Live B61 colours?

[mirageiv]

Hi guys

 

Can anyone confirm (or understandably a best guess) the colours of a live 1970's B61? I've read training shapes can be white or natural metal. So far I have seen a few colour variants and I'm not sure which is the one to go for if modelling a live weapon.

 

Silver paint (or is it dull metal?) with a red/brown nose (is this a nose cap?):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:B-61_bomb_rack.jpg

 

Two training rounds that appear to be in natural metal:  http://www.stopwapenhandel.org/sites/stopwapenhandel.org/files/imported/projecten/jsf/JSFlinks/jsf_b61.jpg

 

                                                                                         https://fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/images/germanyb61.jpg

 

Then a mix of metals with a black nose: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:B-61_bomb_(DOE).jpg

 

This picture is apparently B61s in storage in Turkey: https://eurasianhub.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/b61s1.jpg

 

The last image linked is what I'm leaning towards for a live one, but with maybe a black nose as I read somewhere the red/brown nose is just a cap and that it is actually likely black when loaded on an aircraft with the very tip polished metal. 

 

It will be going on a German F-104 circa mid seventies if that helps. The DACO instructions state a silver body and chocolate brown nose which just looks like a lot of the training rounds, which I assume would be slightly different to a live one.

 

Would there be a yellow band around it somewhere like normal live bombs? Or is a there a special band colour reserved for live nuclear weapons?

 

Any help/pointers and best guesses on this would be fantastic! 

 

cheers,

 

David

                                                                                 

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello David

Agreed, determining proper colours for nuclear weapons can be fairly frustrating. I have been looking for a photo or at least a description of live B28 for CF-104s in Europe, mid-60'. Unfortunately, I found nothing. However, there are two photos of live B57 war reserve bombs in Canadian nuclear weapons book by John Clearwater. Bombs on photos are all white with nose cones covered with protective caps in dark colour, presumably red. Tips of bomb's fins are also covered. No band of any colour is visible. There are also photos, published in the same books, of fully functional (PAL lock and ARM/SAFE switches at least) training B28 dummies. These are silver/natural metal with dark, probably black or gun metal, nose cones. The only photo of Luftwaffe strike aircraft I found is the one in German Starfighters book by Wilfired Zetsche, which shows 26+30 with dummy B61 in silver with black/gun metal nose cone. Not much, but I hope it helps. Cheers

Jure

[rod mcq]

I recall reading somewhere that US nuclear weapon training rounds were white while operational weapons were unpainted metal.

 

There are photos of a variety of US weapons on this site http://www.angelfire.com/dc/jinxx1/Nukes/Nukes.html

[Starfighter]

Just to confuse things a bit more,

 when I was stationed in Germany in the early '70's  I did QRA duty at Brüggen, and the live weapons ( Either B43's or B57's ) were painted white with a black nose. Also the training "Shapes " were white as well. HTH  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Starfighter

[Finn]

The live B61 were normally silver, while training ones were either white or silver. The red/brown nose is the radar fuze for the airburst option, the other weapons with black noses are the same thing, for airburst. Some walkaround pics of various nukes can be seen here:

 

http://svsm.org/gallery/aircraft-equipment-weapons-nuclear

 

Jari

 

[Finn]

Here is one, in a museum, but it shows the colours and details:

 

 

Jari