Interior Canopy Framing Colors

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I know that when painting canopies, the first color is the ‘under color’ and the top coat goes with the a/c color.

That being said; 'What’s the most used interior color for WW II US fighters?

I’ve seen colors from OD, Pea Green, Bronze Green, both chromates, etc.!

Any suggestions out there?[banghead]

2

As simple as it seems…before internet days, I got my info from either the instruction sheet, FSM, or from a S/S In Action pub if I was concerned about being sure.

HTH

3

The most popular would be interior green (FS 34151). However…this color can be quite different from one manufacturer to another. Model Master, for example, looks too bright to me(yellow) while the old Pactra looks spot on. Just my two cents.

Jerry

4

You can mix your own Interior Green (Zinc Chromate) by mixing flat black with flat yellow until it looks like the shade your looking for. I do this alot on my kits.

5

Just remember that Zinc Chromate and Interior Green are not the same color and were used in different aircraft and different applications.

6

One other little trick that really improves the look of the canopy is to paint the edges of the canopy the framing color as well. Use the interior color on the exposed edges and the fuselage color along the glue edges. This eliminates that funny mirroring effect that shows up along the edges due to reflection from the interior edge.

7

Thanks! That’s a great tip that I have never heard before. [:)]

8

Thanks Gang! [bow]

Another problem solved! Now I’m only down to 3,831 things I don’t know about modeling airplanes![banghead]

9

fActually, on a lot of WWII planes, the canopy frames and other such areas were painted in dark green or flat black, as an anti-glare measure… at least that’s what I’ve seen in photos.

10

I learned that little cockpit tidbit the first time I was a practice judge at an IPMS contest. The next contest you go to you should seek out the head judge and ask if you can tag along (of course in categories that you’re not competing in) but I only do 1/48 which usually leaves me open to judge in 1/32 and 1/72. I practice judged for two years and for the past three have been judging contest around Texas.

It improved my model building immensely to see the small things that cause your otherwise beautiful creation to get push to the back of the pack. I’ve seen the coolest paint jobs sitting on top of crooker landing gear and or misaligned stabs. When the judge is trying to pick the top three out of perhaps 20 entries you look for the obvious first and whittle the field down to the top tier. That still doesn’t guarentee anything but at least I can stay in that top group after learning these little details.