"colors/schemes for B52 and Vulcan bombers???" Topic

Have 9 GHQ 1/2400 B52 bombers and a Vulcan from Magister Militum am looking to paint up.

Wondering what schemes,and of what colors,were used on both the B52's and Vulcans (both in past and now.)

Any info appreciated…thanks.

Mark

Vulcans had 3 schemes:

White with black patch under the nose and on the tip of the tail originally. This is the Nuclear high level Anti Flash scheme.

Then they got a green and light blue/grey camouflage upper scheme with a light grey underside.

There is also a scheme that has the green and blue/grey camouflage all over the plane, but the pictures of this are on a preserved Vulcan so I am not sure if it was an operational scheme.

See here for various aircraft:

wp.scn.ru/en/camo

The green/grey wrap around scheme was the final one. The anti flash scheme used toned down roundels & fin flashes, very pale red & blue.

We had B-52s here at March AFB qhen I was a kid. They all had the black fuselage and undersides with the camo on top of the wings and the very top of the fuselage. I am not sure how many colors the camo was, 3 or 4.

I still have the old Monogram 1/72nd B-52 hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom. It had two schemes. The original SAC scheme had bare metal upper surfaces, upper wings and vertical stabilizer with white anti-flash lower surfaces. It also has a cool SAC emblem just below the forward cockpit/crew cabin.

The alternate Vietnam scheme consisted of Green and Tan upper surface's with Black on the lower suface's and covering about 4/5 of the fuslage.

These are the schemes that I know of, although I'm sure there are others.

Hope this helps. Salut y'all!

Bruce the Texas Grognard

Bruce's scheme is what I remember on the B-52's stationed at Bergstrom AFB in Austin in the '60s. It was always interesting in those tense times when the wind was right and we could hear a squadron scramble at any time of the day or night. Practice or Armageddon. Oh well, I've still got a quiz in Tudor History tomorrow morning. Never mind!

The B-52s had a "…tin roof…rusted!"
Or so the song Love Shack, goes.

The “Buff” has had a couple camo's over it's career. The first was Silver with White anti-flash underbelly, this was changes to Black during the “Arc Light” phase of the Vietnam war. Camo came in 1968 when it changed to black belly,sides and tail and camo top. The top camo consisted of Dark Green (FS34079), Blue Green (FS34159) and Tan (FS34201). This scheme continued on B-52D's till their retirement or re-manufacture into G's. B-52G's deployed to Vietnam in 1972 and they kept the same camo, though it extended down the sides and tail. The undersides were painted anti-flash white; all Black was discontinued. There is some speculation that after the war, SAC changed the Tan to a Grey Tan, but my opinion is that the Tan just became more weathered as colour pics of B-52D's in Vietnam show the Tan turn a Grey Tan and look the same as the '80's camo. This camo stuck around until the late '80's when the camo changed to Green (FS35237) and Grey (FS34201) in wrap around scheme. This changed in the mid to late '90's to straight Grey (FS36118) that has lasted to present.