FS 28915 / ANA 634 spray paint?

[SolarYellow]

Yesterday, I went down a rabbit hole on the Aerobee-Hi.

Best I can reason, after doing a bunch of research, is that the orange on the airframe in 1957 was most likely FS 28915 / ANA 634.



Several model paint companies used to make the FS 28915 / ANA 634 color, but they are all discontinued. I did find someone in Italy with nine 14mL cans of the Humbrol enamel left to sell. But that would be really expensive, not a lot of paint, and I don't know what condition it will be in or how old it really is at this point.



Trying to figure out what color orange paints really are on the internet starts to seem like a stupid waste of time very quickly, as looking up four images of things painted with a specific paint will show you seven different colors. Digital cameras, monitors, etc. apparently suck at capturing and reproducing oranges accurately. Even going brick and mortar, caps rarely actually match the paint color. Hence the racks at mega hardware stores around here widely being used as test panels.

Just wondering if any of the scale nerds around here happen to know of an off-the-shelf, reasonably useable spray paint that is as close as you can reasonably get. Not trying to compete in a scale contest, just trying to tip my hat as fairly to the original as possible.

Currently looking at various Allis Chalmers tractor paints and Duplicolor 1620 Chevy Orange or 1607 Chevy Red-Orange. Tamiya TS-12 and TS-31 are also candidates, but photos of things said to be painted with either of those vary widely in color. And these all lack the flourescent, which is an obvious problem.

 

[SolarYellow]

Additionally, considering the following:

Krylon K03101777
https://www.krylon.com/en/products/specialty/fluorescent-paint#accordion-50199350c3-item-e27be18e8d
Createx Fluorescent 5409 Orange
https://createxairbrushcolors.com/fluorescent

 

[SolarYellow]

Went to a few stores this evening. What I wrote above about monitors not reproducing flourescents, or oranges in general, worth anything at all bears repeating.

 

[Ez2cDave]

Yesterday, I went down a rabbit hole on the Aerobee-Hi.

Best I can reason, after doing a bunch of research, is that the orange on the airframe in 1957 was most likely FS 28915 / ANA 634.

View attachment 578987

Several model paint companies used to make the FS 28915 / ANA 634 color, but they are all discontinued. I did find someone in Italy with nine 14mL cans of the Humbrol enamel left to sell. But that would be really expensive, not a lot of paint, and I don't know what condition it will be in or how old it really is at this point.

View attachment 578988

Trying to figure out what color orange paints really are on the internet starts to seem like a stupid waste of time very quickly, as looking up four images of things painted with a specific paint will show you seven different colors. Digital cameras, monitors, etc. apparently suck at capturing and reproducing oranges accurately. Even going brick and mortar, caps rarely actually match the paint color. Hence the racks at mega hardware stores around here widely being used as test panels.

Just wondering if any of the scale nerds around here happen to know of an off-the-shelf, reasonably useable spray paint that is as close as you can reasonably get. Not trying to compete in a scale contest, just trying to tip my hat as fairly to the original as possible.

Currently looking at various Allis Chalmers tractor paints and Duplicolor 1620 Chevy Orange or 1607 Chevy Red-Orange. Tamiya TS-12 and TS-31 are also candidates, but photos of things said to be painted with either of those vary widely in color. And these all lack the flourescent, which is an obvious problem.

What about the orange used on the JAYHAWK ? . . . FS 12246

 

[SolarYellow]

Don't know why that was painted FS-12246.

Both MIL-C-18263F and MIL-STD-2161C specify FS-28915 for target drones. That makes me hopeful that the practice of target drones being that color goes back to the MIL-C-18263A era.

 

[Ez2cDave]

Don't know why that was painted FS-12246.

Both MIL-C-18263F and MIL-STD-2161C specify FS-28915 for target drones. That makes me hopeful that the practice of target drones being that color goes back to the MIL-C-18263A era.

I have good data for the AQM-37A JAYHAWK . . . Sending you a PM.

Dave F.

 

[PeterAlway]

Evidence of the orange aerobee Hi color is pretty slim. G Harry Stine claimed the Aerobee Hi NRL-41, the basis of the original Model Missiles kit was orange with one black fin and two white fins. A black and white photo of Aerobee Hi NRL-42 shows it to be a uniformly painted medium shade with fins that are consistent with one black and two white. Color photos of Aerobee Hi rockets show two color schemes. either all white with one black fin, or the mix of metallic sections and grey sections, with bronze fins, as seen on later Aerobee 150 rockets.

It seems likely that NRL-41 and NRL-41 had the same color scheme, both because they are adjacent NRL numbers, and because both were painted with one non-white shade on the body (orange, according to Stine on NRL-41 and a mystery color on NRL-42. This is not absolutely certain, of course.

If bothe NRL-41 and NRL-42 were orange, was it a fluorescent orange? If the one available photo of NRL-42 was oritinally a black-and-white shot, it gives us a clue. Fluorescent orange paint shows up as white in black and white photos. The fact that NRL-42 looks some medium shade in the one photo we have, indicates that that the rocket would have been painted with a non-fluorescent orange.

If the photo of NRL-42 were originally color, then the orange would show up as dark grey or even black when it was reproduced in black white. The medium grey color in the B&W photo makes me think it was originally a B&W photo.

All of this could be proven wrong, but lacking further evidence, I would paint Aerobee His NRL-41 and NRL-42 a non-fluorescent bright orange.

Peter Alway

 

[PeterAlway]

I was searching for something else on my flash drives last night, and I stumbled onto a screen grab from this youtube video:
at 13:36 there is color film of the launch of an Aerobee Hi with an orange body and a 15" white payload extension. This may or may not be flight NRL 42, but it certainly is one of the orange Aerobee Hi flights. The color reproduction is pretty awful, due to age. Also orange often turns red in film reproduction. So I am still relying on G Harry Stine's choice of orange color for the Model Missiles kit, since he actually saw the things. So even though a color chip comparison might make you think it's reddish brown, it's the best I've seen.

I don't *think* it's fluorescent, but I don't have proof.

 

[Ez2cDave]

I was searching for something else on my flash drives last night, and I stumbled onto a screen grab from this youtube video:
at 13:36 there is color film of the launch of an Aerobee Hi with an orange body and a 15" white payload extension. This may or may not be flight NRL 42, but it certainly is one of the orange Aerobee Hi flights. The color reproduction is pretty awful, due to age. Also orange often turns red in film reproduction. So I am still relying on G Harry Stine's choice of orange color for the Model Missiles kit, since he actually saw the things. So even though a color chip comparison might make you think it's reddish brown, it's the best I've seen.

I don't *think* it's fluorescent, but I don't have proof.

Nice find, Peter !

Here is a cropped frame from that video . . . It does not look fluorescent to me, either.

Dave F.

 

[Ez2cDave]

I found another launch photo . . .