USN land-based camouflage?

[pyro-manic]

OK, for the '46 GB, I'm doing a land-based USN Hellcat. I'm having trouble coming up with a sensible camouflage scheme for it. There isn't a real scheme that's appropriate (they're all blues and light greys), and I don't want to just copy a USAAF scheme (I don't think the USN would want to do that, no matter how hard-pressed they were!). So, can anyone think of a good camo pattern and colour scheme? The aircraft is going to be an interceptor, knocking down Japanese bombers over the Eastern Pacific (my scenario is the IJN destroyed the US battleship fleet at Pearl, then wiped out the carriers in the following battles at Coral Sea and Midway, giving them control of most of the Pacific and allowing them to base bombers at their various island bases to attack Hawaii and California).

[Taiidantomcat]

OK, for the '46 GB, I'm doing a land-based USN Hellcat. I'm having trouble coming up with a sensible camouflage scheme for it. There isn't a real scheme that's appropriate (they're all blues and light greys), and I don't want to just copy a USAAF scheme (I don't think the USN would want to do that, no matter how hard-pressed they were!). So, can anyone think of a good camo pattern and colour scheme? The aircraft is going to be an interceptor, knocking down Japanese bombers over the Eastern Pacific (my scenario is the IJN destroyed the US battleship fleet at Pearl, then wiped out the carriers in the following battles at Coral Sea and Midway, giving them control of most of the Pacific and allowing them to base bombers at their various island bases to attack Hawaii and California).

If its land based but high flying blue still makes since, albeit a toned down blue. I know grays are a little over done but Maybe like the three tone blue pacific scheme with grays? You could also go with a dark green like USMC green as opposed to olive drabs like the USAAC

[messmeister]

The way I am seeing it, it would depend on whether Air Supremacy has been achieved or not, if it has Natural Metal would be a possibility since you are think Air to Air missions, if no Air Supremacy than you could have greys (which is usually dull but doing a subject grey that isn't normally gray can be interesting), or overall light blue, or try some of the RAAF schemes overall Foilage green for eg or Foilage green over grey etc. A foilage green hellcat would look pretty cool.

[Radish]

Dark Earth and Foliage Green would look nice, over a medium grey or even a medium blue.

If it's based on an island, you could go for Coral Pink like some P-39s and P-40s?

I'd thought of a USMC F4U-1 with a splinter pattern of pinks, but never built it.

[Maverick]

There's always the blue-grey over grey the USMC used for their bombers & fighters at times during the Pacific War.  I expect it would be effective enough as an air-to-air camouflage.

Regards,

Mav

[NARSES2]

Hi Pyro

My own scenario is somewhat similar to yours but must admit hadn't thought of USN land based aircraft camo schemes.

Personally I think you'd still have the basic blues and greys if the aircrafts main role was interceptions out at sea. If however the aircraft were intended to intercept bombers that have already crossed the West Coast then possibly sand/pink schemes that Rad suggests for Southern based aircraft and dark green/red brown for more northerly based aircraft. Takes account of the colours of the topography ? In both cases  deep blue lower surfaces ?

Chris

[jcf]

So I'm guessing your Japanese bombers are something along the lines of a B-36? That is what they'd need as Hawaii and the West Coast
are a long way from the area the Japanese controlled.

The only 'big' airbase the Japanese had in the Western/Central Pacific was on the island of Roi, part of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall
Chain. However even that runway is only about 4500' long, over a thousand feet less than the jet-boosted B-36D needed to take-off.
Any Japanese equivalent would have the same issues. It is also over 2,400 miles from Oahu, 4,800 miles to the Seattle area, 5,000
to Southern California, and over 6,000 to Wichita and/or Dallas/Fort Worth.

So, as the Midway campaign was intended as the prelude to a hoped for invasion of the Hawaiian Islands, a Japanese occupied
Hawaii would give you more options. Provided, of course, you can get the Imperial Japanese Army to agree, in the RW they were
not interested in invading the Islands as they had more than enough to do in Asia and the SW Pacific. The book Hawaii Under
the Rising Sun deals with the issues in detail.

Even with bases in Hawaii, it would still be a hell of a haul to the West Coast, raids to the interior even more difficult and the
supply chain from Japan a fragile logistical nightmare.

As to the question of camouflage, the early war Blue-grey over Light grey or, for simplified logistics, USAAC style OD over neutral
grey are the most likely. A Brit/Euro style green and red-brown camo is unlikely as in the 1940s neither Southern California nor the
Puget Sound area looked much like the agricultural regions of England and Western Europe.  Think mountains, forests and water
for the Northwest and mountains, forest and grasslands/desert for the Southwest. Any of the grey and green schemes (think Banff
Mossies perhaps) would be a possible for the NW and perhaps a sand and green over grey for the SW. It could also vary by time of
year as grey-over-white or grey-on-grey disappears round these parts (Puget Sound) in the winter. 

[sandiego89]

I vote natural metal for those based on the continental west coast like California, and olive drab for those based in Oregon and points North. 

Think you could expand the scenario to include a Japanese pressence in Alaska, that would comlicate Allied planning greatly.   

[pyro-manic]

JCF: Yes, the bombers would be a mix of monstrous heavies and some fast twin-engined carrier based jobs. Maybe they got something useful out of their balloons as well. Plus sub-launched V1s, of course.

Thanks for all your input, gents - I'll have to mull it over some more, but you've been very helpful.

[Jschmus]

Another detail to consider is that (per the National Museum of Naval Aviation) nose art was largely confined to land-based Navy and USMC aircraft.  Apparently carrier-based squadrons didn't use it much.