Hi all
Did the Douglas SBD 1’s ever carry the naval Blue and white cammo with the big stars on bothe wings like on early SBD 3’s?
The fuselarge on the silver and yellow SBD 1’s, were they bare metal (on a carrier that would be a hassle I think) or were they painted silver?
Thanx
Theuns
SBD-1’s were had silver lacquer painted fuselages. Navy blue over white was never a USN scheme. Do you mean blue-gray over light gray?
Going off of memory here so I will definitely yield to the experts on this one, but as I recall the SBD-1 wasn’t in service with the USN very long. The navy didn’t like the lack of armor and self-sealing fuel tanks so most of the SBD-1s were relegated to Marine service. I think they may have been moved from their pre-war yellow wings to the Gray on gray scheme used at the time Pearl Harbor was attacked. Now I may be confusing the TBD with the SBD, but I want to say that most of the available SBD-1s were destroyed on the ground at Pearl. Everything after Pearl was SBD-2 and on and what SBD-1s were remaining were used as trainers. Again, could be wrong…probably am.
With regards to your question on the Aluminum finish, all the Navy pre-war aircraft were not left bare metal. They were sprayed with silver-colored aluminum-based paint meant to prevent corosion. Pre war they were in fact yellow-wings on aluminum fuselages, but at the outset of the war they had been painted blue or gray.
I didn’t think NMF would work onboard, so silver and yellow it is then 
Theuns