jollyrogerf14 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 I've seen a few photos of Nimitz's aircraft during this operation, but they're not very clear. I know that VF-84 tomcats had gone to overall gull gray. I know they still had the large national insigniaon the fuselage. I just can't figure out for sure what color the I.D. bands were on the wings. I'm guessing for most aircraft, the bands were orange and black, but I have seen an F-4 squadron from the Coral Sea that had yellow and black. Does anyone have any photos of the Nimitz's aircraft? Also, just to make sure, VF-41 had orange and black bands - small gray national insignia - small black aces without red stripes, VA-35 had green & white bands right? Thanks, guys! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jonathan_Lotton Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 I seem to recall seeing a photo of a VF-84 Tomcat with orange and black ID bands. Cant remember where I saw it.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dogsbodyx Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Hi, the latest issue of MAM V7 Iss 9 Sept 08 has an article on operation Eagle Claw with some good photos & drawings. It describes the operational markings as "Red & Black" stripes and says "although some A6 Intruders were noted with green stripes". No FS colours given. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cool Hand Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 (edited) This pic shows the "invasion stripes" were only applied to the right wings and painted squadron colors. (Yellow and black for Vf-84, and red and black for Vf-41) Edited September 15, 2008 by Cool Hand Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jollyrogerf14 Posted September 16, 2008 Author Share Posted September 16, 2008 This pic shows the "invasion stripes" were only applied to the right wings and painted squadron colors. (Yellow and black for Vf-84, and red and black for Vf-41) THANKS COOL HAND! AWESOME PIC!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roym Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 meanwhile aboard Coral Sea.... But I digress. Are you sure that they were gull grey all over? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grey Ghost 531 Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 This pic shows the "invasion stripes" were only applied to the right wings and painted squadron colors.(Yellow and black for Vf-84, and red and black for Vf-41) That's how the Coral Sea's aircraft were, VMFA-323 with the 1xx modex and red squadron code had red and black stripes. VMFA-531 with the 2xx modex and yellow squadron code had yellow and black stripes. All the attack squadrons had orange and black stripes. Coincidentally, the regular markings of VFP-63 and VAW-113 had black stripes on the wings, they left them alone. I never saw any of the Nimitz's aircraft close up enough to see any stripes during the operation. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grey Ghost 531 Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 (edited) meanwhile aboard Coral Sea....But I digress. Are you sure that they were gull grey all over? NICE! - but to be consistent with all the news outlets at the time, it was the "Nimitz" and "another carrier". That used to **** us off so bad, the Nimitz got all the press! and yes, over all gloss light gull gray. Edited September 16, 2008 by Grey Ghost 531 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Interesting...1980 was the year they transitioned to the overall GG scheme, but it wasn't immediate; tough to tell from the photo above, but it almost looks as if they still have the large-star insignia in the middle of the Vagabonds stripe on the forward fuselage. When they went totally overall GG it was a smaller insignia, and not on the stripe at all, just forward of the intake instead. I wonder if this is a "transition scheme" shown, one where they'd done the upper control surfaces in gull gray, but still had the undersides white? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jaydar Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 I've seen a few photos of Nimitz's aircraft during this operation, but they're not very clear. I know that VF-84 tomcats had gone to overall gull gray. I know they still had the large national insigniaon the fuselage. I just can't figure out for sure what color the I.D. bands were on the wings. I'm guessing for most aircraft, the bands were orange and black, but I have seen an F-4 squadron from the Coral Sea that had yellow and black. Does anyone have any photos of the Nimitz's aircraft? Also, just to make sure, VF-41 had orange and black bands - small gray national insignia - small black aces without red stripes, VA-35 had green & white bands right? Thanks, guys! This might be totally unrelated but on the Nimitz Air Wing decal set for the '77/'78 cruise the A7 Sidewinders had an orange/black wing stripe. the decals for VF84 do not. The tomcat scheme was gray/white for that cruise. joe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roym Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 (edited) I wonder if this is a "transition scheme" shown, one where they'd done the upper control surfaces in gull gray, but still had the undersides white? As per the Final Countdown scheme? That's just what I was wondering. To recap, to those who think we're nuts, there were 4 schemes... Gull grey uppers/white