Boeing 747 classic wing colours

[pperkins]

I need some help on the wing colours

I think by the pictures I have then are Boeing Gary with dark Gary centres and silver leading edges

Can some please tell me if this is correct

[tomprobert]

Yup... Boeing grey with the exception of the central corruguard area and natural metal leading edges - both above and below the wing. The corruguard does not stretch out to the wingtip as seen on the -400 though. Airliners.net would be a good place for pictures.

Be careful though, many classics still in service have had numerous re-paints and some can be seen without the corruguard and the whole wing is Boeing grey. I think some of the Transaero 747-200/300s have no corrugard areas. Some airlines, such as Sebena and Lufthansa for example, painted the wing white... so research your project carefully before committing to paint!

[pperkins]

Yup... Boeing grey with the exception of the central corruguard area and natural metal leading edges - both above and below the wing. The corruguard does not stretch out to the wingtip as seen on the -400 though. Airliners.net would be a good place for pictures.

Be careful though, many classics still in service have had numerous re-paints and some can be seen without the corruguard and the whole wing is Boeing grey. I think some of the Transaero 747-200/300s have no corrugard areas. Some airlines, such as Sebena and Lufthansa for example, painted the wing white... so research your project carefully before committing to paint!

Many thanks that's what I thought I am doing the ups one just on to painting the wings now. Do you know what type of xtracolour for the Gary I need

[tomprobert]

Do you know what type of xtracolour for the Gary I need

I don't know if they do the specific colour to be honest.

However, Corruguard is a silvery-grey, and in the past I have used a mix of 25% black and 75% silver to get a reasonable mix.

Also, you could try Humbrol as they do a decent range of metallic paints.

[Kev1n]

Coroguard is a metallic grey colour but the shade can vary depending on a number of different factors, it can look different depending on whether or not the aircraft is on the ground or at cruising height....

Try Humbrol 56,

or mix black and silver until it loks right to you, but as tom says, some airlines dont have it on the wings at all so check photo refs first!!

[pperkins]

Was on about the xtracolour boeing Gary as they did 2

X301 boeing 707 grey

X363 boeing 708 grey

Edited February 28, 2012 by pperkins

[Kev1n]

Xtracolour do a specific Boeing Grey, not sure of the number tho' but it is described on the tin as Boeing Grey

who is gary?

[pperkins]

Xtracolour do a specific Boeing Grey, not sure of the number tho' but it is described on the tin as Boeing Grey

who is gary?

was ment to grey its my phone doing auto correct

ya i listed the two diffrent boeing greys they do above

[tomprobert]

was ment to grey its my phone doing auto correct

ya i listed the two diffrent boeing greys they do above

You'll need 707

[pperkins]

You'll need 707

thanks thats what i thought it was what was the boeing 708 used on

[Jennings Heilig]

This is done directly from a Boeing paint shop manual for the 747-200/300. Note that Corroguard doesn't have a specific color. It's aluminum powder mixed in proportional ratio in a clear binder. I've seen it everywhere from extremely dark grey to almost the same color as the BAC 707 Gray wing panels. And it often depends on lighting, how dirty the airplane is, etc. I tend to default toward lighter and less contrast on models. I think it looks better.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Jennings Heilig

[PMG Offramp]

Interesting topic!

There is also the wing and horizontal stabilizers under sides: some have the corroguard, some do not.

Cheers, Steven

[Jennings Heilig]

Interesting topic!

There is also the wing and horizontal stabilizers under sides: some have the corroguard, some do not.

Cheers, Steven

Typically, older 747s had Corroguard top and bottom. Later on it became a customer preference item. Once airplanes started going through D checks with third parties, anything goes.

[Kev1n]

very true ^

I have pics of some with all white stabs, some painted white but coro on the lower surface, some all Boeing grey and no coro....it could vary. As Jennings says, after D checks, anything goes

[Eric Mc]

Xtracolour Gary - I like it

[AlexK]

Sorry for being 13 years late, but I only just now came across this discussion.

New to this forum, so if my post is old news please ignore.

 

If you're doing a classic 747, "BAC 7025 Grey" is your wing colour. That's how almost all classic 747s rolled out of Boeings paintshop.

 

7025 is a slightly warm shade of grey, much darker than 707. Colorimeter readouts of my 7025 sample don't lead me to any existing FS/RAL/... code (unlike 707 which is an exact FS16515), but my sample is vissually close to RAL7030 though slightly less yellow and noticeably lighter.

I saw Hasegawa kits recommending Mr.Color 315 (FS16440) which is roughly the right hue but way too light. You might try adding some black to get it darker until it looks good to scale.

 

 

It's interesting that some airlines repainted their 747's wings into light grey (I assume BAC 707) when the airframe was in for the first major maint event (D-check). Yet their new delivered airframes still left Boeing in BAC 7025.🤨

One of these examples would be Lufthansa:

their first series -100 airframes came in Boeings standard pattern (wings and wing-body-fairings 7025, corogard only on top sides, h.stabs fully 7025 with bare metal forward sections) but soon after the WBF and underbelly coatings were repainted into 707 (?) and the wings followed at the first D-check. However until around mid 1980's, new delivered airframes still came with 7025 on wings, but WBF, underbelly and h.stabs in light grey.

The first of those -100s, D-ABYA, also was repainted into light grey before leaving for Braniff. Consequently it is easy to be identified in this shot next to the standard wings:

https://simpleflying.com/why-braniff-ceased-operations/

 

 

Another great example was KLM:

I cannot link to the pic, but if you click on this link and scroll down half, you see an aerial shot of 5 KLM 747s.

The two in front are early delivered airframes. In this 1984 pic they had long been through their D and were repainted into 707 (?) 

The two in background are later delivered airframes seen here before their repaint (and SUD conversion) - the last one should be the closest to a shop visit. It still has a reg on the wing!

The one in the middle is a newly delivered -300. And again 7025 colored wings with 707 colored WBF.

 

 

Edited June 30 by AlexK