I just brought the nose from the Voodoo home yesterday and after looking it over to see what it was going to take for me to restore it into something more presentable, I was puzzled by the colors it has.
Initially, I just assumed that the nose was once all black (which is what I thought they all were back in the day), with white stenciling. However, when I looked at the red areas of the nose, which I thought was just from the sun bleaching the original paint over the years, I noticed that the stenciling didn't look right.
On the area of the nose that retains it's original black paint, the stenciling is still white. However, on the red portion, the stenciling is black. Now, that just didn't make sense to me. I would've thought that if the sun bleached off anything, it would get the black paint first since it gets hotter than any other color. However, if you look at the second photo, you'll see how the "Do Not Paint" stencil is clearly done in black paint...not faded white. Right?
So, were there some F-101s flying around at some time with multi-colored radomes? Or have I just completely lost my mind? I wasn't even going to post this at first, as it may make me look as dumb as I feel, but I reckon that's the only way I can learn, huh?
Your thoughts?
Gary
