Hi,

I'm close to finishing my 1/72 Hellcat for the A/C group build, and will be attaching the ordnance shortly. I'd like to know if anybody knows the color scheme for the rockets that were attached to the Hellcat.

The scheme given in the instructions say Olive Drab for the tips, and Silver for the body of the rocket. It looks odd. Anybody has a photo or a alternative scheme for these?

Oh, and one more thing.. the rockets are not pointed, but are bulbous. Do I need to do some surgery on these? I checked up on the Tamiya site, and there similar rockets look pointed to me !

TIA,
BP.

There are different kinds of rockets, The 5" HVAR was aluminum or shiney steel for the body and fins with olive drab warheads. What you might have are something like RAF/RN 60lb aircraft rockets. I've seen these with black bodies with red warheads

Just so happens I was wandering around the U.S. Naval Historical Center website a couple of months ago and copied a photo of ordnancemen onboard the USS Hancock in October, 1944, wheeling a cartload of HVARS with enlarged warheads. The tips were very pointed, but the warheads are at least two to four inches larger in diameter than the standard HVAR. It looks a lot like the RAF 60-pounder, but with a sharper-looking tip

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g280000/g281338c.htm

Bluebear is right about the standard USN HVAR. The main rocket body/engine casing is a separate unit from the warhead for shipping purposes -- warheads and bodies would be assembled by ordinancemen, and I've seen at least one photo of WW II or Korean War vintage of the bodies being loaded onto wing racks before warheads were attached. How often that happened is questionable though -- just look at the photo link above.



HTH