Vietnam War Painting Guide

The following notes are only a rough guide, when it comes to depicting the models in their fighting colours it has to be remembered that they are only 1/600th scale (i.e. about 2cm long) so there's no point in going all out for accuracy and authenticity. Impressionism is the way to go, stick with the basic overall scheme and only add the odd flourish if you feel up to it.

AMERICA & ALLIES

US Air Force planes wore a three colour camouflage of olive green, dark green and sand. Radar equipped types had black radomes. The majority had very light grey undersides but some ground attack planes had a 'wrap around' scheme which had the camouflage colours continuing underneath. Some Starfighters stayed in bare metal. Light planes and helicopters were normally olive green, though larger types often had the three colour scheme. OV-10s were grey except in the Marines who stuck with dark olive green. Night-bombing B-52s had black under surfaces, sides and fins.

The standard US Navy and Marine scheme was light 'gull' grey uppers with gloss white undersurfaces and either gloss black or white radomes; as per the photos of the F-4 above (San Diego Air & Space Museum) and F-8 to the right (Intrepid museum ship, New York). Carrier planes tended to sport flashy unit markings such as red and white sunrays, lightning bolts etc.

South Vietnamese planes used the US three colour scheme (but with red and yellow bars on the national markings) and Australian Canberras were camouflaged in dark grey and dark green

NORTH VIETNAM

Fighters generally came in standard Communist bare metal. Occasionally a stippled green was applied on top of the metal and MiGs sometimes sported various ad hoc schemes, normally based around dark green. All carried North Vietnamese Air Force stars and prominent 'bort' numbers (nose ID numbers) in red.

US, South Vietnamese

and North Vietnamese

national insignia

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