Nobler Color

For you trivia buff’s out there, What was the color of the Nobler pictured on the Top Flight Kit label (green box)? I am building a TF green box Nobler for VSC and would like to make my model the same color.

Mikey

Mikey,

It looked close to a medium blue to me, but looked slightly lighter in the picture on the box. I don't think it was as light as sky blue. It seemed like somewhere in between to me; however, pictures are nortoriously distorted sometimes.

>What was the color of the Nobler pictured on the
>Top Flight Kit label (green box)? I am building
>a TF green box Nobler for VSC and would like to
>make my model the same color.
>
Let's look at an image to remind ourselves, shall we?

[photo not recovered: i-1.JPG]

Seems to me it was a Navy style paint job of some kind, so it was blue, but hard to tell from a black & white image, isn't it?

Kiwi

Kiwi,

Come on, you of all people should know the exact color - was it something like Aerogloss Curtis Blue??

>Kiwi,
>
>Come on, you of all people should know the exact color
>- was it something like Aerogloss Curtis Blue??
>
I didn't know George yet before the first two or three were gone to splinters. The very first, for which he kept the pieces in a bag out in his shop for 25-30 years, had been repainted about four times. That's the one that was at the very end of its lifetime painted dark blue (Aerogloss "Corsair Blue") with a white cowl.

That color scheme would be easiest to duplicate (it was what he chose for his own 1990 replica model that he took to a couple of California VSC's).

George said that the first plane had been some variation of green when new, and TTBOMK, no color photos of it in that color survived this long. I suspect that the next to last color finish is what was on the box, and Corsair Blue would photograph as "black," or so close to it that makes no never mind, so it probably was a mid-range color similar in color depth/ darkness to Curtis Blue, but since the US Navy never used a color similar to that one, I'd bet it was along the lines of the "Intermediate Blue" that the Navy did use in the Second World War era.

K.

In My last conversation with George we talked about just that. I mentioned that my Nobler was Corsair blue (Aerogloss) with the typical white Navy markings. He said that his was painted at least three times and that the last color was Corsair blue. Now I'm not sure of the TF photo model, but I believe the intention was Corsair blue.

Mine is still pictured in the Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine "A Few Good Noblers" article. I believe you can still access it. I mention this just in case you'd like to see it in that color.

I heard it was Corsair Blue or the Navy called it Midnight Blue. However, to be just like the box art, a nice gray would do.

Fun question. One I've wondered about when I built my first green box Nobler about 1970.

Did George ever mention who built the model on the box?
And what happened to it?

It looks to me that if it is a blue, which is the most common assumption, that it must have been a medium blue. There is a lot of contrast in the photo between the base color and the "insignia blue" of the U.S. star-and-bar.

>Fun question. One I've wondered about when I built my first
>green box Nobler about 1970.
>
>Did George ever mention who built the model on the box?
>
Mike, I believe that I always assumed the photo to have been of the actual original plane from its Plymouth International Meet years, when it was fairly new. I think I've seen Black and white photos of George with a Nobler painted a medium shade, with the stars and bars on it, from that period (1950/1951). But I'm not sure I ever confirmed (with George) my belief about what plane was in the photo.

Anyone here recall what photos were used with the MAN Magazine article he wrote about his design?

>And what happened to it?
>
My recollection is that a leadout snapped overhead and it hit straight in, being a total loss in tiny pieces, some time in the late 1950's/early 1960's. I "THINK" he told me that the FAI bird was built from a TF kit, and had an extremely short life.

Kiwi

Looks to me to be a medium tone of some color. At any rate the shade is much lighter than the dark blue in the national markings on the wings. We KNOW that color is a very dark blue, and most decal printers use a dark color, although the shades vary a bit. We can make inferential guesses after that.

I was thinking of building one some day and had the same question. So, one time when I wrote George I asked what color the '57 Nobler was. He replied that it was Curtiss Blue.