What color Chinook?

SoD Stitch wrote:

I have been told by those who were there, in particular intruder_bass, that all of the -60's used in the Mog were flat black, not the standard Helo Drab.

I beg to differ...I was there and I saw the particular aircraft in question, it wasn't black. I was with H Co, 159th Avn. We were the AVIM (Aviation Intermediate Level Maintenance) unit in Mogadishu at the airfield and were tasked with providing support for all U.S. (and most of the international) aviation assets there.

We were sent to the port to assess the feasibilty of moving the aircraft that made it there back to the airfield (about a half mile by air...but considerably further by land due to all the ramshackle slums, shacks and mud huts that predominated that hole of a city) by flatbed trailer. It was eventually flown back to the airfield.

Jonathan Primm

urich wrote:

On this line I'm finishing up Micheal Durant's book In The Company Of Heroes. Can any one tell me if his bird super 64 would have been black or helo drab? I also have a MH 47 and MH6 I would like to complete my next trip home. Any AH 64's in the 160th SOAR(A)if so Black?

I have been told by those who were there, in particular intruder_bass, that all of the -60's used in the Mog were flat black, not the standard Helo Drab.

And no, no -64's in the 160th; they were formed primarily for the support and transport of Special Operation Forces (including Army Rangers, Delta, Green Berets, and, occasionally, SEALs), and the -64 (especially the "D") is, essentially, a tank-killer, so no -64's were assigned to them. The most heavily armed aircraft they have in their inventory is the AH-60L DAP, though purists will tell you the "A" designation is not officially used in conjunction with any -60's, it's technically an "armed" MH-60.

urich wrote:

On this line I'm finishing up Micheal Durant's book In The Company Of Heroes. Can any one tell me if his bird super 64 would have been black or helo drab? I also have a MH 47 and MH6 I would like to complete my next trip home. Any AH 64's in the 160th SOAR(A)if so Black?

There weren't any AH-64s assigned to 160th when I was assigned and there aren't any now that I am aware of.

I don't recall the color of all the aircraft used in Somalia, except that one of the Blackhawks that made it to the port was painted in standard "CARC" paint...Of course we are talking about an event that happened over 13 years ago.

At that time MH-47Es hadn't made it to 2nd Battalion and like 3rd battalion, they were using MH-47Ds with a mixed bag of conversions, some had refuel probes, wx radar and flir turrets, while others were straight CH-47Ds. The paint jobs varied as well, some were painted in the standard "CARC" others carried the dark green/black paint.

HTH

Jonathan Primm

Youngsville, LA

All good ideas, thanks. I ended up picking up a bottle of Model Master Army Helo Drab.  Interesting, I did keep shaking it trying to stir up more green, thining it looked a little grey.  I might add some black as suggested, will see.

btw, last night I found a nice book on helos at my local Barnes & Noble.  Here it is on their web site: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=0760781672&pdf=y

The Model Master Helo drab used to look too grey to me, like it has some Gunship Grey mixed into it, but maybe the formula has been changed to darken it up. Im not the only one that noticed how "grey" the Helo drab looked, either now my eyes are totally failing in thier color reception abilities or the formula was changed, because newer bottles dont seem to show this color.

I would definitely darken up Helo drab with some Cockpit Black.

David

Great, thanks for the help! Brian

dariencharlie wrote:

My next project is Italeri's 1/72 MH-47E SOA Chinook. It calls out olive drab for the overall color, but pictures I find on the web look to me to be something darker than olive drab. Any thoughts on that? Brian

You are correct. It definitely isn't OD. The birds we used in 2/160th in the early 90s carried a viariety of colors, some with the standard "CARC" paint (which is a very dark shade of green) and some carried the same paint jobs as the AH-6s and some of the MH-60s...a shade that were just short of being completely black.

I would recommend going with the darkest shade of green you can get, maybe use the U.S. Army Helo Drab and add some black paint to it. But definitely not OD. I am sure there are others who read this forum that will have the exact FS# for this shade.

Jonathan Primm