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Flyer Camouflage


Jolemai

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I have a confession to make: my (day)dreams are being regular plagued by the desire the purchase a Marauder Destroyer. Whilst the top of the Flyer would be painted to match my Knightly house scheme, I have different aspirations for the bottom.

In various pieces of 40k artwork some Flyers (even Marine ones) have a "cloudy grey" camouflage scheme to hide it amongst the smog, etc, as it flies over. For example:

gallery_62972_10568_256892.jpg

The thing is, I have no idea where to begin or even what to search for. The other catch is that I don't have an airbrush...

As a forum that specialises in camo schemes, could you point me in the right direction please?

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Personally I have two camo schemes for fliers, one for high-altitude ones and one for low-altitude gunships. The high-alt have desert camo on the top and a white belly on the bottom, the low-alt like my Vultures are all desert camo, as you're less likely to see it from below.

 

Then again, airplane camo isn't really a necessary measure, hence why most militaries don't seem to bother. Your contrails will give you away and besides, you'll normally be dealing with radar or heat-guided munitions, not manually-aimed weapons. You'll also be moving too fast for it to matter and still be pretty obvious as there's no terrain to blend in with.

 

That said...it does look awesome. :D

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From my rather limited knowledge of aircraft in real life, there are different approaches to camo. One is to make the plane harder to see from the ground, the other is from the air. Of course can have both if you separate top and bottom of the craft like in some WWII planes. From what I gather much depending on the intended role of it - bombers would have ground camo on top to try and protect them from enemy interceptors while fighters are more likely to have "sky" camo for dogfighting where even the fraction of a second longer in correctly placing the fighter can make the difference.

 

So in a Maurader's case, I'd have a silver/air scheme on the underneath of the plan and a ground camo on the top. My mind is automatically drawn to the classic Spitfire colours... I think that would look rather cool. I found an article that has both here :tu:

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I see the Marauder as a "slow" Flyer. Whilst I know it's not actually slow, it's not nimble compared to a dogfighter (Xiphon, Thunderbolt, Crimson Hunter); merely it lines up as best it can early on without much in the way of course correction changes. I suppose with my limited knowledge of actual military aircraft I see it as being bomber-esque. 

 

Also, given the the way 40k is, I see more stock being put into air camouflage than electronic camouflage due to the superstitious nature of the Imperium.

 

@ Toxichobbit, assuming what I want to do is feasible, eventually I'll need to find a method of painting it (or at least something similar). Every Flyer I have painted so far has been in Marine heraldry - so it's a blood red flying brick. Any Imperial Navy Flyer would, in my eyes, show some affinity to its allegiance and have a form of camouflage at the same time.

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As it's called a bomber I'd treat it as such for theme purposes :) As Lucien said WWII is a great place to look especially as GW/FW like to do the same - the trick with camo schemes is to get the right colours followed by a good style of pattern but lifting from real life neatly solves this for you :tu:

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Technically, it's not to hide in the clouds, but when the aircraft has landed, it reduces contrast and thus is harder to spot. Think of it as the underbellies of African animals that are usually a lot lighter than their backs, so that when shadowed they don't give out a contrast that is easily spotted ;)

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You could look to the USAF B-52 as inspiration. During Vietnam we tended to paint them in two tone schemes, before we went to the Low vis grey in the 1980's. 

Hidden Content

 

http://media.dma.mil/2004/Jul/28/2000590280/-1/-1/0/020925-F-9999S-0015.JPG

 

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/bomber/b52/b52_10.jpg

 

http://www.air-and-space.com/19861109%20Edwards/861229%20B-52H%2060-0050%20left%20rear%20in%20flight%20l.jpg

 

http://www.sfahistory.org/B52Strato.jpg

 

http://www.arcair.com/Gal5/4501-4600/gal4507-B-52-Large/03.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B3iPcUuWUSc/UOTAj1YHeRI/AAAAAAAABmw/IX-izzBYrRo/s1600/Boeing+B-52D+Stratofortress.jpg

 

I hope these images help.

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If you don't have an airbrush don't worry. There are ways to get around that separation of top and bottom colors. On you figure out what colors you want to paint, then you are half way there. 

 

To keep it simple, I will hypothesize a simple green top and a light blue/grey bottom:

 

If you want a hard line separation (which is NOT what you mentioned in your description!), you can simply use masking tape and paint away from the tape as you put the other color down. Painting towards or with the tape can lead to the color seeping under the tape.

