Mustang Wheel Wells - color question

[John1]

From an online source I came across, I found this picture of early and late D-model Mustang wheel wells. Believe I read somewhere else that later Mustangs occasionally had one (or both) wheel wells with the inner wing surface in NMF and the ribs and bulkheads interior green.   So my question is - for a late model D-20 Mustang, would this scheme be accurate?  

 

 

[b757captain]

My best guess - and only a guess! - is that the unpainted or semi-painted wheel wells might correlate to the exterior finish from the factory. The early examples would have been painted in OD upper/neutral gray lower, or British camo and the factory would have taken the time for corrosion control, including the wheel wells. I don't remember the exact timeframe but at some time (probably mid-1944) as the factories really started cranking out aircraft the order came for the aircraft exterior finish to remain NMF. This order might have had two reasons - one, high command decided camoflage was no longer needed, or two (my guess) the aircraft loss rate was high enough that replacement airframes were needed ASAP, thus skip as much of the painting as possible. They also might have figured that the average airframe had an in-theatre lifespan shorter than the rate of corrosion growth, so why bother.

 

As always, the only way to be sure is photographic evidence as some airframes might have had the wheel wells painted after living long enough to go through a heavy check.

 

I would be curious to know if data is available for the average lifespan of various aircraft types during different phases of the war - obviously early war would have a high loss rate vs. late war, but other loss causes such as accidents, etc., would have to be figured in. I'll bet the average allied airframe didn't last much longer than 2 months or so once in theatre.

[John1]

10 hours ago, Jennings Heilig said:

I don’t think there’s any real evidence for P-51Ds having entirely painted wheel wells.  There just isn’t a lot of hard information out there period.  I think for the D-20 you’re safe with a most NMF well, with a YZC main spar forward face.  We included the manufacturer stamp decals that were commonly seen on the roof of the well (the underside of the upper wing skin) which indicates that they weren’t painted, since the stamps were applied at the aluminum mill after the metal was anodized.  

 

Thanks Jenning (and everyone else), I'll be ordering a set of your P-51 stencils once I get further into the project.  Nice touch on providing those steel mill stamps as well.    Also never noted how prevalent those NAA inspection markings were either.  They seem to be all over the airframe and cockpit, in the form of stencils and stickers. 

 

I'll be going with the NMF roofs, it's a nice break from just overall YZC.   I'd be curious if the wells ever got re-painted during overhalls, since I'm building a Korean War F-51D but I doubt I'll ever get an answer so NMF roofs it will be! 

[John1]

One last question - saw a couple of bits of info (including the source I posted above), showing only one wing with the NMF "roof", the other in YZC.   Any idea if this was common?   Makes no sense to me unless each wing was finished by a different subcontractor, each with different approaches to corrosion control...

 

EDIT - went down a bit of a rabbit hole researching this topic.  From an old post by "Tourist" who I recall seemed to be pretty well versed on the Mustang:

 

I am not sure about earlier blocks but starting with the P-51D-20 the wells were finished asymmetrically with different finishes in each well.
There are two or three pictures of deployed Mustangs showing fully painted wells but they seem to be the exception, possible repaints(?).
Clearly more research needs to be done.

 

It was also mentioned that NAA was pretty lax with finishing requirements and you could see various components in either YZC or GZC primer.   Sounds like almost anything goes.....

Edited July 22, 2019 by John1

[Juggernut]

Yes, Christian (Tourist) is extremely knowledgeable regarding P-51's.  I would take his replies as close to Gospel as can be had.

 

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Sounds like almost anything goes.....

 

Yep, sure does...and without substantiating evidence (i.e., photo of the wheel wells in your chosen subject), nobody can prove you wrong.