Contents:
- Introduction to US color standards
- Early WW2 USAAF camouflage (1941-43)
- Sea Search scheme (1941-45)
- Mediterranean Theater (1942-43)
- Northwest African Air Forces (1943)
- Late War (1943-45)
- Night Fighters (1943-45)
- Photo-Reconnaisance (1942-45)
- RAF equivalent schemes
- Interiors
- Cockpits
Introduction to US color standards
The first color standard in use by the US armed forces was known as Specification No. 3-1, introduced on 28 November 1919 and including a palette of 24 colors of which only one would still be in use during World War II. The earliest standard in use by the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) before the war was Specification 14057 which dated from April 1931 and had been revised numerous times since, the latest being Specification 14057-C on 27 December 1939. An updated eight-color (later nine-color) palette was introduced shortly thereafter, in Air Corps Bulletin No. 41 dated 16 September 1940 and this would include all the main colors in use when the US Army Air Force (USAAF) replaced the USAAC in June 1941. Camouflage schemes would later be specified in the Technical Order No. 07-1-1 although in many cases these were applied in an ad hoc manner by commanders in the field. The US Navy (USN) had its own color system during the early years of World War II based around Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) Specification M-485 from 6 December 1940 which listed 6 (later 7) basic non-spectacular (matt) colors.
The need to unify color codes for the USAAF and USN (which used completely different camouflage schemes) resulted in the Army and Navy Aircraft (ANA) system, introduced on 28 September 1943. ANA Bulletin No. 157 included an initial palette of 19 mostly matt (plus a few semi-gloss) colors using a three-digit numbering system in the 600s. ANA Bulletin No. 166 added a further 15 gloss colors numbered in the 500s. A number of additional colors were later added for a total of 44. Notably, a few of these were gloss colors but were added to the 600s range. The ANA system also included numerous substitute colors for British colors, necessary in light of the large number of US aircraft provided to the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm through Lend-Lease.
On 12 January 1950, the US published Federal Specification TT-C-595 which superseded the ANA system with a four-digit numbering system. This was short-lived and just a few years later was superseded by the Federal Standard system, formally known as FED-STD-595. Each color the palette is identified by a five-digit code. The first digit refers to the sheen of the paint, these being gloss (1), semi-gloss (2), and matt (3). The second digit refers to the color, these being brown (1), red (2), yellow (3), green (4), blue (5), gray (6), all others including whites, blacks, and metallics (7), and fluorescents (8). The last three digits are unique for each color and typically go from darker to lighter. The initial palette included 358 colors although some colors only officially exist in one or two out of the three sheens. Although the hues are identical regardless of sheen, there have been some notorious exceptions such as Olive Drab whose semi-gloss version used by the US Army on tanks (FS 24087) was different from the matt version used on helicopters (FS 34087), this being an error that took decades to correct.
The Federal Standard system has gone through numerous revisions, starting with FED-STD-595A in January 1968 (437 colors), FED-STD-595B in January 1994 (611 colors), and FED-STD-595C in January 2008 (650 colors). The ANA Bulletin 157/166 continued to be updated post-war as well, until 15 October 1964 when it was discontinued in favor of FED-STD-595. On February 17th, 2017, the Federal Standard system was replaced by the Aerospace Material Specification Standard 595, or AMS-STD-595. It is largely equivalent to the Federal Standard system and most existing colors have been carried over with identical numbers.
Paint guide basics:
All colors in this page include a paint chart with matches or equivalences from 19 different model paint ranges. Paints are considered matches if they are labeled with the intended color (either uniquely on together with another color). Paints are considered equivalences if they are close to the intended color but not labeled as such. The accuracy of any paint is independent of whether it is a match or an equivalence and these are described in the text (there can be poor matches and highly accurate equivalences). The following nomenclature is used in the paint tables and is based on matches or equivalences to US Insignia Red FS 11136:
Paint | Match or equivalence type (label) |
MP01 | Labeled to match one specific color (FS 11136) |
MP02* | Labeled to match more than one color of same-country standards (FS 11136 / ANA 509)* |
MP03** | Labeled to match more than one color of different-country standards (FS 11136 / BS 538) |
MP04 (!) | Questionable accuracy of label match (doesn't look like FS 11136) |
MP05 (?) | Questionable accuracy of label match, untested (doesn't look like FS 11136 in the bottle) |
(MP06) | Close equivalent to FS 11136 (BS 538) |
(MP07) (?) | Questionable equivalent to FS 11136 (Generic Gloss Red) |
*A single asterisk also denotes implicit matches for same-country standards where there is an official succession between standards. For example, H327* would match ANA 509 even if the label only references FS 11136 since ANA 509 is its official predecessor. This does not apply when there are considerable differences between successive paints (ex: Olive Drab No. 41/ANA 613/FS 34087) and this will be described in the text. By and large, however, single asterisk matches should be considered close enough to unique matches as to not be seriously questioned.
