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Late war F4U-1D interior colors?


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I have been researching this question as I am getting ready to start on my Tamiya F4U-1D this week, I ended up setting on either the "Brooklyn Butcher" or the "Mad Cossack" as the paint scheme, I have a custom mix of GSB I am mostly happy with, based on old color photos.

 

My question is with interior colors, Tamiya's color mix seems a bit bright, It looks like XF5 is a little closer to interior green look I have found in late WW2 pictures, and as I can tell, this was the whole cockpit interior, with everything from the side consoles up being in flat black. The two aircraft I am considering one appears to have the GSB gear wells, wheels, and struts. The other has a lighter shade wheels, and the struts look lighter, but don't appear bright silver, any idea what this could be? 

 

Also, what colors were the insides of the tail wheel well? Accessory Bay? Inner cowling?

 

Vought-F4U-1D-Corsair-VMF-512-White-26-M  

Vought-F4U-1D-Corsair-VMF-512-White-21-B

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  • 5 months later...

I’m just starting down the same path.   Figured I’d bump this post.   For a late war -1D, Dana Bell’s book indicates the cockpit was interior green with black sides above the consoles. 

 

Tamiya calls out at 2:1 mix of yellow and green which to me seems closer to yellow zinc chromate.  What’s the consensus on this and whilst on the subject, any readily available paints that are close to interior green?

 

 Lastly, for a late vintage Corsair, how likely would it be that it still had a few cockpit components in full dark green?  

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I have Dana’s book with the NASM Corsair and I definitely see the zinc chormate  on some parts, then the foot troughs, the seat and some other parts are a greenish shade, I did not think if Dull dark green.  I thought they looked a bluish green.  That could be light reflection though.  I was tempted to add blue to a dark green shade and maybe some zinc yellow.  I am not arguing that they should be something other than ddg.  Only that light reflection made me think the color was a blue green shade bs, dark green.  

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1 hour ago, cbk57 said:

I have Dana’s book with the NASM Corsair and I definitely see the zinc chormate  on some parts, then the foot troughs, the seat and some other parts are a greenish shade, I did not think if Dull dark green.  I thought they looked a bluish green.  That could be light reflection though.  I was tempted to add blue to a dark green shade and maybe some zinc yellow.  I am not arguing that they should be something other than ddg.  Only that light reflection made me think the color was a blue green shade bs, dark green.  

But according to the book, there should only be Interior Green and maybe some bits in DDG in the cockpit.  

 

On that note, should the rest of the interior just be zinc chromate?  

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I had Dannas book out last night studying it in anticipation of starting a -1d or a double build of a -1A and -1D as I have all three of the Tamiya kits on my shelf right now.  Years ago I accidentally order two -1’s but I will do that one another time.

 

My comment is limited to observing the photograph at the end of the book.  It is a wonderful high resolution photo of the cockpit of either a -1A or -1D restored at the National Air and Space Museum.  The wonderful thing about the photo is that is shows a number of shades of black as well, for example the electrical boxes on the side of the cockpit are a flatter black grey while the dials are a shinny black.

 

The seat specifically, if not for Jennings post above, I would have thought was a blue green color.  I do not have the expertiese to say what the colors are supposed to be.  When I build my next corsair, hopefully starting very soon, I will incorporate what I learn from the photo and use multiple shades and colors in the pit.  I won’t stick religiously with zinc chromate green and black.  I will try to keep it within the spirit of correct and follow what appears to be a proper restoration.  

 

The fact that there is some color varioution just helps make the pit visually interesting.  

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Hi all,

 

The NASM Corsair is a fairly early F4U-1D, with Dull Dark Green components in the cockpit.  The bluish tone is from the lighting and film.  (Hope the younger modelers have heard of film; we began using it soon after running out of clay tablets!)

 

Note that the black upper sidewalls were introduced to -1Ds in 1945 - after Vought had switched to -4 production.  Still, the black was used on many late-production FG-1Ds, if your modeling subject is well identified.  And in the summer of 1945 one US field mentioned painting the sidewalls black as aircraft were refitted for training use.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Dana

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17 minutes ago, Dana Bell said:

Hi all,

 

The NASM Corsair is a fairly early F4U-1D, with Dull Dark Green components in the cockpit.  The bluish tone is from the lighting and film.  (Hope the younger modelers have heard of film; we began using it soon after running out of clay tablets!)