unders, white upper flaps and tailplanes, large starsnbars over vagabond stripe, large starsnbars on wings Gull grey uppers/white unders, grey upper flaps and tailplanes, large starsnbars over vagabond stripe, large starsnbars on wings Gull grey overall, large starsnbars over vagabond stripe, large starsnbars on wings (??? Confirmation on wings please?) Gull grey overall, small starsnbars behind vagabond stripe, large starsnbars on wings (??? Confirmation on wings please?) This might be totally unrelated but on the Nimitz Air Wing decal set for the '77/'78 cruise the A7 Sidewinders had an orange/black wing stripe. the decals for VF84 do not. The tomcat scheme was gray/white for that cruise. That was earlier and the A-7s lost those stripes long before eagle claw. Edited September 16, 2008 by roym Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A6BSTARM Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 (edited) Will this help. This is shot when the RH-53D's arrived at the Nimitz. There are a pair of VF-84 F-14A's in the bottom right hand corner. I have a high-rez if anyone wants it Edited September 16, 2008 by A6BSTARM Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roym Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Hard to tell. The nose gear door looks grey, but the main gear door looks white (as does the shoulder pylon but I'd ignore that as it was detachable..) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mizar Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 From the goodsie internets One more to come,seems lost Luigi Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jollyrogerf14 Posted September 16, 2008 Author Share Posted September 16, 2008 Will this help. This is shot when the RH-53D's arrived at the Nimitz. There are a pair of VF-84 F-14A's in the bottom right hand corner. I have a high-rez if anyone wants it This pretty much looks like a transition scheme for sure. Yea, the nose gear doors are gray, and the main gear doors are white. The fuel tanks also had the chevron bands on them, right? They were closer to the front of the tank than in the middle like VF-103 painted their tanks. I've seen lots of VF-41 aircraft during their transition scheme; with splotchy gray and white on the bottom back 2/3 of the plane with all gray on top. They still had the large insignia, and had stopped painting the nose black. Sweet, thanks for the pics everybody! Vince Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roym Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Ok, got one! Was at work today so I couldn't remember. At home now. Can't remember where I got this, probably from DVIC. VF-41 and VF-84, both all gull grey. Confirms stripe colours as above. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Great pic Roym ! :) Gotta love those dual AIM-9 Launchers ! I wonder if that's the same Fast Eagle 107 that made headlines a year or so later ? Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jollyrogerf14 Posted September 16, 2008 Author Share Posted September 16, 2008 Ok, got one!Was at work today so I couldn't remember. At home now. Can't remember where I got this, probably from DVIC. VF-41 and VF-84, both all gull grey. Confirms stripe colours as above. GREAT PIC! Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Boman Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Gotta love those dual AIM-9 Launchers ! Anybody got a good close up of this configuration? Would love to make a model with it, but can't seem to find any good photos showing the details :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DonSS3 Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 (edited) I think these were of the Nimitz (of course, it may have been the other carrier <_< ), they aren't terribly useful, but were taken around that time. I was with VP-26 out of Diego Garcia then… (check out the poor guy on the F-14 stabilator in the last pic, glad it wasn't me…) Edited September 16, 2008 by DonSS3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jollyrogerf14 Posted September 16, 2008 Author Share Posted September 16, 2008 I think these were of the Nimitz (of course, it may have been the other carrier <_< ), they aren't terribly useful, but were taken around that time. I was with VP-26 out of Diego Garcia then… (check out the poor guy on the F-14 stabilator in the last pic, glad it wasn't me…) That's the Eisenhower eh? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DonSS3 Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Could very well be the Ike. The memory ain't what it used to be almost 30 years later… <_< Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roym Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 It's the Ike all right, but what a series of pics! Brilliant! Thanks very much for posting them, and thanks also to jollyrogerf14 for starting it all off. DonSS3, got any more like that? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Anybody got a good close up of this configuration? Would love to make a model with it, but can't seem to find any good photos showing the details <_< Not the best of pics but ... >>> Clicky <<< Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jaydar Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 That was earlier and the A-7s lost those stripes long before eagle claw. thanks Roym, joe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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