The paint charts make no distinction between gloss, semi-gloss, and matt variants of a color if the correct sheen is unavailable (ex: gloss FS 11136 will be a specific match for matt FS 31136 if the latter does not exist in the same paint range). Exceptions are made where there is a known or suspected color difference (ex: FS 24087 and 34087).
Color Tables
Specification 14057-C (27 December 1939)
Color | FED-STD | ANA | No. 41 | Munsell* | ||
No. 25 | White | FS 37886 | ANA 601 | No. 46 | N9 | |
No. 26 | Sand | FS 31433 (?) | ANA 616 | No. 49 | 5YR 7/4 | |
No. 27 | Light Blue | FS 35466 (?) | - | - | 5B 7.6/4 | |
No. 28 | Sea Green | FS 34092 (?) | ANA 612 (!) | No. 42 (!) | 1G 2.8/3 | |
No. 29 | Dark Blue | FS 35109 | - | - | 4B 2.8/3 | |
No. 30 | Dark Green | FS 34077 (?) | - | - | 4G 2.4/1.8 | |
No. 31 | Dark Olive Drab | FS 34088 (?) | ANA 613 (!) | No. 41 | 8Y 3.6/3 | |
No. 32 | Neutral Gray | FS 36173 | ANA 603 (!) | No. 43 | N5 | |
No. 33 | Black | FS 37038 | ANA 604 | No. 44 | N2 | |
No. 34 | Rust Brown | FS 30117 | - | - | 5YR 3/4 |
* Munsell values were originally provided using 1929 notation. N values have been converted to Hex relative to greyscale range.
Air Corps Bulletin No. 41 (16 September 1940)
Color | FED-STD | ANA | 14057-C | Munsell | ||
No. 41 | Dark Olive Drab | FS 34086 (?) | ANA 613 (!) | No. 31 | ? | |
No. 42 | Medium Green | FS 34092 | ANA 612 | No. 28 (!) | ? | |
No. 43 | Neutral Gray | FS 36173 | ANA 603 (!) | No. 32 | ? | |
No. 44 | Black | FS 37038 | ANA 604 | No. 33 | ? | |
No. 45 | Insignia Red | FS 31136 | ANA 619 | - | ? | |
No. 46 | Insignia White | FS 37886 | ANA 601 | No. 25 | ? | |
No. 47 | Insignia Blue | FS 35042 | ANA 605 | - | ? | |
No. 48 | Identification Yellow | FS 33538 | ANA 614 | - | ? | |
No. 49 | Sand | FS 30315 (?) | ANA 616 | No. 26 | ? |
US Army Specification 3-1 (21 April 1943)
Color | FED-STD | ANA | No. 41 | Munsell* | ||
No. 302 | Earth Brown | FS 30099 | - | - | ? | |
No. 303 | Field Drab | FS 30118 | ANA 617 | - | ? | |
No. 305 | Earth Yellow | FS 30257 | - | - | ? | |
No. 306 | Sand | FS 33448 | - | - | 0.7Y 6.6/3.7 | |
No. 307 | Light Blue | FS 35190 (?) | - | - | ? | |
No. 312 | Earth Red | FS 30117 | - | - | ? | |
No. 319 | Olive Drab | FS 34088 | ANA 613 | No. 41 | ? | |
No. 321 | Light Green | FS 34258 | ANA 611 | - | ? |
* Hex values adapted from color plate in Archer & Archer (1976) modified to match No. 306 Sand Munsell value provided by Nick Millmann via Britmodeller.