 

Note that the black upper sidewalls were introduced to -1Ds in 1945 - after Vought had switched to -4 production.  Still, the black was used on many late-production FG-1Ds, if your modeling subject is well identified.  And in the summer of 1945 one US field mentioned painting the sidewalls black as aircraft were refitted for training use.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Dana

Dana,

 

Thats very helpful info.  I’m probably building a 1-D, circa summer of 45.   I was going to paint the sidewalls black but based on your post, sounds like everything would be interior green with maybe a part or two in DDG?  

 

What about the rest of the interior,   Zinc chromate?   

 

Great book by the way.   When’s the next one coming out on the late versions?   :)

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39 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said:

 

Be very careful in making assumptions.  For one thing, there was a flash used for the photo, which is going to make all the colors look much brighter than they really are.  And for another, read the book.  Go by what Dana found in the documentation.  Zinc chromate (the bright shade) was not authorized as a cockpit color.  Mixed with black, yes, but that's how you get Interior Green.  I see lots of models (not just F4Us) with bright green chromate cockpits, and in most cases they're 100% wrong.  

Thanks I will look more closely at the text then.  I understand and appreciate that the flash has altered the appearance of the colors.  What I see that is of interest though is the contrast between certain parts.  That is a look I want to use as inspiration and which is not as monochromatic, only because I think it will look more interesting.

 

By the way my biggest concern and focus right now is just figuring out which markings I want from the new decal sheets Jennings and co did.

Edited by cbk57
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What Jennings said. Interior green was created by mixing black with zinc chromate. Note this is for the second coat, first coat was simple zinc chromate(remember that for showing wear!). Therefore, depending on who did the mixing, and brand of paints, the shades varied.

Didn't realize the painting of the black above consoles started so late; thanks, Dana! I have your book, better re-read it!

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18 minutes ago, LSP_Ray said:

What Jennings said. Interior green was created by mixing black with zinc chromate. Note this is for the second coat, first coat was simple zinc chromate(remember that for showing wear!). Therefore, depending on who did the mixing, and brand of paints, the shades varied.

Didn't realize the painting of the black above consoles started so late; thanks, Dana! I have your book, better re-read it!

 

I have both volumes, one of which I got from you, though right now I don't recall which one.

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9 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

What Jennings said. Interior green was created by mixing black with zinc chromate. Note this is for the second coat, first coat was simple zinc chromate(remember that for showing wear!). Therefore, depending on who did the mixing, and brand of paints, the shades varied.

Didn't realize the painting of the black above consoles started so late; thanks, Dana! I have your book, better re-read it!

Just got to work, and now that I see this reply I want to go home and do some mixes and see what it looks like.  I found Mission models makes an interior green, I was thinking of using that last night but then looked at this post.  This will be interesting to see the options.

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2 hours ago, John1 said:

So it looks like Mission Models and Model Master both offer Interior Green.    Given that this stuff apparently wasn’t consistently mixed, anyone have suggestions on which brand to go with?  

 

 

IRL, sometimes as you said, the mixes could vary wildly, so Id say whichever one you like the look of, or whichever one you like shooting more/had the best luck with previously is the one Id go with.   Ive used MM enamels most all of my 35 year modelling career and had great luck with it. 

 

I just recently switched fully over to MRP paints for airbrush work. They also make an interior green, which is a decent match to the MM enamel paint. 

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3 hours ago, John1 said:

So it looks like Mission Models and Model Master both offer Interior Green.    Given that this stuff apparently wasn’t consistently mixed, anyone have suggestions on which brand to go with?  

 

I tend to use a fair amount of MM paints "as-is", but that's just me.

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I will do one of two things, i meant to try this last night.  I have a jar of Tamiya zinc chromate yellow and I was planning to mix with various amounts of black and put the swatches on a note card with notes of the mix.  See which ones looked right and have some gradients just for variation on a couple parts.

 

If I don’t like the result as described above I will order a bottle of interior green from mission models.  I started using there stuff and am happy with it so far.

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