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ET2SN · 02-16-21, 02:44 PM

A quick post on painting ALCMs.

Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCMs) have been carried by the B-52, B-1*, and B-2 for many years. Getting the paint figured out depends on what era you are modeling.

B-77/GAM-77/AGM-28 Hound Dog:

The Hound Dog was carried by B-52G and H model bombers. For most of their service life, the Hound Dogs wore over-all gloss white (anti-flash) paint with black USAF lettering and blue and red roundels. Before being removed from service in the early 1980's, the same "3 green" camo paint was applied to the tops of the missiles and their jet engine as the B-52 wore. The shade of white was always gloss, but over time it could fade out to look more like a semi-gloss to an almost matte finish. (while SAC B-52s of this era looked like they wore two shades of green camo plus a brown/earth shade that brown is actually classified as a shade of green

) BTW, these are NOT the same colors that were applied to B-52Ds serving in Asia, aka ARCLIGHT.

AGM-69 SRAM:
THE AGM-69 was the smallest "cruise missile" carried by the B-52 and FB-111. It was a follow-on program to the Air Force's Genie missile that was loaded on interceptor fighters and was painted over-all gloss white. The SRAM had a very limited "waypoint" capability and was mostly a "fire-and-forget" weapon.

AGM-86 A, B, and C models ALCM/CALCM:
The ALCM was the Air Force's "swiss army knife" with a nuke warhead. B-52 G and H models could carry a full load-out of 20 ALCMs or a mixed load-out of twelve ALCMs under the wings with one to four free fall warheads in the bomb bay. ALCMs started out in the traditional over-all gloss white during the early to mid 1980's that changed to shades of USAF "ghost gray" as the decade wore on. The B model was a slightly longer version of the A.
The AGM-86 started out as the replacement for the ADM-20 Quail decoy missile but the program showed so much promise the Air Force gave up on the decoy mission and replaced the reflectors with a live warhead.
It should be noted, if you want to build an "as flown" B-52 model, the ALCMs on the wing pylons have to be dummies, or "shapes".

B-52s did NOT carry live warheads on deterrence/training flights since 1968. Well, they did carry live warheads once by mistake (see above post). From a practical standpoint, you can go crazy with an ALCM load-out. Paint some in white with USAF lettering or over-all ghost light gray or over-all ghost dark gray or any combo you can imagine. "Shapes" tended to stay at the same base, unless they were needed elsewhere. A shape will ALWAYS have a bright yellow stencil label painted on near the nose.
The later CALCM (conventional warhead) variant is identical to the ALCM but could be painted anything from dark gray (Tamiya German Gray XF-63) to a dark brown or one of the ghost grays.

AGM-129 "Stealth ALCM"
The AGM-129 is the updated version of the ALCM with longer range and more low-observable capabilities. It features wings that fold out so it looks like a Su "Berkut" or an X-29 with backward-tapered wings. They are carried by the B-52H and B-2.
The AGM-129 (from the photos I've seen) wears an over-all dark gray "stealth" paint:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...cropped%29.jpg

which looks an awful lot like Tamiya XF-63 German Gray.

As far as I can tell, the AGM-129 has not been converted to the CALCM (conventional) mission.

*- There were plans for the B-1 to carry ALCMs (I once built a Monogram B-1 with ALCMs loaded under the fuselage), however the B-1 was limited by a couple of treaties to only carry conventional weps. Which could be thought of as a bit of a blessing, B-1Bs were a maintenance nightmare for most of their service life.

02-16-21, 02:44 PM	#7
ET2SN ET2/SS Join Date: Oct 2017 Posts: 2,513 Downloads: 58 Uploads: 0	A quick post on painting ALCMs. Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCMs) have been carried by the B-52, B-1, and B-2 for many years. Getting the paint figured out depends on what era you are modeling. B-77/GAM-77/AGM-28 Hound Dog: The Hound Dog was carried by B-52G and H model bombers. For most of their service life, the Hound Dogs wore over-all gloss white (anti-flash) paint with black USAF lettering and blue and red roundels. Before being removed from service in the early 1980's, the same "3 green" camo paint was applied to the tops of the missiles and their jet engine as the B-52 wore. The shade of white was always gloss, but over time it could fade out to look more like a semi-gloss to an almost matte finish. (while SAC B-52s of this era looked like they wore two shades of green camo plus a brown/earth shade that brown is actually classified as a shade of green ) BTW, these are NOT the same colors that were applied to B-52Ds serving in Asia, aka ARCLIGHT. AGM-69 SRAM: THE AGM-69 was the smallest "cruise missile" carried by the B-52 and FB-111. It was a follow-on program to the Air Force's Genie missile that was loaded on interceptor fighters and was painted over-all gloss white. The SRAM had a very limited "waypoint" capability and was mostly a "fire-and-forget" weapon. AGM-86 A, B, and C models ALCM/CALCM: The ALCM was the Air Force's "swiss army knife" with a nuke warhead. B-52 G and H models could carry a full load-out of 20 ALCMs or a mixed load-out of twelve ALCMs under the wings with one to four free fall warheads in the bomb bay. ALCMs started out in the traditional over-all gloss white during the early to mid 1980's that changed to shades of USAF "ghost gray" as the decade wore on. The B model was a slightly longer version of the A. The AGM-86 started out as the replacement for the ADM-20 Quail decoy missile but the program showed so much promise the Air Force gave up on the decoy mission and replaced the reflectors with a live warhead. It should be noted, if you want to build an "as flown" B-52 model, the ALCMs on the wing pylons have to be dummies, or "shapes". B-52s did NOT carry live warheads on deterrence/training flights since 1968. Well, they did carry live warheads once by mistake (see above post). From a practical standpoint, you can go crazy with an ALCM load-out. Paint some in white with USAF lettering or over-all ghost light gray or over-all ghost dark gray or any combo you can imagine. "Shapes" tended to stay at the same base, unless they were needed elsewhere. A shape will ALWAYS have a bright yellow stencil label painted on near the nose. The later CALCM (conventional warhead) variant is identical to the ALCM but could be painted anything from dark gray (Tamiya German Gray XF-63) to a dark brown or one of the ghost grays. AGM-129 "Stealth ALCM" The AGM-129 is the updated version of the ALCM with longer range and more low-observable capabilities. It features wings that fold out so it looks like a Su "Berkut" or an X-29 with backward-tapered wings. They are carried by the B-52H and B-2. The AGM-129 (from the photos I've seen) wears an over-all dark gray "stealth" paint: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...cropped%29.jpg which looks an awful lot like Tamiya XF-63 German Gray. As far as I can tell, the AGM-129 has not been converted to the CALCM (conventional) mission. - There were plans for the B-1 to carry ALCMs (I once built a Monogram B-1 with ALCMs loaded under the fuselage), however the B-1 was limited by a couple of treaties to only carry conventional weps. Which could be thought of as a bit of a blessing, B-1Bs were a maintenance nightmare for most of their service life.