Radome materials and colours

[steelpillow]

Aircraft radomes of the Cold War era were typically black. On the early Gloster Javelins at least, the black colour came from a neoprene skin stretched over the natural material (presumably fibgreglass), but even at subsonic speeds that tended to suffer and peel at high speeds. Most other black materials involve carbon, which is a bad choice for radomes. So what were the radomes of supersonic types like the F-104, Lightning, etc. made from and/or covered in?
And what made lighter shades practical, later on?

[PR19_Kit]

Nude fibreglass?

[scooter]

Nude fibreglass?

Or a honeycomb sandwiched between two pieces of fiberglass, and then painted.  I know the F-106B that's a gate guard at ACY has a black painted radome like almost all Darts, while the Yawn Dart next to it is a darker shade of gray (probably compass ghost) than the rest of the airframe.

[Weaver]

Lightnings had a fibreglass radome painted a dark green colour, with a stainless steel tip. The paint weathered quickly, fading to a pale grey-green or grey-brown shade. I presume the radar calibration took account of the effects of the stainless steel tip.

In general, modern radomes are self-coloured GRP. The choice of colours is limited: you often see camouflaged export aircraft whose radome is still in the grey colour of the first big customer. F-16s are a classic example. Self-coloured GRP doesn't change colour as it weathers because it's the same colour all the way through. It does get more matt if it was glossy to start with though.

There's a classic picture of A-7s lined up on a carrier's deck, and every one is different, including the radome. Some have a pure while radome, some have it grey, some have the black anti-glare panel extended across it and others don't, a few even have unpainted fibreglass radomes, with or without the anti-glare panel. It all seems to be just paint.

[jcf]

F-104 has a GRP radome and it was typically a light-grey/off-white with black
anti-glare painted on the top from the beginning. This includes camouflaged
aircraft, in the latter case black, or just airframe colour, came into use later in
their careers.