Late US Navy paint set

The three-tone blue and the later overall finish

From January 1943 to the middle of 1944 the carrier aircraft of the US Navy wore a graded three-tone scheme. The upper surfaces were covered by Dark Sea Blue in a semi-gloss form to ANA 606, the sides of the fuselage and the vertical tail received Intermediate Blue ANA 608 and the underside stayed in Insignia White. From the middle of 1944 the scheme was simplified to an overall gloss blue to ANA 623.

The content also has the aircraft of the antisubmarine squadrons operating over the Atlantic in mind. After June 1944 they received Dark Gull Grey ANA 621 on the upper surfaces and, in one of the variants, Light Gull Grey ANA 620 on the sides of the fuselage, with the white staying below. The sixth tone, Interior Green ANA 611, covers the cockpits of practically all naval aircraft of that period, so a model can be finished complete.

The character of the line and the recommended procedure

Blue Line works with a water-based acrylic dispersion, so the smell is minimal and the tools only need washing with water. The gloss variant of the late blue is worth letting stand out: once dry it can be coated with gloss varnish and only then should the decals be applied, so that no matte edge stays under them.

From the six tones you can build either a machine in the three-tone scheme of 1943 or a late aircraft in uniform dark blue, or a patrol type in the gray and white finish.

The white lower surface of the three-tone scheme runs into the blue on the sides without a hard edge, and on the real aircraft the boundary was sprayed rather than masked. It therefore pays to work from the light tone to the dark one and to finish the transition with several light coats rather than one heavy pass.