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B-58 Hustler interior paint questions

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  • Member since
    January 2006
B-58 Hustler interior paint questions
Posted by EPinniger on Monday, July 23, 2007 3:07 PM
Haven't posted in the Aircraft forum here for a long time, but I'm currently building the 1/48 Revell/Monogram (current Revell Germany issue) B-58 Hustler, and am wondering what the correct colours for the cockpit interior and ejector seat are.

I managed to find some photos on the web showing the interior of the wheel bays and the undercarriage bays, which helped a lot with painting these areas, but none of the cockpit (not surprising as the photos are of museum aircraft and the cockpit is not really very visible from ground level!). Hence I'm not sure of the accuracy of the painting instructions.
They specify an overall dark-medium grey colour for the cockpit interior, with black instrument panels, which seems about right to me, but what colour would the "hood" of the pilot's ejector seat be, and would there be any details of the seat mechanism which need painting in a different colour? The instructions specify overall grey (same colour as the rest of the cockpit) for the seat, other than the cushions and seatbelt.

One further question on the 1/48 Hustler - how much weight needs to be added to the nose to stop it being a tail-sitter?

I should add that I'm in the UK and reference material for post-war US aircraft is a bit harder to obtain here (if I were building a Vulcan or Canberra there'd be no problem...)
  • Member since
    March 2007
  • From: Carmel, CA
Posted by bondoman on Monday, July 23, 2007 4:54 PM

The B-58 had a special ejection seat design for supersonic flight, with a hood that could be pulled down. It is a very colorful item.

http://www.ejectionsite.com/safe2002/b58capsule_8.jpg

Bondoman

  • Member since
    May 2015
Posted by Gordon D. King on Monday, July 23, 2007 7:08 PM
I made this model several years ago. It's a nice kit. I painted mine in the traditional Vietnam camouflage. I used this paint scheme after visiting with a USAF ground crew member who said he serviced four B-58s while serving in Vietnam. He also said the Air Force will never admit there were there and made sure no photos were taken of them on the ground. He saw my model and said it was a good representation of those he serviced.
  • Member since
    March 2003
Posted by rangerj on Monday, July 23, 2007 9:13 PM

There is a technical order that has been published that shows the SEA camoflage pattern for the B-58. If I remember right the SEA top is the two tones of green and the tan. The bottom is painted black. This was the "hypothetical" paint scheme. I also have heard of a "flight" of B-58s in SEA camoflage that stopped off in Hawaii on their way to South East Asia. Who knows if any of this is true. The government has never admitted that it happened, or that it was even contemplated. Keep in mind the B-58 is NOT, and never was, a conventional (iron bomb) bomber.

I saw the inside of a B-58 Cockpit "back in the day" and the seats were gloss white, including the hood or ejection pod, or capsule, or whatever it was called. It was definately gloss white

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Southampton England
Posted by Viper Has The Lead on Monday, July 23, 2007 10:45 PM
Hi EP,
         3 good interior cockpit views here, http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet_media.asp?fsID=382
Hope they help. Gorgeous big shiny mean aircraft too !!
Regards,
Mick C.
"All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR.2 simply got the first three right." Sir Sydney Camm
  • Member since
    January 2006
Posted by EPinniger on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 11:20 AM

Thanks to everyone for the information and links. Looks like the interior colour I picked is more or less right, for at least some B-58s (though some photos show it to be painted in white or very light grey) - but I'm surprised to see the seat cushions are actually red-brown. Looks like some repainting of the ejector seat will definitely be necessary - I just painted the whole thing dark grey with black cushions and light brown seatbelts, luckily I haven't glued it in place yet!

The Hustler has been one of my favourite Cold War US aircraft ever since I built the Italeri 1/72 kit, as a kid in the 1980s. I will definitely be painting my 1/48 model in silver rather than SEA camouflage (though the latter is actually one of the 3 options on the Revell kit)

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Pominville, NY
Posted by BlackWolf3945 on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 1:01 PM

In addition to the link that Viper provided, there are also a number of other views of B-58 crew stations on the NMUSAF site. Go HERE and scroll down to the B-58 section...

Bondoman posted a link to an image from a page on the Ejection Site... here's the link to the full page with more images...

 

And here's an image I found somewhere on the net which shows a number of details, mainly the interiors of the crew hatches...

 

Fade to Black... 

  • Member since
    January 2006
Posted by EPinniger on Saturday, July 28, 2007 8:29 AM
Very interesting - didn't realise that the B-58's ejection seats were like this; it explains what the "hood" is for, anyway!

Here's a photo of the finished and painted cockpit - all it needs is a placard on the top of the seat clamshell, which will be added as a decal (from the spares box) later:



I've now assembled the airframe, other than the engines - a serious amount of filling and sanding was needed (the fit of both the lower nose section and the tail/fin section is terrible) but it looks fairly good now
I'll post some photos of the finished model, when it's eventually done.
  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Southampton England
Posted by Viper Has The Lead on Saturday, July 28, 2007 4:50 PM
Hello again EP,
                     Very nice work on the interiors, hope the models on my bench end up with interiors that look half as good. Do please pop some pics in here when you have it done, I'm sure it'll be handsome indeed Smile [:)]
Best Wishes,
Mick C.
"All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR.2 simply got the first three right." Sir Sydney Camm
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