Patriot Missile Paint Scheme

[Green Jello]

In our hobby, there are many different models of Patriots, and they all seem to have this color scheme:



Whenever I look around the net at the real ones, they are almost always like this:

Do any of you military experts know what the deal is?

 

[Rex R]

the first photo shows a patriot in a testing paint scheme (shows up nice in photos), 2nd pic is the as deployed item. since they are normally kept in a box until launch where you can't see them...there is little need for a fancy paint scheme(plus it would interfere with the ablative coating).
rex

 

[Boosterdude]

I was at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center last Friday and got these pictures of the Patriot. I also have a picture some where that shows a picture of a deployed Patriot that is painted all flat black. No the best lighting on these pics, but you get the idea.

 

[Green Jello]

Cool shot of the fins. You can see the diamond airfoil shape.

 

[FastCargo]

I was at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center last Friday and got these pictures of the Patriot. I also have a picture some where that shows a picture of a deployed Patriot that is painted all flat black. No the best lighting on these pics, but you get the idea.

Interesting....it looks like the fins almost reach all the way to the tail, and that there is almost no tail cone, unlike the old Estes Patriot Pro.

FC

 

[Boosterdude]

Interesting....it looks like the fins almost reach all the way to the tail, and that there is almost no tail cone, unlike the old Estes Patriot Pro.

FC

The fins stop about an 1/2" from the bottom of the boat tail. The boat tail doesn't taper very much at all.

 

[Boosterdude]

Cool shot of the fins. You can see the diamond airfoil shape.

Yep, that's why I took it for some scale details. However, when the transition angles like it does, it's a choir to shape model fins to match.