V-2 Paint Schemes, 1942-1945
 

I've been spending recent weeks working on color scheme drawings for the V-2, and I'm pretty much done with the first four pages. These are German test flight colors and Camouflage, and the October 1945 Operation Backfire roll pattern.

I'm spreading these around in the hopes that more people paint their V-2 correctly. Well, at least those who want to. Note that the most-used camouflage pattern, the "Ragged" scheme, is not a bunch of willy-nilly patches of greens and earthtones, but a precisely laid out pattern of patches, with corners placed precisely on a grid. The only pattern that *was* a willy-nilly patchwork of sprayed-on blobs had much smaller patches of color than most people apply, as you can see in the "batik" pattern.

Anyway, I'll see how inserting images goes:







The shading patterns for the camouflage aren't showing up properly on the reduced image, so here's a link to Flickr where you can get the full-resolution version: https://www.flickr.com/photos/48113...57624705434516/

Finally, here is Operation Backfire:



I hope these are of some use. I'm pretty sure I've got most of the German schemes covered pretty well. I'm working on adding to and revising my White Sands V-2 colors next.

Peter Alway

Thank you! This is very helpful.

OK, here's an older version of the camouflage drawing, and the exact shades are a little wonky, but at least it should show properly:



By the way, if you want to do the ragged scheme, you can start with the two bands of "Signal White," mark the grid points, and mask it off with straight edges, then paint the light brown, mark grid points again, and tape off with straight lines, and finish off with the olive green.Then unpeel all the tape.

Thanks! I happen to have an Estes Maxi-V2 in primer. It's been in primer for a couple of years. :o

I've had a Blossom V-2 in primer since before I moved in 2005. There was a reason that I'd never painted it, but I swear I can't remember what it was. :o

Peter,

Great to see you are still providing rocket data for all. Coincidentally, I was going thru my collection of parts today while cleaning my basement shop, and found parts to build a BT-60 sized V-2. I also found a Maxi V-2 stashed up in the spaces between joists. (A great place to store rocket stuff -- I added wood strips parallel to the joists, effectively making a bunch of storage "bins".) Besides owning several of your books, I also have a framed copy of the "Rockets of the World" in my shop.

By the way, I'm the Lee (Lee Reep) that visited you on a trip to Ann Arbor back in the 90s. I still vividly recall holding some of your magnificent models, and talking rockets quite late into the evening.

I'm retired now, and just getting back into model rocketry after a couple year hiatus you'd think I would have had loads of time to build, but my wife has kept on other projects, and I've really concentrated on woodworking. (I've also turned a couple of nice cones on my lathe.) It has been fun digging thru boxes of kits and parts over the past week or so, and trying to decide what to build. And some of my initial effort will be on simple rockets to launch with my grand kids, who are now at the right age to get them involved.

How about Operation Sandy launched from the USS Midway ?

http://www.midwaysailor.com/midway1940/opsandy.html

Or Operation Pushover? Pushover was kinda cool. They intentionally pushed over a fully fueled V-2 just to see what happens.

Sort of a, "Hold my beer, watch this." experiment.

http://www.cv41.org/photos/gallery/...g2_itemId=17451

Just something different. ;)

The good news is that I've found full color patterns for two Blossom V-2's (and now have a better guess about the backside of the one I'd partially documented).

Those should be ready within a couple of weeks, but I can tell you that the Rocket Aero "V-2 in America" disk was a big help in sorting them out.

One of them is all white up to where a normal V-2 body starts to curve, and a couple of shades of silver above that. That and a round number on one fin. That was a night launch, so they didn't bother with a roll pattern.

Peter Alway

As appealing as Operation Sandy is, I can't figure out what's on the *other* side. You'll notice that at one point there were *three* V-2's on the deck. I'll be limiting myself to rounds that I can document on all sides, either by photos, movies, or credible drawings. In fact I might drop some rounds that appear in the current RotW because I assumed too much, or only could show one side.

Cool....that will make my older edition a collectible! :cool:



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