Doped fabric patches covering bolt heads?

[wmoran]

While perusing Mike Maben's images in his response to Alan's question about Fw 190 landing gear electrical harness images, I noticed this image:

 

I've often noticed red primer circles in these locations on photos and profiles.  In this photo, they look like doped fabric patches, which would explain the use of red primer.  Can anyone confirm?

Thanks (particularly to Mike for the great photos),

Bill

[MikeMaben]

Looks like fabric patches to me Bill.

Don't know that they were 'always' primed red tho. 

 

 

[John1]

4 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Looks like fabric patches to me Bill.

Don't know that they were 'always' primed red tho. 

 

 

Don't think you can use terms like "always" when it comes to German WW2 camo because you will always find exceptions.  That being said it was very common to see fabric like this primed with a darkish red color.  

[Juggernut]

When I built my version of "blue 12" (Fw190D-9) almost 20 years ago now, I had the same question.  I eventually learned and can confirm that those circles are indeed fabric patches covering the attachment hardware for the landing gear doors.

 

The red primer is not a constant but I'll speculate that it is the result of the landing gear cover being removed and reinstalled (or replaced) and the patches hastily covered with the primer/dope/paint.  Normally these would be the underside color.

 

I don't have a written reference for it at this point, just what I remember from what I learned along the journey.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Juggernut

[RLWP]

19 minutes ago, Juggernut said:

 those circles are indeed fabric patches covering the attachment hardware for the landing gear doors.

 

Why would they have done that, are they projecting bolt heads or similar?

 

Richard

[RLWP]

1 hour ago, Jennings Heilig said:

They’re bolts in a depression in the surface of the door. Covered to improve aerodynamics and prevent gunk building up in them.

 

I guess that makes sense, although I'm not sure a fixing full of glue is much better than a fixing full of oily crap (technical term)

 

Perhaps this was to prevent corrosion?

 

Richard

[Juggernut]

The fabric patches covered the recess.  The recess itself wasn't filled in, just covered over.

[RLWP]

52 minutes ago, Juggernut said:

The fabric patches covered the recess.  The recess itself wasn't filled in, just covered over.

 

Perhaps I don't understand the size of the recess then

 

Richard

[RLWP]

19 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said:

 

Big enough to hold the bolt and the wrench required to install it.  The patch was a good bit bigger than the hole.  It had to have an edge to adhere to.  You can see the actual hole under the patches in the photo at the top of the thread.

 

 

Ahh, now that makes sense. A bolt head sitting in a circular hole.

 

Thank you

 

Richard

[wmoran]

Mike,

I didn't mean to imply that they were always seen in the red primer, just that I had seen numerous photos/profiles where they were shown that way.  I was of the understanding that the red primer was primarily for fabric surfaces, even though it was often used on other surfaces as seen in numerous photos.  I had just never seen such a close-up shot that showed that there were fabric patches.  Juggernaut explains the presence of the red primer the way I surmised it came to be visible.

Bill

[LSP_K2]

Hopefully not too late to the party, but these images, scanned from this Aero Detail book, show well the bolt access holes.

 

[RLWP]

That's great, Kevin. I tried googling for an image and failed

 

It looks a bit like there was a 'correct' size of patch that would fit in the recess - bet that was a fiddly job!

 

Richard

[MikeMaben]

10 hours ago, wmoran said:

Mike,

I didn't mean to imply that they were always seen in the red primer, just that I had seen numerous photos/profiles where they were shown that way.  I was of the understanding that the red primer was primarily for fabric surfaces, even though it was often used on other surfaces as seen in numerous photos.  I had just never seen such a close-up shot that showed that there were fabric patches.  Juggernaut explains the presence of the red primer the way I surmised it came to be visible.

Bill

 

No problem Bill, I was just saying they were sometimes seen primed over and sometimes not.

 

19 hours ago, Juggernut said:

The red primer is not a constant but I'll speculate that it is the result of the landing gear cover being removed and reinstalled (or replaced) and the patches hastily covered with the primer/dope/paint.  Normally these would be the underside color.

 

Yep, my view as well.