 

You can just leave it like that if you wish. To get the cloudy, soft look between the colors, you can dry brush lightly with both colors in both directions. What I mean is to take the light grey or blue and dry brush upwards into the green. You would also dry brush the green down into the grey/blue. This will give it a blend of the two along the border.

 

Another technique you can use is to stipple the colors down instead of dry brushing. Again you would want to use both colors to blend and soften the border.

 

Either way you would want to do these steps early in the process.

 

Finally, if you get good with a can of spray paint, you can always go at it as a big airbrush. Just be sure to lay it down lightly. Don't flood the area in paint. Layering it down will prevent any of the details from being caked in paint. You will also want to do the wings and body separately before attaching them together. 

 

There are many ways to accomplish what you want. These are just some examples.

 

Good luck and post pics!

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Have you considered looking at the Avro Lancaster for inspiration??

 

Camo up top with Knight patterns on the wings, like the RAF roundels Main body black for night bombing?

 

This site for ideas too:  http://on-target-aviation.com/Lanc%20NX611%20&%20PA474.html

 

PS as daunting as it sonds, big models do not have to be done with airbrushes :)

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/images/lancaster.jpg

 

http://img3.goodfon.ru/wallpaper/big/7/d9/avro-lancaster-ww2-art-war.jpg

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Modern airforces tend to fly at night minimizing ground fire. As such, many aircraft are painted in dark greys to help blend in with the dark. The USAF Special Operations aircraft are a great inspiration for night fighting color schemes. http://www.americanspecialops.com/usaf-special-operations/aircraft/cv-22-osprey/

 

Actually it's always been common knowledge that you attack at night to catch the enemy off guard. Modern Air Forces will fly whenever the mission requires it and primarily during the day as that is when people are most active, as for the grey scheme, it actually just reduced the visual signature overall, primarily for daylight, as you're not going to see the craft at night (as the safety lights go IR for night ops). 

 

Anyway, unless it's something you really want to do, you don't need to camouflage the belly of the bomber. The US Navy paints the Air Group Commander's aircraft in full squadron livery, so it's quite colorful. You have to get very close, as the range at which human vision can pick out details is very short. Now Eldar and Tau might have better vision, but I still doubt that it's going to make much difference (maybe a kilometer or two more). If it's in space, you're safe from visual detection (depending on how close to a star you are) and then it's electromagnetic sensors you'll have to worry about. 

 

I think it'll look cool, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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Yep the Lancaster is the dogs proverbials... Such a lovely beast.

 

British bombers tended to fly at night, because of limited numbers and to try and avoid the worst of the Luftwaffe. Secondary to that was the effect that night bombing had on the populace, A mild terror tactic...

 

The serious diadvantage to night bombing was that to be effective it meant carpet bombing was the way to go, this unfortunately left huge areas devastated by the resultant firestormsand the civilian population bore the brunt of it all.

 

The Americans, who were not happy about inflicting huge collateral damage on the general population, advocated daylight bombing raids, and pioneered precision bombing techniques within the allied forces. Due to the sheer numbers the US could bring to this theatre of war daylight bombing was possible, however the US Air Force suffered frightening losses in men and planes throughout their daylight operations, from AA fire and intercepors. they suffered greatly while trying to minimise harm to innocent civilians.

 

Considering the sheer size of the Imperial Navy, I would imagine they could operate in either theatre and a night bomber theme would look cool, plus it would fit in with a craft being launched in the void.

 

However I can see your conundrum, because your ground troops may not be fighting at night and therefore black camo would be more a hindrance than help (if it were real life)

 

"On night black pinions, the marauder swept over its prey. Unleashing hell from its bomb-bays, it sped away in search of a new target and the opportunity to bring more death to the foes of the Emperor"

 

Either that or go with colour schemes like thoose on the B17 Flying Fortress?

 

http://img.wp.scn.ru/camms/ar/439/pics/3_68.jpg

 

http://www.knifeedge.com/forums/downloads/bombersboeing-b-17-flying-fortress_bwL.jpg

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/B-17-231503-bassingborne.jpg

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For large models, even though I have an airbrush, I just use a commercial grey spray can, turn the aircraft upside down (after having painted the top AND bottom camo), then just spray from a distance at a fixed 90degree angle. It will blend into the camo
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I personally like the Scandinavian way of painting aircraft with blue-grey on the bottom of the bird and splinter camouflage on the top. It makes for a striking appearance.

 

Or, you could go with "Razzle Dazzle" or "Dazzle" to confuse the enemy. It was popular back in WWI and the beginning of WWII on naval ships.

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