I will be starting on Eduard’s P-400 weekend edition soon and while I plan for it to be a OOB build, I would like to get the cockpit color close to what it really was. Problem is one book I have called “Cockpits” has a photo that makes the cockpit look very dark like almost a black-green color, while Detail and Scale’s book has a pciture of a cockpit that looks alot like olive drab. Of course, the instrument panel is black.
So does anyone have any ideas as to what the true color was?
Remember I would like close, so does not have to be spot on.
When my grandfather worked on the 39 line(39-45), he said that Bell had their own interior colour and it looked on the order of an almost rippened Apple… A green, on the medium dark side.
So with that being said, I would use Model Masters Medium Green FS 34102 or Poly Scales US Med Green A/N612(505082)
Looking forward to your build and hopefully this may shed some light for you.
There was a picture of a P-39 in one of the previous issues of Finescale - or maybe it was one of their special issues…it was an article on interior colors - that showed a black interior. The article was talking about how interior colors varied quite a bit during the war, usually based on paint availability. I am not sure how much different that would be for a P-400 in England.
What do the directions say for your particular model from Eduard?
When I built my most recent P-39 (a D from Special Hobby, 1/32), I painted the cockpit Model Master interior green. The plane itself, Nips Nemesis II, was actually a plane my dad knew (and the pilot) when he was in the 5th A.F. in the Pacific in 1943. Interesting.
As noted, Bell, used an interior green that was their own interpretation of the Spec. The closest “out of the bottle” color match that I’ve found is Model Master “French Khaki”.
Hey Rick,
For the French Khaki, isn’t that more of a olive drab colour? Do not have the paint in front of me at them moment but the bw pix I have, show more of a darker colour.
Then again I am sure Bells paint batchs varied from time to time so the paint varied in tone.
As with the black interior, if anything those were done at Depot level and where mostly seen on the P-39Q’s
Thanks again Rick for bringing up the French khaki, I may have to try that out!!
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
My Dad was also in the 5th AAF from 1942 until the end of the war. He started out in Australia in the 81st Air Depot. Ended up in Hollandia. Worked on everything they had in the South Pacific including with Pappy Gunn and the A-20 and B-25 Gunship mods. I found an old pic recently of a P-400 probably and would like to use the 1/32 Special Hobby P-39 to model it. No fancy name or markings.
From what I have read, P-39s seem to have had varied interior colors, depending upon time of manufacture. Bell interior green, Bronze Green, or Olive Drab. I used a Bronze Green on the one I built earlier this year.
Did a bit of digging on some things i read over at IPMS stockholm and found the following:
"… Despite it’s massive production numbers, this aircraft appears to be relatively poorly documented. Available colour photo’s show Interior green and Bronze green for cockpits; interior green, Zinc Chromate Yellow or Aluminum lacquer for wheel wells; nose undercarriage legs painted with Olive Drab and Interior green and natural metal. It would seem that the jury is still out for this aircraft.
According to Bert Kinzey in his “Detail and Scale” book on the P39 the interior color used by Bell was called just Bell Green. That included the cockpit, the wheel wells, the landing bay doors and the undercarriage struts. There has been a lot of discussion as to what exactly Bell green was. The suggestions go towards something similar to Medium Green…"
I could run over to the Fairbanks Air Museum and take a look at the Russki P-39 carcase that crashed in 43 or 44 real close to my house. If I remember right, it has an interior green cockpit. If you need any other places like the wheel wells and other wing areas, let me know.
