"Colour schemes for Akron and Macon Sparrowhawks" Topic

I have "all 7" of the F9C Sparrowhawks intended for the Akron and Macon in 1/600 scale from Shapeways, and am trying to figure out the colour schemes for them. Somewhere I recall reading that each one was unique, and the two airships were going to be different in what their planes looked like, but I can't find that now. I also think the fact the Akron was destroyed before the Macon started working up means whatever the plan was, it was never implemented.

I've checked out Wings Palette here:
wp.scn.ru/en/ww15/f/752/3/0#2
and the first, third, and fourth images of the Macon ships make sense, although I think the first image is supposed to be red, not orange (which matches the plane at the Smithsonian). I'm suspicious of the second image, as the cowling is different, but it would give me an orange to go with the red, green, and white.

The painted over tail doesn't bother me much, it shows up on the green-marked plane and is in surviving photos.

Does anyone know what the fourth Macon plane's markings were supposed to be, if not orange, and how any of the Akron planes were supposed to look? Or do I have some leeway?

There's been some other interwar aircraft in 1/600 released lately, so I thinking of getting these ready for some hypotheticals circa 1933-36.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Chris

This may be of help.

link

From my research all of the F9C's were painted as a section leaders a/c

Thanks Phil, that helps a lot – I'll pick from those options, using what we know about the Macon planes. I saw that too about them being painted as section leaders.

Glad I could help.

The 1931 regulations specified the colors for the sections as red, blue, black, white, yellow and green. Section leaders had the full cowling, fuselage band, wing chevron and wheel spats in the section color. All the Sparrowhawks were painted as section leaders. The tails carried the red-white-blue stripes until 1935 when the tails were painted in a squadron tail color (black was the tail color selected for the Sparrowhawk unit, but few got this as both airships were lost by 1935).

Thanks Coastal2, with 7 a/c, I'll probably throw in orange as the 7th colour. Maybe do the Akron with tail stripes, Macon with the black overcoat.