When the flaps are extended, what’s the color of the exposed portions of the flap and wing? Yellow chromate? Bare metal? Whatever the prevailing paint scheme was?
Of course it won’t be the last. That’d be too easy…[:P]
My P-47 book only shows the flaps extended on a restored Jug…
All my refs seem to match whatever color the plane is.
I’ve seen natural metal on a lot of builds but that may not be accurate, idk
P-47 in Detail and Scale shows the exposed flap to be the same as the exterior. as for the gun bays and interior structure, I think it depends on what factory the plane was built. Republic used Zinc Chromate Yellow while Curtiss used green.
Been going over the P-47 training films on YouTube and concurr… Haven’t seen anything to indicate they were any other color than the whatever the exterior color is… The only time they were down was for landing and when the aircraft was parked, to keep folks from stepping on them…
!(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/HansvonHammer/Aircraft Profiles/P-47D Walkaround/Flapshot2.jpg?t=1292250456)
Kinda blurry, it’s a screen capture from a training vid… But the joint area is OD…
Thanks all! My P-47 book (can’t remember the name off the top of my head - lots o Japanese text in there though) is in general pretty fantastic, but every flaps down pic is of a NMF bird, so there was no way to be sure.
Now I have to figure out if, on a 56th FG Jug, the Ocean Gray/Dark Green camo was continued to the exposed areas, of if it was just left all Ocean Gray…
Doogs,
Hal Marshman, Sr. is a long time modeler and recognized expert on the P-47. He just recently had an annual award at a major New England contest named in his honor. I asked him this question and below is his answer.
"I’m not a member, so I probably cannot reply to that Q. It’s a common question and I’m sure you’ve seen many buildups on the net where the leading edge has been carefully masked off and painted an interior color. I had typed up a lengthy answer to your Q, but did something wrong and lost it. The quote below is my answer to a club friend who normally doesn’t build planes, but wants to participate in the Maine contest where they’ve made a category in my name for Thunderbolts.
“1) The area behind the canopy on razorbacks came out of the factory in the same color as the basic fuselage finish. If the bird is camo’ed OD, so is that area. Jug is NMF, so is that area. I do believe some units may have painted their’s Neutral Gray, as an antiglare measure, but it was not regulation… Going along with that, another question is the leading edge of the flaps. Simple, out of the factory, same as the outer surfaces. The well into which the flaps retract is the same color as the wing bottoms. Gear legs can be either OD, or aluminum paint. On a Razorback, I recommend the OD. Wheel covers out of the factory were neutral Gray. Machine gun blast tubes were stainless steel, not gunmetal. The anti-glare panel on nearly all P-47s was OD. The interior wants to be Dull Dark Green, for which Euro 1 Green in the Model master range, is a good substitute.”
2) You don’t specify if you’re going 1/72 or 1/48. In the 1/48th Tamiya kit, the canopy can most certainly be cemented in the open position, and if you apply pressure until the glue dries, so can the seventy-second offering.
3) I don’t normally do NMF planes, but Collins, who is a master with NMF uses Testor’s Bare Metal sealer with it, prior to decalling.
Hope that answers any questions you may have had. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Hal Sr"
The only thing not covered is field repaints, When it became obvious that the 8th and 9th Air Forces would be operating from fields on the continent after the invasion, orders came down from the top specifying camoflage be applied to NMF machines, as they would now be in danger on being attacked from the enemies Air Forces while on the ground. Under the circumstances prevailing then, most ground crews had many planes to paint, and little time to invest in doing so, so every short cut possible was brought into play. Most airplanes were repainted with the flaps up, and canopies slid forward and masked, frames and all, hence the pics you see of OD airplanes (or other camo finishes) with NMF canopy frames. Field repaints is another subject that hasn’t been covered adequately, and I think I may just do an article on that business. Hal Sr"
And then there were instances like this, where the ground crews were told to get rid of the invasion stripes, but not told HOW…
[;)]
Regarding the Anti-glare panel:
While true that a great many of the earlier, camouflaged-painted Jugs (as well as other aircraft) had OD/Green AGPs, they started coming from the factory with black panels after the existing stocks of OD on hand were used up…
Also, ground crews didn’t generally repaint the AGPs after removing the camouflage paint, they simply left the OD on it in that area more often than not…
Doogs, In other words “Artistic License”. Just don’t use purple. Rick.
Yep - and it isn’t like the particular aircraft I’m building, David Schilling’s “Hairless Joe”, isn’t the subject of massive controversy anyway.
After all the back-and-forth about whether his jug had bare metal or gray undersides, I’m going with the theory that the underside of the port wing was left bare metal after it was replaced.
And there are no pictures depicting the upper wing surfaces, so yeah, artistic license all the way. I’m thinking pink or day-glo orange for the exposed flap surfaces!
Service log…
Tuesday, 0-800 hours: removed "invasion stripes", installed “we’re here now, whatcha gonnna do about it stripes”…
Here ya go, Doogs…
Thanks, Fermis… [;)]
[t$t]
I used a little artistic license on the “Artisic License” license…
You killed me with the “Presidents” name!!!
Dirty bastage!!!
lol… Couldn’t resist… The Vice-president coulda signed too… Pat McGroyne, or any of the former presidents, Phil Mckracken, Amanda Huggenkis, Mike Hunt, Jaques Strapp, etc…
I have several different wings/name patches for my flight jacket with some like that… I couldn’t resist it after reading “Flight of the Intruder” years ago, and wear 'em at CAF functions and air shows… I’d been known to change them several times a night at hangar dances…
~gravvely voice~ Amanda Huggenkiss? Hey, I’m looking for Amanda Huggenkiss! Why can’t I find Amanda Huggenkiss?
Try “Pat McGroyne”…
Nahh, I’m at the office now, I’d better not be searching for “Pat… anything”!