Mr. Color - modrá

The pale gray-blue of American fighters

This tone belongs to the block of shades that Gunze put together for the combat aircraft of the United States. Neighboring numbers in the same block cover midnight blue, intermediate blue, aircraft gray and metallic red. Of the whole group this shade is the lightest, and in practice it is a pale, grayish blue rather than a saturated basic blue from the primary palette.

It was made famous by the air superiority scheme that the US Air Force introduced in the 1970s on the F-15 Eagle fighter and soon afterward on the F-16. Green and brown camouflage was dropped at that time and the whole airframe was given a single pale finish that dissolves the machine against the sky when seen from below as well as from above. The same principle was then adopted by other air forces, European ones among them.

Properties and thinning

This is not a water-thinnable paint but a lacquer. It is thinned with the maker's thinner for this line or with its leveling version, usually in a ratio of one to one up to two to one depending on the consistency. It is applied with an airbrush. With a brush it dries before you can finish the stroke and leaves visible edges behind.

Shake the bottle thoroughly before filling the cup, because the pigment settles at the bottom. With light opaque tones a white base helps to even out the surface; otherwise the color of the plastic shows through and the result shifts toward gray. The bottle holds 10 ml, it dries quickly and it takes further lacquer coats and later shading.

Anyone building modern American fighters will appreciate that the same tone also covers the auxiliary fuel tanks and the racks, because these were painted together with the airframe. Spray the small parts in one session with the fuselage, otherwise the shade drifts slightly apart after the paint is thinned again.