Help & Suggestions for Ordnance

Decal striping is one option, fine tipped paint pens another, or colored pencils even. If you are masking off seeker heads or radomes, Tamiya masking tape works just fine. Just a quick technical note on striping colors- Brown is for live rocket motors, yellow for live warheads, blue is used for inert (training rounds) of either type. black striping was seen on early US missiles but seems to have gone away by late in the Vietnam War. Red is NOT a color used in US missile or rocket striping or warheads.

Thank you! That is a big help - especially the notes on the colors! I really appreciate it.

Youre very welcome. If in doubt, do some image searches on the particular missile you are painting for exact colors and placement of those. On longer lived missiles such as Sparrow and Sidewinder that changed during the eapons lifetime as they evolved.

ahh, bless you Stik, for helping to debunk the "red stripe myth"

what so many modelers call Red stripes, and so many others call Brown stripes,,,,,,,,were Red-Brown stripes just slightly darker than the South East Asia camouflage Tan color,,,,,,in other words,,,,,Red-Brown FS 30117

here is the list of colors and their usage, keeping in mind that the codes were for safetie's sake, so , even though you could vary your Olive Drab body color for paint batches, weathering, etc,,,,,,,,NO ONE that kept his stripes ever painted a Red-Brown stripe where a Light Red stripe should go, etc

Olive Drab 34087,,,,,,bomb body, etc,,,,,varied in shade somewhat

Yellow 33538,,,,,,,,,,, High Explosive,,,,the nose stripes on bombs, missile warheads, etc

Red-Brown 30117,,,,,Low Explosive,,,,denotes rocket motors on rockets and missiles

Dk Gull Gray 36231,,Chemical weapons bodies,,,,,a different gray than the "modern bomb color gray"

Red 31136,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Irritant agent, such as tear gas, etc

Black 37038,,,,,,,,,,,,,Armor defeating,,,,,,not used much since the sixties

Dark Green 24108,,,,,Toxic Agent,,,,,nerve gas, etc,,,,the bomb body is the Dk Gull Gray, the stripes are Green for Toxic, or Red for Irritants, with different numbers of stripes for each specific chemical in each group

Silver/Aluminum,,,,,,,17178 Countermeasures

Light Green 34449,,,,,Smoke or Marker (some stores would get the Light Red, instead)

Light Red 31158,,,,,,,,Incendiary or Highly Flammable,,,,,,Napalm, some stores that could be considered as Smoke, but, used to start smaller fires than Nape,,,,,,,this is the real color of that Red "drop tank" in the Osprey Skyraider book,,,,,,,those are really MK 79 Napalms

White 37875,,,,,,,,,,,,,Illuminating

Light Blue 35109,,,,,,,Training

Orange 32246,,,,,,,,,,,Training/Tracking,,,,,,this is the "other" Orange named International Orange, it is much "oranger" than the Redish tinted International Orange 12197,,,,but, both were in use during the same years

in addition, there is a newer bomb body color of 36375 for bombs and some guidance pods,,,,and some parts of modern bombs use both Olive Drab (34088) and 34095 for different parts,,,,,,,,,and some 36118 on guidance pods

the notes are my own, added for the fun of it, lol

as far as painting methods go,,,,,,,I have just recently changed my method from two steps into a three step process, because of the color of primers I have now

now, I paint the bomb or missile with either Olive Drab or White Primer in the location of the stripes, paint some stripe color over those areas, mask off the stripes with Line-O-Tape or liquid mask sliced with a hobby knife, and spray the rest of the weapon with the body color in Olive Drab or White Primer, this saves me tape, because I don't try to mask parallel lines with two pieces of tape,,,,,,,I just mask actual lines with one piece

don't worry about this method getting the lines "too perfect", you will still get enough variation in your stripes to look good,,,,,,if you try to vary too much in 1/72 or 1/48, you could end up with 3 inch stripes in real like looking like they were painted 6 inches away from their goal,,,,,,,,with a 5 inch brush

so, there is my biased perspective,,,,,,,,,,,almost 90% of my collection is/will be from the era where bombs or missiles will be external ordnance

Rex

oh, for noses, if you don't like the liquid masking

use the "different diameters of tape tubes" idea,,,,,,make some tubes of tape, starting at the front end, after painting the very face of the bomb, if it has one, stick the bomb into your smallest tube,,,paint, let dry, make another tube that slides up the bomb the right distance, paint again,,,,,,,,make another tube, switching colors again,,,,,,each time you paint, you are moving towards the rear of the bomb,,,,,after you do 1, 2 or 3 stripes, you should be at the point where you can use your last tube size, and paint the body of the bomb

Now THERE is a good comprehensive answer. I am fairly certain that the color code stripes are standard across NATO, and not just US weapons.

Tarn, perhaps you want to explain the one vs two yellow stripes on modern Navy bombs since mid Vietnam War.

okay, Stik,,,,,I will give the one vs two vs three Yellow stripes info

for many years, since the 1950s sometime, and right on up through the years with the new Douglas shaped Mk 80 series bombs,,,,,,,they were given one Yellow 33538 stripe at the nose area, the location could and did vary a bit, it wasn't always right on the nose behind the fuze

then, there were three very serious carrier fires during the Vietnam conflict, causing a re-think in the bombs, and the handling of them onboard ship

they came up with an Ablative coating, to slow down the "cook-off" rate, increasing the time that the fire crews had to put out a fire, and cutting down on the number of cook-offs before the bombs could be jettisoned overboard on little chutes place strategically around the edge of the flight deck

these Ablative Coating bombs got Two of the Yellow stripes, spaced the same distance apart as one stripe width

some say they didn't make it into Vietnam conflict,,,,but there are photos of "two stripe bombs" as early as 1971 being dropped and on the flight deck of carriers,,,,,so, yeah, they made it into the conflict (see Osprey A-7 units of Vietnam, page 37 for photo of VA-192 in 1971)

so, at the same time that Navy aircraft on deck would have the two stripes,,,,,Navy, Marine and USAF aircraft could be seen on land with only one stripe,,,,,,two stripes became somewhat common later on, on any Navair aircraft,,,,,but, USAF still used one stripe, since they didn't need the Ablative Coating

another stripe was added in more modern times to denote a bomb filled with a certain explosive filler,,,,,,,for example, the Thermally Protected BLU-111A/B, which is a bomb (1st stripe) with Thermal Protection (2nd), filled with PBXN-109 Explosive Filler (3rd stripe),,,,,with a 36375 Light Ghost Gray body

Rex

Oh something new to me!!! I had not seen or read about a three striper bombs before. Based upon the gray body, I presume these are a newer weapon?

yeah,,,,wayyyyy after my time in uniform, lol

somewhere in the last ten or fifteen years, I think

they form the basis of the small 500 pound GPS guided bombs,,,if you see any "whole Yellow stripe" behind that nose collar,,,,they are this new thing,,,,,,if you don't see a line there, just Yellow scraps showing through,,,,,they are the old two stripe bomb

Wow guys!! Thanks a TON for all this great input! Serious valuable information for someone who has no idea that the colors even had specific meanings like that. I really like the idea of painting the stripes first then masking those off and painting the body color - I will give that a try!