Visual Camouflage-How important? Favourite?

[F-111 C/C]

I like the new Camo on the aggressor F-16s from Red Flag Alaska that is Black, White and Grey camouflage like the Urban Camo BDUs that were popular in the 80s.

Here's a picture of what I was describing.

[Cheetah C]

As far as i'm aware, a digital pattern was applied to the Mig 29s of the Slovakian AF...

Anyway, another interesting pattern is the one that the SAAF applied to its now retired Cheetah C/Ds. It used to be called the "Spectare" sceme... (Sounds rather ominious!) But be that as it may, it worked on the principle of breaking up the natural visual lines of the aicraft so that it was more difficult to see at long range in an air combat environment.

Infact, they considered it so effective that it's been carried over to the new Gripens that we're taking delivery of! Here are a few pictures of a model of the Gripen D which I think illustrates the point quite nicely!

[Eldorado82]

cheetah are you dealing with  model constructing?

[Cheetah C]

no... just a hobbey! 

[shawn a]

Cheetah,
I've heard the Gripen's HUD is so darn big, the green reflection was sometimes the first thing picked up visually.
Any confirmation on that?
 Oh, By the way, I'm not impressed by the camo on that Gripen, it reminds me of the "camo" on the F-16, it seems counter productive with the light color around the cockpit, while the cockpit itself stands out as a dark area from most angles. Visual camo is by definition a short to medium range application today. Remember the "dazzle" camo on ships? Designed to confuse optical rangefinders with false outlines of a smaller ship complete with false bow and stern waves, and confusing patterns to make the actual rangefinding process less accurate and slower with the all the attending risks involved in taking more time to perform a given task during hectic combat. To me, that is the goal of visual camo on modern aircraft--to slow down the enemy's assesment of your range, attitude, heading, speed, etc.
I think visual camo these days has mostly low-altitude applications-light blue or haze grey undersides, with some color or pattern that could blend in with the area of operation on the top of the plane.
Does anyone have any info or opinions on gloss versus matte finish? The US Navy used gloss dark blue for a few years in WWII and after, which may have helped when viewed from above against that incredible blue of open ocean water.
My ideal camo for a fast jet would be some kind of helicopter outline with a changing pattern of rotor blades to make me look like an easy, slow, vulnerable target!
Shawn A.

[AVIATOR]

I think that most paint jobs on aircraft in WW2 were to do with pride in their aircraft.
As an example, take a look at my signature pic. Doesn't actually look like they want to hide it does it?
The Japanese for instance painted all their naval planes green with big red spots. They liked the contrasting colours. Even I think they looked good and I don't have a lot of time for anything Japanese, being an Australian.
By the end of the war, the USAF were not using paint at all on their B-29s. With all opposition blasted from the skies and the cost of paint for the amount needed to cover the huge planes, painting was discontinued and all aircraft were shiny aluminium.
But on that subject, it is interesting to note that even in the dark days of 1940, the RAF and Brits had the pride to paint their aircraft like they did.