflage from above while over the sea from fighters (when operating over the Bay of Biscay or north sea for example). Advent of the snorkel and the later Nuclear Submarine, lead to the all over Extra Dark Sea Grey scheme being used as camouflage from observation from above, however most likely due to solar heating effect reduction in places like the Med and Far East, the top of the fuselages were white. Nimrod MR 1, White / Light Aircraft Grey, Aircraft did high level transit, solar heating effect reduction were paramount, plus type was based on Malta. Hemp, Ground Camouflage. Camouflage Grey at phase out. Best compromise for low / medium altitude.

[reynoldsno1]

Flew on Mk.1 Nimrods from Malta - they looked nice. The matt hemp finish had an adverse affect on fuel consumption as well ...

[XR219]

Not exactly British Standard BS381C 389, Camouflage Beige to give the Hemp colour it's official name and British Standard number.

AFAIK, "Hemp" was originally a BS4800 ("Schedule of paint colours for building purposes") colour (BS4800 10B21) before being included in BS381C. However, 10B21 now appears to be called "Lizard Grey", which doesn't sound like the same thing...

[Union Jack]

However, 10B21 now appears to be called "Lizard Grey", which doesn't sound like the same thing....

Camouflage Working Group chameleon at work?

Jack

[MAINJAFAD]

Doubt it, BS colours standard numbers are set by the British Standards Institute.

[Innominate]

"Thus most of the fleet of Wellingtons, Sunderlands and Liberators were painted white, with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces to help camouflage from above while over the sea"

Thereby replicating the colour scheme that had been worn by seagulls for centuries...

[1771 DELETE]

In the Nimrod fleet, but not sure about others, the hemp paint scheme was used for ground camouflage. It was not meant to reduce the airborne visual signature.
At the same time as the aircraft started to be painted, we also painted the dispersal and pan parking areas.