Synthetic Haze Blue Paint, any ideas?
Cameron Lynch
I've been kicking around the idea of doing one of Minicraft's F-5E
Lightning photo recon aircraft. As part of my preliminary research I've
been trying to find an FS# or paint equivalent to Synthetic Haze Blue.
I've been able to find exactly nada. Anyone out there got any ideas on
this? Thanks in advance.
Cameron Lynch
--
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the
support of Paul."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
LeonardR
In an old SAM by Ian Huntley (I could have that name wrong), he said the
scheme was arrived at by shooting the plane flat black and then shooting a
med blue in a patchy pattern over the airframe. I'm not saying this is
the gospel, but I would like to see other ideas. I got the impression the
med blue was close to the med blue in the USN tri-color scheme. Again, I
am no expert on syn haze blue paint. Hope some one knows more!
Jennings Heilig
According to Dana Bell, Synthetic Haze had properties very similar to the
original MASK paint applied to the A-10s (the two tone greenish-grey
scheme of the late 1970s) in that the colors and hues tended to change
according to the lighting conditions. One reason they went away from
using it (in favor of PRU Blue) was the man-hours required to apply the
scheme versus the benefit derived (none).
Cheers,
Jennings
PNMoss
There are short chapters on Haze Paint and Synthetic Paint in Dana Bell's
"Air Force Colors Volume 2" (squadron/signal publications). (pp. 27-30).
As he states, the original Haze paint was developed by Cabot. It was "a
white paint with unusual properties. It was a colloidal solution of zinc
oxide in oil...As Cabot explained, the pigment grains of his paint had a
diameter below the wavelength of blue or violet light, which causes a high
reflection in these color ranges...Cabot believed that spraying this paint
over a dark blue or black base coat would allow only blue and violet to be
reflected, with other colors being absorbed by the base coat."
The first attempts at haze camo followed Cabot's theory: the plane was
first painted black, then various thicknesses of Haze Paint were sprayed
over the black, with greater thicknesses on the undersurfaces (resulting
in a lighter hue). It proved impractical for several reasons, including
difficulty controlling the thickness of the overspray resulting in
unacceptable variations in the camouflage, drying problems with the oil
paint, and rapid darkening as the paint weathered, rendering it
ineffective.
80 of 99 F-4s, all 20 F-4As, c.30 of 40 F-5A-1s and -3s, and the only
F-5A-2 produced between March and October 1942 were painted with Haze
Paint.
Synthetic Haze Paint was an attempt to get similar results in a more
practical manner. "The team (Lockheed) mixed a new blue base paint of a
deep sky tone which they called 'Sky Base Blue.' Next they tinted a
synthetic haze enamel, Flight White, to a color they named 'Flight Blue.'
An F-5A was then sprayed Sky Base Blue with coats of Flight Blue in shadow
areas and lighter coats on the sides. Shading was very subtle and at first
glance the aircraft appeared to be one color overall."
It worked. "By March '43, Lockheed had standardized Synthetic Haze Paint
for its F-5As and Bs."
"There are no records of the number of aircraft camouflaged in S.H.P., but
it is certain that there were many anomalies. Several of the OD/NG F-5As
produced between Oct. 42 and March 43 were repainted in England. Recent
discovery of the wreck of one of these shows a top coat of the RAF color
P.R.U. Blue. Lockheed also changed its production methods, sending
completed P-38s to modification centers for p.r. conversions...The camo
added by these mod centers is not known. And once all camo was officially
abandoned, many F-5s were given sky camo in theatre."
"Photos show a one-color scheme for F-5Es in England, probably using
P.R.U. Blue or Azure Blue. Records of the Ninth AF only add to the
confusion. A Feb. 1945 report vaguely stated that 10th P.R. Group F-5s
were to be painted 'sky blue.' Without positive proof, it appears that
Synthetic Haze Paint was not used after mid-1944, after which time any
F-5s which were painted at all used RAF stocks."
Bell gives the following FS references: Sky Base Blue--Darker than 15123;
Flight Blue--Close match for 35190. Combination of colors tends to be
slightly darker or lighter than 25102 and matt.
