Can anyone tell me what color of green is most commonly used for painting the interior of most American aircraft?
Zinc chromate
John
helicopters don’t fly, they beat the air into submission
Here we go again. Is there a way someone can write an essay on this and put in the FAQ section? I’m not being facetious here, but a) there is no “right” answer, but there are a number wrong answers, if that makes sense, and we go around in circles at least once a week with this for those who have not been involved in the endless discussion. For spydurmonkey, I’ll give you the short answer and only speak of American aircraft, and then I’m sure a lot of people will give you the long answer. The interior skin and structural parts of all aircraft, from T-6 trainers of WW II, to B-2 bombers today and every aircraft in between, is coated with stuff to prevent corrosion. For most of the last 60 years, that has been a coating that is tinted with green pigment. There are almost as many shades of that green, ranging from a mostly yellow color, to bright green, to dark green, to clear greenish-blue, which is the modern coating, as their are types of airplane. Take your pick. But the unfailing bottom line answer to this question is, find photos of your subject, check the color of the interior coating, and mix your paint, or if your lucky, buy the right color off the shelf.
Tom
Tom, maybe you should do just that. I have been working on the Luftwaffe end, why don’t you do the Allied interior colors end?
There’s a good article over at the IPMS Stockholm site dealing with this subject.
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/01/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm
I don’t know what period you’re talking about, but It only deals with WW2 interior colours.
hope it helps.
For Metal US aircraft (any era), I recommend Tamiya’s XF-4 yellow green. It’s a good generic interior color, and it matches the Zinc Chromate primer I use on modern Marine Corps Helicopters. One thing about Zink Chromate primer is that if there’s no overcoat, it rubs off of metal pretty easily. So a drybrush of silver or aluminum may add accuracy.
Here’s a link to part on of a 3-part article that covers US aircraft interior colors from 1941-1945. Links to parts 2 and 3 are on the page.
Hey Swanny,
The reference that you mention on luftwaffe colors is in your website??
Depends on which interior on which aircraft. Most US WW2 AC cockpit interiors were painted Interior Green as the basic color. ModelMaster has a pretty good match for this color. Some components within the cockpit were in Green Zinc Chromate or Olive Drab, also available from ModelMaster. Wheel Well bays were usually in Yellow Zinc Chromate as were the interior surfaces of the wheel bay covers. Testors has a good match in the little square bottle line of paints. There were several exceptions to the general schemes. Many, but not all, P-47D’s had the cockpit interior in a significantly different dark blue/green color & some AC, notably bombers, had interiors at least partially painted in Bronze Green & some areas in natural Metal (unpainted) or with a silver lacquer. Bottom line , there is no correct generic answer. Once you decide which aircraft you want to model, do some research on that aircraft.
Regards, Rick
Remember, when we’re talking about WW II American planes, the tech order for painting most bombers and cargo craft indicated that “crew compartments,” (I wrote this just the other day, so I’m repeating myself here) which would include the flight deck, the bombardiers station, and the navigator/radio operators areas, would be done in darker interior green, like bronze green or FS 34151 (did I get that right, guys?), while other areas, such as the rear fuselage and sometimes the bomb bay, would be in yellow chromate. Some makers went ahead and made the whole interior that same green color, but I’ve seen many B-25’s with the rear fuselage, from the radio operator back, in yellow, while the bombay was natural metal. Then on later B-25s, the whole interior was interior green. But you must alaways keep in mind that, for example, in many cases the front and rear fuselage and then the wings would be manufactured and painted by three different contractors, and then assembled at, say, the Consolidated factory in Fort Worth, TX. Each one might have (or even probably had) a different shade of zinc chromate paint to protect against corrosion.
Tom
Thank You for providing that awesome link about the colors.
right now my printer is very busy.
(printing it out for later reference)
kurlannaiskos just curious what a/c are you looking at? knowing that we may be able to give you some more specific answers.
joe