Nightfighter/Bomber Camouflage

[Librarian]

Has anyone ever truly worked out an effective colour for nocturnal camouflage. I know in WWII both British/Empire/Commonwealth and German fighter aircraft drifted away from black to greys whilst bombers stayed black. I think the USAF/USN has stuck with black or dark green but has there ever been an answer? I know it depends on altitude and whether the camouflage is effective from below and above, moonlight, cloud cover , terrain etc but I really need to know for a very high altitude nocturnal bomber (non-atomic/nuclear mission).

[PR19_Kit]

Very, very dark blue? Non-specular would work best I'd imagine.

[TallEng]

After thinking about it for all of 10mins, I too think a very dark blue/purple
Type colour.... Like Lufthansa Tail fin blue only with more black/very dark grey in the mix.
You might want to think about another lighter colour to break up the outline, perhaps
Applied to both top and bottom (depending on wether you think it's likely to be
Intercepted at the High Altitude it would fly at.) Moonlit cloud is the lighter colour
I'm thinking of so probably a silvery medium Sea grey? (All colours in 'S' type finish)

Regards
Keith

[kitnut617]

It was found that glossy colours worked better at reflecting search-light beams away whereas very flat/matt colours absorbed the light.

Doing my Supermarine Spectre (a twin Spitfire), I'm using Glossy Sea Blue on the top side and Satin Black on the undersides.  Although not the best photo, you can just make out the difference between the GSB spinner and the SB prop blades

[sandiego89]

For very high, night, I too think very dark blue would be best.  If your aircraft is super high speed, above upper MACH 2 or more, black is your best bet as there are very few colors that can stand the heat.  
 
Matte likely more effective, but gloss lasts much longer on real aircraft.   Perhaps surprisingly gloss was effective against searchlights.  

Have Blue/F-117 study determined that pastel colors, like robins egg blue or pink, would be the best camouflage for medium altitude and night- but AF objected and went black- no real fighter pilot flies an aircraft painted like an Easter egg.  

Interesting read here, that says the higher up, the darker the camoflage should be:

http://books.google.com/books?id=heS0lbYrpAwC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=lockheed+f-117+pastel+blue&source=bl&ots=9bklMsCD-m&sig=mqsSLkELcX75gK3BXQ3RPEr3vZw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dd9PVIyMBYKmNrGJhJAM&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=lockheed%20f-117%20pastel%20blue&f=false

[Librarian]

Have to say I'm rather taken with the combination of dark blues, dark purples, and black. Maybe a dazzle pattern. Thanks for the help.

[Captain Canada]

Interesting stuff ! Thanks for the link to the article as well.

[Dizzyfugu]

Strangely, many German WWII night fighters were considerably lightened up with RLM 76. Initial paint scheme was a semi-gloss all-black, which eventually ended in all RLM 76 aircraft. No idea why they went that way, but the dark scheme(s) were not effective, at least in the European theatre of operations?

[kitnut617]

Reading 'Nightfighter' about Cunningham & Rawnsleys exploits during WWII, it says the black their Beaufighter was painted stuck out like a sore thumb against the cloud background, and they liked to creep up on their target by flying just inside the clouds, popping up at the last minute for the final attack. Only to be seen at that very last minute ---  The Germans on the other hand liked to fly just above the clouds and as soon as they spotted something on the tail, dove into the clouds --

[zenrat]

You'd probably do best having a selection of different aircraft and then choose the one with the paint job that matched the weather and the phase of the moon.

[Librarian]

A 'Predator' camouflage skin. Always thought a cloaking device in sci-fi was a bit of a cop out but a chameleonic fuselage.... like "Through a Scanner..".

Be interesting to find a really good read on the subject. I've spoken to several veterans in my life and have always been interesting in their thoughts on the subject. Wish I'd taped them now. My Uncle distinctly remembered that the Japanese planes in a dogfight would almost vanish from sight once the terrain was below them but were easy to pick out when straffing them on an airfield. There's raging arguments on the WWW about the red on Japanese markings. He clearly remembered that they were not bright red but almost rusty brown, not as stand-outish as people believed. That was in Burma anyway....

[scooter]

Have to say I'm rather taken with the combination of dark blues, dark purples, and black. Maybe a dazzle pattern. Thanks for the help.

That's why all my fighters in Republik Kiautschou thread in the Asiarama GB are in some form of lozenge, including the "stealth" fighters.

[Librarian]

I would love to do lozenge but it scares the **** out of me, not just the application but the cost of decal sheets (this is 1/48 bomber size). That Fairey Rotodyne is certainly along the route I would go. Thanks for the link.

[scooter]

I would love to do lozenge but it scares the **** out of me, not just the application but the cost of decal sheets (this is 1/48 bomber size). That Fairey Rotodyne is certainly along the route I would go. Thanks for the link.

DIY decal printer paper and the appropriate lozenge patterns from the interwebs would probably be cheaper than ordering separate sheets.  Unless Colin wants to do a discount.  Most of my patterns did come from Google searches, save the Paint Shop Nightmare on page 1.  A number patterns came from here.