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F-4E obscure details

Another F-4E question!

The F-4E that I am building is in SEA lizard (overall) camouflage. I have a question about the stores pylons and the tanks.

The AirDoc instruction sheet shows that the pylons are painted in the same colour as the underlying camouflage. Is that accurate? My experience with RAF Harriers was that they were all painted Dark Green, regardless of the underlying colour of the camouflage at the station to which they were to be fitted. Keying the pylon colours to specific stations seems like unnecessary extra work to me.

Likewise with the tanks. The wing tanks are painted overall FS34102, but the instructions show the centreline tank to be painted overall FS34079. Given that the same bay is likely to service both styles of tank, is it reasonable to assume that both would be painted the same colour?

Or did the USAF really pay so much attention to detail that they could key tank and pylon colours to the underlying camouflage?

Reply to
Enzo Matrix
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Reply to
willshak

The inboard pylons were indeed painted the surrounding color, 30219 tan on the left wing and 34079 dark green on the right for SEA wraparound, substitute 36081 grey for the tan when painting Euro-1. Quite a few jets in the 86 TFW and 26 TRW during the 1980s had wraparound camouflage, with pylons painted the respective green and tan colors but with leading edges on the tan pylons painted 36622 off-white! I have no idea why they did this. The 370 gallon wingtanks were 34079 overall on both wings for wraparound jets, not 34102, though there were plenty of 370s that were still had 36622 off-white undersides and pylons. Also it was quite common to see 370s made up from sections that were a mix of wraparound and white belly. 600 Gallon centerlines were 34079 overall, though Spangdahlem had a number of them that were 34079 on top and 36622 off-white on the bottoms. Most of the Royal Jet centerlines we had at Ramstein were overall 36622 off-white, but a lot were overall 34079. All of the McDonnell High Performance Centerlines (F-15-style) were 34079 overall. I don't recall seeing and did not photograph any Royal Jet centerlines at Ramstein that were half green half white like Spang's. Do you mind if I ask which airplane you are planning to model? I may be able to help you with photos of the real airplane depending on the tail number and unit. I have the AirDoc decal sheets and I know there are some errors on the 1980s F-4 sheet. Scott Wilson

526 AMU/TFS 86 TFW Ramstein AB, Germany 1983-1986
Reply to
avnav526

Thanks very much indeed, Scott. That's *most* helpful.

I'm rather surprised that the pylons were keyed to the camouflage. That's certainly not the way that the RAF did things, but I suppose the USAF had more resources than we did. Situation normal there! :-)

The aircraft that I'm currently building is F-4E 72-166 of the 81 TFS, based at Spangdahlem in 1985.

Also to be built from that sheet is a Ramstein jet, 68-480 of the 512 TFS. It's the one with the big sharkmouth that was at Greenham Common in '83, where I saw it.

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Enzo, I emailed you my photos of 72-0166 to your hotmail address. I hope you find them useful. Scott Wilson

Reply to
avnav526

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

There is no substitute for working from photographs of the actual aircraft, and these are excellent and very useful.

Thanks again, Scott.

PS - Thank you! :-D

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Somewhere in my stash of pictures I took while stationed at Haun AB Ger is a huge collection of F-4Es ranging from years 67 to 73 or 74 some with TISEOs, I would have to find someone with a scanner thought

Reply to
Daryl

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