ANA Bulletin No. 157 (28 September 1943)
Color | FED-STD | No. 41 | 14057-C | Munsell | ||
ANA 601 | Insignia White | FS 37875 | No. 46 | No. 25 | 8.3Y 9.17/0.6 | |
ANA 602 | Light Gray | FS 36440 | - | - | 2.4GY 6.51/0.5 | |
ANA 603 | Sea Gray | FS 36118 | No. 43 (!) | No. 32 (!) | 3.7PB 3.94/0.96 | |
ANA 604 | Black | FS 37038 | No. 44 | No. 33 | 3.2PB 2.28/0.1 | |
ANA 605 | Insignia Blue | FS 35044 | No. 47 | - | 5.7PB 2.47/1.55 | |
ANA 606 | Semi-gloss Sea Blue | FS 25042 | - | - | 1.0PB 2.94/1.5 | |
ANA 607 | Non-spectacular Sea Blue | FS 35042 | - | - | 0.3PB 2.67/1.4 | |
ANA 608 | Intermediate Blue | FS 35164 | - | - | 0.3PB 4.86/2.45 | |
ANA 609 | Azure Blue | FS 35231 | - | - | 5.3PB 5.36/6.35 | |
ANA 610 | Sky | FS 34424 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 611 | Interior Green | FS 34151 | - | - | 3.3GY 4.55/3.6 | |
ANA 612 | Medium Green | FS 34092 | No. 42 | No. 28 (!) | 0.3G 3.57/1.85 | |
ANA 613 | Olive Drab | FS 33070 (?) | No. 41 (!) | No. 31 (!) | 7.0Y 3.62/1.5 | |
ANA 614 | Orange Yellow | FS 33538 | No. 48 | - | 0.5Y 7.16/11.0 | |
ANA 615 | Middle Stone | FS 30266 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 616 | Sand | FS 30279 | No. 49 | No. 26 | ? | |
ANA 617 | Dark Earth | FS 30118 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 618 | Dull Red | FS 30109 | - | - | 9.3R 3.71/5.5 | |
ANA 619 | Insignia Red | FS 31136 | No. 45 | - | 5.2R 4.16/10.65 | |
ANA 620* | Light Gull Gray | FS 36440 | - | - | 4.55GY 7.08/0.27 | |
ANA 621* | Dark Gull Gray | FS 36231 | - | - | 7.3B 5.36/0.5 | |
ANA 622* | Jet | FS 17038 | - | - | 0.8PB 0.68/0.5 | |
ANA 623* | Sea Blue | FS 15042 | - | - | 0.55PB 2.59/1.45 | |
ANA 625* | Sea Plane Gray | FS 26081 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 626* | Semi-gloss White | FS 27875 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 627* | Field Green | FS 34097 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 628* | Sierra Tan | FS 30219 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 631* | Forest Green | FS 34079 | - | - | ? |
* Added later
ANA Bulletin No. 166 (4 December 1943)
Color | FED-STD | No. 41 | 14057-C | Munsell | ||
ANA 501 | Light Blue | FS 15102 | - | - | 3.7PB 3.54/8.15 | |
ANA 502 | Insignia Blue | FS 15044 | - | - | 4.9PB 1.25/2.95 | |
ANA 503 | Light Green | FS 14187 | - | - | 8.5GY 4.67/8.15 | |
ANA 504 | Olive Drab | FS 24165 | - | - | 6.8Y 2.88/1.95 | |
ANA 505 | Light Yellow | FS 13655 | - | - | 5.4Y 7.74/11.8 | |
ANA 506 | Orange Yellow | FS 13538 | - | - | 1.2Y 7.3/13.05 | |
ANA 507 | Aircraft Cream | FS 13594 | - | - | ? | |
ANA 508 | International Orange | FS 12197 | - | - | 9.3R 4.49/13.7 | |
ANA 509 | Insignia Red | FS 11136 | - | - | 7.65R 3.13/11.5 | |
ANA 510 | Maroon | FS 10049 | - | - | 1.4YR 2.38/3.25 | |
ANA 511 | Insignia White | FS 17875 | - | - | 4.2GY 8.93/0.6 | |
ANA 512 | Aircraft Gray | FS 16473 | - | - | 2.4B 6.68/0.8 | |
ANA 513 | Engine Gray | FS 16081 | - | - | 2.7B 3.10/0.35 | |
ANA 514 | Instrument Black | FS 27038 | - | - | 2.4PB 2.30/0.4 | |
ANA 515 | Gloss Black | FS 17038 | - | - | 0.9PB 1.34/0.45 | |
ANA 516 | Strata Blue | FS 15045 | - | - | - |
Note: Where Munsell values are available, these have been converted to RGB/Hex values using Munsell Color Palette.
References:
- Archer, Robert D. and Archer, Victor G., USAAF Aircraft Markings and Camouflage 1941-1947, Schiffer Publishing (1997)
- Bell, Dana, Air Force Colors Volume 1 1926-1942, Squadron/Signal Publications (1995)
- Bell, Dana, Air Force Colors Volume 2 ETO & MTO 1942-1945, Squadron/Signal Publications (1980)
- Elliot, John M., The Official Monogram US Navy & Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide Vol 2 1940-1949, Monogram Aviation Publications (1989)