FWIW, I used Koster's conversion kit with the old Monogram to make an
F-5A. I mixed blues according to Bell's references for Synthetic Haze
Paint. Although I have no way of knowing if the plane I modeled used
original haze or Synthetic Haze, I doubt anybody else does either, and the
color scheme looks neat. Cheers. Pip Moss
Scott Van Aken
Well, I did Revell's 1/72 F-5 by following the way the real aircraft was
painted. First I shot the aircraft flat black and then put on a bunch of
thinned coats of a blue of some sort (sorry I cannot recall the color, it was
ten years ago). One thing I did was to slightly lighten the blue towards the
end of the marathon spray sessions. How did it look? Well, not having ever
seen an aircraft in the haze scheme, I guess it looked OK. I compared it to
a color photo in a back issue of Wings/Airpower and it looked pretty close.
It was different and I liked it. One nice effect of spraying the thinned
paint was that the edges of things (wings, tail, etc.) were darker than the
rest of the aircraft as the base black was able to show through. Final prep
was a flat coat after the decals were applied. I understand that the paint
weathered very quickly and needed constant touchups to maintain the effect.
Try it, what do you have to lose?
Scott
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now..back to reality, which is already in progress
Firesign Theater
Marc Raiff
Cameron,
An article by Ley Reynolds on photo recon Lightnings in #4/1993 issue of
IPMS/UK magazine described synthetic haze as consisting of two colors:
first the aircraft was painted in a dark blue called 'sky base blue'
(described as a little darker than FS 15123) and then oversprayed on the
underside and shadow areas with "flight blue' (described as FS 35190).
Hope this helps.
Marc Raiff
IPMS/US 3649
Steve New
In <4rk4qa$8...@newsbf02.news.aol.com> leon...@aol.com (LeonardR)
writes:
The squadron/signal book Air Force Colors Vol 2, ISBN 0-89747-108-3,
has a 6 page discussion, with photographs, of Haze and Synthetic Haze
paint.
What you describe is much more like Haze paint (which was so toxic it
made the painting crews seriously ill, hence Lockheed's search for
Synthetic Haze paint) than Synthetic Haze.
Synthetic Haze consisted of a "...blue base paint of a deep sky tone
which they called Sky Base Blue,..." which was shadow shaded with a
tinted flat white called "Flight Blue". "Shading was very subtle and
at first glance the aircraft appeared to be one color overall."
There is a photo included (in black & white) showing an F5B (with the
red surround 1943 insignia) which the book says is in Synthetic Haze,
and a P-38 in flight. The same photo appears (in color) in an issue of
Koku Fan Famous Airplanes of the World, P-38. In that photo, the plane
appears to be an overall flat medium blue, something like a PRU blue
with less red tint (more blue, less purplish) and without the sheen.
The shadow shading is so subtle, it would probably be invisible in
"scale color". While the shadow shading of Haze paint is so obvious
that it would be visible in 1/144.
By the way, the Synthetic Haze paint was so good, a team of spotters in
a B-17 at 30,000 ft couldn't see the F-5 until it approached within
1000 ft of the B-17.
Steve L. New
ne...@ix.netcom.com
Just an armadillo on the shoulder of the information superhighway.
Mark Schynert
Bill Yenne, in his book, "Lockheed", devotes a page to the brief use
(March to October 1942) of Haze Paint. Indeed, he quotes Dana Bell.
The stuff was actually quite effective (1) if it was applied to uniform
thickness and (2) it hadn't weathered (it darkened when it weathered.)
As these practical problems reduced the effectiveness of the paint, and
since the application was time-comsuming, Lockheed was told to stop
using it in October of 1942. If I understand Yenne's commentary,
Lockheed and Sherwin-Williams then developed 'Synthetic Haze Paint'
(January 1943) which didn't haver the practical problems of its predecessor, and which rendered a P-38 virtually invisible to a crew of
observers on a B-17 until it came within 300 yards. Subsequently,
Yenne states that the new color was adopted for use on all PR
Lightnings. Incidentally, the book includes a color photo of a blue
PR Lightning; based on the red-outline US insignia, this must be a
photo of a plane painted in the original blue haze paint.
Mark Schynert
Jennings Heilig
On 6 Jul 1996, Mark Schynert wrote:
> Lightnings. Incidentally, the book includes a color photo of a blue
> PR Lightning; based on the red-outline US insignia, this must be a
> photo of a plane painted in the original blue haze paint.
Not likely that it was the original stuff. That shot was taken
in mid-1943, nearly a year after the Synthetic Haze Paint came
into use. The red bordered insignia (applied at the factory in
this case) dates the photo very well...
Jennings
Cameron Lynch
Great post. Thanks alot for the help, I appreciate it. Have a good
weekend.