I’ll be starting a 1/48 F4U-4 shortly and I had 2 color questions. I picked up the “F4U In Action” book, but apparently, this bird couldn’t sit still for color pictures so I’m at a loss.
Anyway, on to the questions. First, I’ll be painting this as a late war variant with an overall dark sea blue color scheme, so, what color are the inside panels on the wing folds (I hope that makes sense). If the wings are in the folded position, the stuctural panels that you would see. I’ve seen them painted chromate green during a resto poject, but I’ve read that they were blue (exterior color). Second, how about the wheel wells and hubs? Were they the same as the exterior color or somrthing else?
I’m no expert, Fred, but when I built my Tamiya kit with the wings folded, I painted those sections with MM interior green (FS34151) and they looked pretty good. I cannot vouch 100% for the accuracy, but I know I didn’t just come up with that color out of the blue either (no pun intended). [;)]
As far as the wing fold area goes, it could be either Chromate Green or Dark Sea Blue, just depends on which specific aircraft you are doing. The first production batches of the F4U-4 Corsairs usually came from the factory with those areas painted chromate green and when the plane was painted (touch up painting) in the fleet those areas where painted over with the dark sea blue. The wheel wells and hubs would be dark sea blue, along with the struts as called for in the regulations.
If you are doing a late war variant I would paint the wing fold area dark sea blue due to the fact that the plane would have been a later production batch. The reason why you see them painted green during restro projects is because that is what was called for in the intial plans, later during the production run it was switched to dark sea blue.