60's aircraft color

Airforce aircraft were never Gull Gray, as far as I know. Some were SAC gray whatever color that is. Many/ most were bare metal or SEA camo or endless special schemes.

I'm sure this bird is a mixture of bare metal, silver laquer and color paint.

All ANG aircraft I've ever seen were either SEA camo or metal, mostly, up until recently.

Millions of colors, that's the fun of modelling.  IPMS Stockholm is a starting point, here:

http://ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_us.htm

Fine Scale Modeler did a special issue some months back that I'm sure you can still get, in it Paul Boyer did an article specifically on this subject, 1995-2001 U S Military Aircraft Colors, with all the colors cross referenced with model paint brands.  Kalmback probably has it available on this website.

Many Air Force aircraft of that period, (F-84, F-89, F-105) to name a few started life as bare metal.  This allowed rain water to get into many of the equipment bays which wreaked havoc with electronics and accelerated corrosion.  The solution was to paint the entire aircraft with silver lacquer.  This can be replicated with an airbrush or aerosol can fairly easily.

Darwin, O.F.

bondoman wrote:

..... Some were SAC gray whatever color that is. Many/ most were bare metal or SEA camo or endless special schemes.

I think you may be referring to "ADC Gray" (FS 16473)

Most interceptors (F-101B, F-102A, F-106A) were ADC gray, 16473. Long after the 60's, F-4's assigned to ADC/NORAD would receive this overall color as well. Most of the other TAC   (F-100, F-101A/C, F-104A/C, F-105B/D/F)  aircraft were in originally NMF and often later were repainted in Aluminum Lacquer in the early/mid 60's after upgrades/overhauls. The F-110, aka F-4 came off the production line in the Navy scheme of Gull Gray 36440 over White. This was probably due to the plane originally being a NAVY bird. Developmental F-111's, being an "interservice aircraft", also wore these colors. Those of the above listed planes that went to SEA would start recieving their camo schemes starting in 65. As the war wore on, nearly the entire Air Force would eventually recieve some sort of camoflage paint scheme.

Cockpits were usually Dark Gull Gray, and wheel wells on Air Force Aircraft varied from Silver to Interior Green, and later Gloss White, depending on the aircraft. Navy aircraft after the Gray over White scheme was introduced had Gloss White Wheel wells and Dark Gull Gray cockpits.

That F-102 in the picture was gloss gray with the high-vis colors.

The F-106 was also gloss gray and most transportswere gray and white with a blue line seperating the colors such as on the C-141, C-5, and T-39.  The prime exception to this would be the C-130.  Most were camoflaged for S.E.A. but I have seen some MC-130s black and green, Ac-130As black with camoflaged tops and later overall black, AC-130Hs overall black and later dark gray.  I have seen some C-130s with some unusal modifications or configurations and various paint jobs.

Your best bet would be to check books to see what version you are going to do and what the colors you need are.

This is great, I appreciate the info.  Looking at the picture of the F-102, the aircraft does appear to be in silver.  Checking vintage pictures over the internet however, virtually all F-102's appeared to be in an overall gray.  I guess National Air Defense interceptors for NORAD were distinguished from TAC aircraft that were silver.  The F-102 probably is in the wrong color scheme, that's happened before to museum aircraft.  The F-102 at Travis AFB in central California is in overall gray, here's a picture of it.

F-102's and F-106's were painted all over Aircraft Gray or ADC Gray, wheel wells and gear doors were ZC Green. landing gear struts where metalic gray or dark silver. Pit interior of the F-106 was Neutral Gray.

I hope this may be of some help to you. The basic color for the F-102 all gray color was the F.S.16473 (light gray) and the vietnam camo version. Another tool you can use is GOOGLE, enter the plane you are building and get an abundance of information of deifferent variant of colors used, if applicable to the plane. During the era you inquiring about, most planes had a zinc chromate color on all interior body color except for the cockpit which was either black ot different tones of gray.

The FS (federal specification) number of every modern US military color begins with either a 1, 2 or 3: this denotes whether the color is matte, semi-gloss or gloss.