Israeli Air Force paint set (early period)

The early Israeli Air Force in six bottles

The palette aims at the first two decades of Israeli military aviation. According to the shade list, Reed Green matches the standard RAL 6013 and was the overall finish of the Avia S-199 aircraft — that is of the Czechoslovak version of the Bf 109G fitted with the Junkers Jumo 211 F engine. These machines became the first fighters of the young state, although the pilots cursed them for their unpredictable behavior on takeoff.

The camouflage introduced in 1955 and carried until 1967 rests on three tones: Grey-Blue (RAL 5008) and Medium Brown (FS 30215) cover the upper surfaces, and Silk Grey (RAL 7044) the lower ones. The list adds to that that the scheme applied to all types with the exception of the front-line fighters. For the night fighter Gloster Meteor NF-13 European I Grey (FS 36081) is intended, which replaces the lower gray while the upper camouflage stays unchanged.

Aluminium closes the six. It belongs on the early Israeli P-51D Mustang and on the reconnaissance and ground-attack Mosquitos, and later became the overall finish of the front-line interceptors. One bottle therefore covers both the propeller veterans of the end of the forties and the polished machines a decade younger.

The shades fall into the acrylic Red Line range, which can be thinned with water and with the company's own acrylic thinner and which is built primarily for the airbrush. The scale of the model plays no part; it is the thinning and the pressure that decide the quality of the spraying.

A practical note at the end: Israeli machines of that time often changed units and armament, so before building it pays to look up a photograph of the particular fuselage number. What differed mainly was the shade of the lower surfaces and how much of the original finish still showed through the new one.