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Curtiss SOC "Seagull" colour question...


Artie

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Hi all......Planning to build a nice 1/48 scale kit of this beauty, and came across this pic. I'd like to build mine that way, but have got no idea about the colour scheme.

Would it be dark blue overall with silver low wing and yellow upper wing? Tail unit and tailplanes seem to be white, but not sure at all.

Any help will be much apreciatted...

Cheers

995px-RAdm_King_with_SOC_Seagull_1936.jp

Edited by Artie
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Flag aircraft, such as this one, were overall dark blue with silver wings and tail surfaces. The "U.S. NAVY" on the rear fuselage would be white. This particular aircraft doesn't have a 'command title' on the fuselage side. National insignia would be carried as normal. This info from "Color Schemes and Markings U.S. Navy Aircraft 1911-1950", by Bill Kilgrain. I believe the rank flag would normally be blue for a naval officer. This one looks like it may be red, so possibly a Marine Corps general?

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Your picture is of RADM Ernest J King in front of SOC-1 Bu No 9990 in 1936. Usual colour scheme was dark blue fuselage with silver wings and tail surfaces. The top of the upper wing should be orange yellow. This info taken from "Blue Goose", Naval Fighters 100 by Riley and Doll. Pic is on page 28.

George

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Your picture is of RADM Ernest J King in front of SOC-1 Bu No 9990 in 1936. Usual colour scheme was dark blue fuselage with silver wings and tail surfaces. The top of the upper wing should be orange yellow. This info taken from "Blue Goose", Naval Fighters 100 by Riley and Doll. Pic is on page 28.

George

I stand corrected... or rather Bill Kilgrain stands corrected. Further reading in "The Official Monogram US Navy & Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide. Vol. 1" shows that yes, according to "Specification PF-6" this aircraft would be painted as George described above. The blue was a colour referenced as "Admiral Blue", for which no colour spec seems to have survived. It was verbally described as a dark blue - slightly darker than Insignia Blue. If so, that would make it a VERY dark colour. Certainly a striking scheme!

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Thank you very much for your replies, your help is very useful. My main concern as about the upper wing colour, being it overall silver or orange yellow instead...Now things are clear...

I've got a Wings 48 kit that's been calling my name for years now, and I've just styarted to look for info here and there...not much really, and lots of scratchbuiling are mandatory.....

Why shouldn't I decide to build a Tamigawa kit and get away from troubles....?????

Cheers..

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A couple of additional items:

- although often illustrated as white, lettering on blue US Navy command aircraft was actually aluminium (silver). There are some press-on lettering sheets in silver block style - for example, Woodland Scenics MG 743.

- note that there were two different SOC's on page 28 of the 'Blue Goose'. One is an SOC-1, which has cowling gills, and which would have any metal parts on the (otherwise silver) wings painted in light gray enamel. The other aircraft is an SOC-3, no cowl gills, and by this point all wing surfaces would be 'silver' since the Navy had started using aluminium lacquer for metal surfaces.

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The blue was a colour referenced as "Admiral Blue", for which no colour spec seems to have survived. It was verbally described as a dark blue - slightly darker than Insignia Blue. If so, that would make it a VERY dark colour. Certainly a striking scheme!

Shouldn't it be NAVY blue? A fine choice of paint schemes, indeed. I've got one of those kits too, but nowhere near ready to take it on!

bob

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Shouldn't it be NAVY blue?

bob

The term "Navy blue" is kind of like the terms "Royal blue" or "Midnight blue", or "Medium blue". Popular designations, but don't really define the colour. While many people would portray "Navy blue" as a deep blue, I personally consider it very dark - almost black - like navy uniforms (at least North American navy uniforms that I'm familiar with). So, if this "Admiral blue" was considered darker than insignia blue - which is a spec'ed colour - it may, indeed, be close to the even darker naval uniform colour. Who knows!

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Since there are no insignia on the sides of the pictured aircraft, and to make a minor adjustment for scale, I'd paint the aircraft fuselage Insignia Blue and challenge anyone to tell you you're wrong.

AlanG

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I think Alan is spot on about using Insignia Blue as a 'scale effect' color for Flag Blue.

Also, Flag aircraft tended to have more luxurious accommodations for the many-starred occupants. Although this is from an OS2U Flag aircraft, it is probably pretty close to what you'd find in an SOC. No gun mount either!

10cd3db5-1bb7-42cb-9ea7-77435c5f1e16_zps

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