Newbie / OV-10

[AKPilot]

Morning. I introduced myself under the newbie section, but I'm Troy. Am retired, active duty, Air Force, and now working for Boeing Defense here in StL.

 

 

I need some help and hope someone here can assist me.

 

I'm building an Academy 1/72 OV-10 as a precursor to an r/c project. I'd like to experiment with some techniques on this kit and then, in turn, use similar on the r/c aircraft. (wingspan will be approximately 60"). I've done a fair amount of research on the internet without any success in what I'm looking for. So my question is two-fold:

 

1- Would anyone happen to know where I can find a color chart of U.S. Air Force aircraft from the early/mids '80s? I'm modeling my OV-10 after one at Osan AB, Korea, from 1986.

It appears that it's a modified Vietnam scheme. The major difference is that the 'tan' has been replaced.

 

2 - Having scoured the internet, I'm finding it very difficult to find any hard pics of the cockpit. I've looked a couple of the OV-10 societies, but they're mainly pics of the outside. Where could I go to find further technical data/pics of the cockpit.

 

Any help, anyone can give, would greatly be appreciated.

 

Tks

[mquan]

Hi Troy. Answer to #2, there are no published sources that come immediately to mind about interior OV-10A shots, especially if you are looking to scale up for your RC project. Might I suggest that you contact the OV-10 FAC Museum in Ft Worth (they are online) to ask if they can shoot interior shots of their 1:1 example for you?

Answer to #1 - the scheme you are commenting on is called Euro I camo. It had (IIRC) gunship gray 36118 replacing the tan 30219 in a Vietnam-like pattern. Best place to search for the overall pattern would be to see if you can get a hold of the Tech Order 1-1-4 from that era. Updates since then or prior to that time would not have had that page - I am thinking change 50-60 from the current revision of that document of that time.

 

HTH,

Mike Quan

Edited December 20, 2010 by mquan

[AKPilot]

Thanks Mike for your response. Any other responses/ideas are still welcomed.

 

Yes, I've been in touch with the museum down in Texas. On-line they still had the Squadron Signal book available, but when I contacted them they stated the website hadn't been updated. I did ask if they had any interior shots of their aircraft, but they haven't responded back in a few days.

 

As for the paint job, it looks to be that I'm on target with Mike's response. I went to a web site, www.jpsmodell.de and found the USAFE 1 type camo, which looked similar to our aircraft when I was stationed at Zweibrucken AB GM. Knowing that 36118 replaced the older SEA color helps tremendously.

 

Which leads me to my next question . . .

 

What's the best source for paints of the FSN variety? I do have an airbrush but have never used it, so am leaning initially towards rattle cans. Does any manufacturer carry a variety of matt military colors?

 

Again, thanks for your continued support and interest in this thread.

[mquan]

FS 595 colors in rattle cans are best sourced from Tamiya IMHO. If you want to airbrush, I can recommend using the Model Master line of enamels, along with their own brand of airbrush thinner, for best results. All can be found in your local hobbby shop or Hobbytown USA.

Good Luck with your project,

Mike

[VonL]

FWIW - If you wanna do a Euro-I camo OV-10, it looks like you're in there, with the advise above.

 

While that camo scheme follows a very SEA-ish type pattern, the Vietnam-era USAF OV-10's of which I've seen pix (FACs, typ.) flew in a two-tone gray scheme: I think the fuselage was close to Neutral Gray, or maybe Aircraft gray, while the wing was a very much lighter gray, maybe the almost-white stuff that was below the SEA camo on the jets?

[AKPilot]

Actually, the OV-10A that I'm modeling is one of those from the base I was stationed at back in '86; Osan AB, S. Korea. They were using the tri-color camo then. I do have a pic but, am not familiar with the FSN colors well enough.

 

I take it there's no 'one stop shop' that lists the USAF colors being used or camo schemes? My company owns the rights to the OV-10s, but I'm not even sure where to begin searching for those - and I'm in the Tech Data section, as is.

 

Oh, btw, I did find an after market cockipit for my kit (Academy 1/72) made by Czech Master Kits.

 

 

Next, I need to find a good community college class that can teach me airbrushing techniques.

 

 

[aAzZ09]

Troy, you can find many publications on airbrushing, i.e.,example: Kalmbach Publishers, plus a plethora of magazine artices from Fine Scale Modeler over the last 20 years as an alternative to attending classes.There are many other publications out there on this subject. The OV-10's paint scheme should be a lot easier to do than the standard World War II Axis aircraft such as the Me-109, FW-190, Ju-88, Ki-44 Tojo, etc. I taught myself to do airbrushing back in the early 1970's. Due to my busy schedule in the aerospace business, I couldn't attend many of the IPMS meetings to learn from other modelers. I selected a simple subject, an F6F-3 Hellcat, and after some trial and error on a practice sheet of plastic, successfully completed it. After some practice, you'll get the hang of it. Merry Christmas,

 

Mark Fiedler (aAzZ09)

IPMS#14333

[AKPilot]

Thanks Mark for the ideas and suggestions. I'll go back and see if I can find any old copies of those magazines. Maybe my library will have them.

 

As for details, I was able to find some Eduard and CKM parts. Man though, for a '90s kit, these parts are hard to find.

 

Even the Squadron Signals book, OV-10 Bronco in Action, is out of print and that was only for 1995.

[AKPilot]

Received my detail kits yesterday, am pretty pumped. Need some more reference material, color photos, of the cockpit.

 

The kit says it's green walls, but as I recall they were aviation grey.

[VonL]

Have got a .pdf copy of the camoflage T.O. 1-1-4 and can send you scans of the OV-10 pages for the Euro-I camo, if you need them. FS color designations are called out in the T.O. and these colors are all available out there in model-land.