That's a lovely yellow on the target tow. Went on well! I'd also never considered that the Blues' Hellcats were in anything except GSB overall. I knew that subsequent aircraft types were in Blue Angel blue, though I don't know when that came in. Bearcats, probably? Another interesting question, so I've learned something. I've been interested in them since the F-11F, which I keep hoping for new in 1/48th.

Thanks guys for the input on the color. I'm going to be spraying the "dash 3" Drone airframe in the Chevy red / orange for sure now. It looks like the best match to me too. I have decided to go with the white tail version. Less work for one, and a better color contrast for two...

Yes Bernard, I didn't know that about the colors either until I started doing some research. Like you, I originally thought the Hellcats remained in Gloss Sea Blue. Apparently the F8F Bearcats had a shade of blue that is very close to the color used today by the Blues. Overall there have been several shades of various blues used by the team over the years. From the F8F onward until now, the colors were all very close in appearance. That was something else I didn't know. It was news to me too.

Today was spent doing stuff outside. Because of this, I didn't get too much done on the models , but I did manage to go on a tail wheel painting spree... and I did some work on my sort tailed P-40F that is over in the Kasserine Pass GB.

Here's the Daytona Beach NAS plane:

and how it looks after I glued the cowling in place and installed the propeller.

Here's the dash 3 drone

and the Blue Angels plane:

I have an Accurate Miniatures TBF Avenger that I had been working on a few months ago. So it needed the wheels painted...took care of it too.

The 'Cats are progressing... The Iron Works got a little done today.

As per the usual sign off, Comments are Encouraged ...

Allan, the first color you mentioned FS 15050 is "Gloss Insignia Blue" if I'm not mistaken. That's the color I needed for the Angels plane, but didn't have on hand. So instead I used the flat version... FS 35050, and had to apply a lot of Future over it to obtain a gloss. As far as the difference between the Blue Angels Blue and the Insignia Blue, I am fairly certain the Insignia blue is darker. But I don't have the Xtracolor on hand to spray out a sample for comparison. I do have some MM Blue Angels Blue though... That would be a good experiment to spray some on a white sample card for a comparison. Hmmm. Now you got me thinking.

After looking at the tail wheel pictures I posted above, it became very obvious to me that the tail wheel on the Daytona Beach NAS plane looks hideous... so I will touch it up some to correct that.

Tonight I was able to mask off and spray paint the Chevy Red / Orange onto the "Dash 3 Drone " Hellcat.

Here's how it looked after masking.

And how it looks now after spraying.

I'm going to leave the masking in place overnight, and see how this turned out tomorrow AM.

Signing off for now... and as usual,

Comments are encouraged. Good night.

I just realized that the cowling is a different color. It's because the base coat for the cowling was red instead of white that was used on the rest of the airframe.

So I will have to respray the cowling in white , then spray it again with the Chevy red.

This is a prime example of how a base color will affect the final shade.

Here we go ! I needed to mask off the top of the fin and the speed ring portion of the cowling on the Daytona Beach NAS plane...

It was much easier to ready the Drone cowl. All I had to do was block off the openings ...

Then a quick coat of white was sprayed on...

I'll leave this set up overnight. Tomorrow sometime I'll spray some red...

Calling it a day... comments are encouraged.

Thanks Paul. When it comes to aircraft, and other things such as military history, I have a decent memory... not photographic by any means but OK.

I'm going to get cracking some more on the 190's, possibly tomorrow. So please keep an eye out for updates on those...

Meanwhile tonight I got some more stuff sprayed on the 'Cats...
Most of the time was spent masking off the various colors.

Here's the "Target Tow" plane ready for the wing stripes and rudder to be painted.

the same plane after the color was sprayed:

Next is the Daytona Beach NAS plane. Here the Cowling speed ring is ready for some red, and the tail has been masked off a little more to give it a white stripe with the red tip.

The Daytona NAS plane after the red was sprayed on...

and how it looked after unmasking.

Remember the cowling fiasco with the different shade of red due to the base color not being the same as the fuselage ?

This time it turned out much better. This is acceptable and I'm going to roll with it...

This last photo shows three of the four Cats as they currently look. Hopefully tomorrow I can start with some decals...

Some more masking for the fuselage color of "Engine Gray" and a non skid wing walk next to the cockpit on the Target Tow plane and it will be ready too.

Getting closer... As per my usual sign off, "Comment are Encouraged".

Good call Allan. I was wrong with the FS numbers.

You're absolutely correct about this. Blue Angels blue is FS 15050, while the "Insignia Blue" that I used on the Blue Angels Hellcat plane is a flat color, FS 35044.

Here in this picture below you can see the differences between the two colors. Insignia blue is on the left in each picture.

Of course the colors are different once sprayed on and the base color used will affect the final color.

Good catch !

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I honestly don't know how I did this, and I don't want to lead someone down the wrong path if they are using this build journal to build one of their own.

Thank you Greg... You Privateer is turning out very nice too buddy. I've been watching it progress.

Tonight I made some more progress on the Target Tow 'Cat.

I masked off the wing walk area in preparation for some flat black paint...

I had a spare Obscuro Resin "corrected" cowling in the stash. I figured why not...
There is a difference with the so called "Grin" and the opening diameter is a little larger, but I was happy with the kit provided part. The resin replacement is on the left in this picture below. The factory Hasegawa kit part is on the right.

What happened was this. I used the cowling for the Target Tow plane for the Daytona Beach NAS plane...and simply needed a replacement part.

Earlier today I was studying the some reference pictures for the Daytona Beach NAS plane. The book stated the speed ring was red, so that is why I opted to paint the nose of the cowling red. But then I started looking at a few other photos of stateside training units in Florida that operated Gloss Sea Blue Cats.

Some had a distinct area that "could" have been red or possibly a lighter blue. But the reference photo I was using for my plane just looked to be painted in solid GSB without a red speed ring. In some other pictures I found of Daytona Beach planes, some had the red speed ring, while others did not.

It may be something as simple as the time the photos were taken. The red could have been added later, after the photo was taken of my reference plane.

So I decided to spray another cowling, but this time I sprayed the whole thing in Gloss Sea Blue... The second cowling in solid GSB is on the right in this picture below.

In a worst case scenario I can use the red speed ring cowl on a FAA British 'Cat with Camo paint... Something I have been wanting to do for a while. Possibly one with D Day Invasion stripes on it. I think they just look so cool...

Having hopefully sorted out the cowling thing... I went on the spray some flat black, painting some inside the cowlings for the Target Tow plane, since later on in the War, and Post War, many Navy planes had the insides of the cowls painted black.

Here's the wing walk area painted.

I couldn't stand it any longer... so I unmasked the plane to see how it was starting to look. (yes when I removed the tape, the tape removed one of the landing gear covers...I guess it was stuck to the tape pretty good, or the glue bond was rather weak...or both).

So far I am very happy with the results. Once I get the resin cowling ready for paint, I'll be masking off the flying surfaces in preparation for the "Engine Gray" color to be sprayed.

Calling it a day... I hope to get some more done on these tomorrow...

Comments are encouraged. Thanks for looking.