"British Naval Plane Colors" Topic

I've been painting a few modern aircraft, and what I usually do is do a google search on images and paint what I find. For the RAF most planes look to be green and gray, but I've seen one Nimrod and one Tornado painted solid tan. Anyone know if that's the color of the planes in service?

Thanks

The Nimrod yes, the Tornado not usually – they were painted that way for the Gulf. Normally, IDS were in dark green and dark sea grey until about the turn of the century, before they switched to an overall medium grey. ADVs were generally Barley Grey on top, Light Sea Grey underneath.

Tornados in Desert Storm were tan as well. Nimrods went to "hemp" to camouflage them against the ground when landed

Thanks guys, nice to hear I don't have to repaint the Nimrods.

Naval planes?! All those types were RAF, not RNAS. :)

Yes, Nimrods, along with VC-10 and Victor tankers, went 'hemp' in the early 80s and stayed that way until they retired, regardless of theatre.

Tornados were initially grey/green camo, then all-over dark grey in the 1990s, then all-over pale grey in the 2000s, with 'desert pink' being used during the Gulf War.

If you want more variety they were dark blue until ???

Sorry, I tell a lie. Nimrods went pale grey along with everything else late in their career.

David, Nimrods and Tornados were never dark blue.

Thanks JF – I was thinking of Buccaneers and Phantoms on RN carriers