After reading the threads on the logic of the P-38 being gloss black it made me wonder if the P-61s should be gloss for the same reason. Anybody? FWIW, I do know the 'Black Cat' PBYs were indeed flat. The very first one actually only had the white numbers covered over in lampblack, but subsequently had all flat black schemes.
Yes, the P-61 black scheme was gloss black.
Dave
in article snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutcrafting.com, Disco58 at snipped-for-privacy@yahooyahoo.com wrote on 1/1/07 9:58 AM:
Yes, standard factory camouflage for P-61s was Gloss Black at least by the time the B models started production in 1945. According to "P-61 in Action," P-61s entered service before the P-38Ms, which didn't fly until January
1945. Although the earliest P-61s were OD/NG and then Flat Bblack, Gloss Black was introduced on P-61As at the unit level sometime in 1944:"The 422nd NFS [in Europe] introduced the use of Gloss Black as a camouflage for the P-61. The unit found that GB was a much better night scheme than either the OD/NG or Flat Black schemes. FB paint absorbed light making the P-61 appear as a 'hole' in the glare of searchlights while GB reflected the searchlight beams..."
This discovery would have been common knowledge by the time the P-38M made its appearance some months later.
Pip Moss
They may have been gloss to begin with - I'm guessing. Gloss paints fade to a very matte finish under tropical/desert sunshine pretty rapidly. Got an example on a pole here...
FWIW So were the F-82G "Twin Mustang" night fighter versions.
Bill Shuey
FWIW So were the F-82G "Twin Mustang" night fighter versions.
Bill Shuey
FWIW So were the F-82G "Twin Mustang" night fighter versions.
Bill Shuey
"William H. Shuey" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net:
Err, ya want to switch that from 3 round burst back to semi?
Frank
Early P-61s carried the standard OD over medium grey camouflage scheme.
If I recall correctly, the scheme was changed to the overall glossy black about the time of the switch-over from the P-61A to P-61B model.
Cheers,
Rufus--if you're referring to the PBYs, I was going on a History Channel 'Black Cat' episode I have. The section talking about the paint scheme I believe was narrated, or at least voiced-over, by one of the original BC pilots. If that part was just basic narration, I suppose they could have their information wrong.
Yes - I was thinking of the Black Cats. The site I had bookmarked on them seems to have gone 404...but I shouldn't think it would have been a far stretch for them to have been initially gloss and then faded to matte under the tropical sun.
One of the guys I know that researched and painted his Monogram PBY-5 as a Black Cat did it in gloss - he even painted it blue/white first and them black so he could weather through the black paint in spots...he said that was how the paint on the originals was applied. Sounds like they just used what they could get their hands on.
...wish I could find that website.
Here ya go Rufus, if this is the one you had....
That sort of looks like the site I was after - I had a link to a site labeled "Black Cats - USN fighting PBY Catalinas" thatt was here:
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