Early war F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair salmon primer questions

[AlbertD]

I'm currently planning my next build, a Tamiya 1/32 Birdcage Corsair. According to the Dana Bell book the early machines used salmon pink primer. He also states that the wheel wells were light grey over the primer. Would the inside of the landing gear doors be left salmon? Also, what about the inside of the engine cowl, engine mounts and other structural parts? It seems to me that if they were using salmon pink it would be used everywhere bare primer would show.

 

One thing I find a bit strange is when you see color (or colorized) photos of early Corsairs all the chipping on the wings shows yellow zinc chromate primer. It's all very confusing to me. I plan to try two layer chipping to show primer and bare metal on the high traffic areas and engine access panels where appropriate. 

 

Thanks for any help. I plan to do a build log if you guys are not tired of Corsair builds. I'm sure I'll need some help along the way.

[AlbertD]

I just answered part of my question. On page 14 vol 1 of Mr. Bells book e says "Most components were finished with a top coat of red-tinted zinc chromate primer until mid-1943, when two coats of untinted yellow zinc chromate primer were substituted."

[AlbertD]

1 hour ago, Jennings Heilig said:

No surface visible from the outside would have been left in the primer - either the salmon color or yellow ZC.  

 

And keep in mind that very few things are all or nothing.  It's entirely possible that part of one airplane may have had salmon primer, while another (built by a contractor) may have had yellow ZC.  For example, all Corsair outer wings, whether Vought, Brewster, or Goodyear, were built by Briggs Industries in Detroit.

Thank you for the information. In Mr. Bells book he said the most of the early war Corsairs used the salmon color primer but all the colorized photos show wing chipping with yellow under the blue/grey. Is this just a misinterpretation? I have never seen an example of a real airplane photo or a model showing pink under wing chipping. There has to be some reference that shows it one way or the other. I'm not sure I trust colorized WW 2 photos. 

 

I'm sure all this has been talked about on here before so if I'm bringing up an old subject I apologize. 

[AlbertD]

22 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said:

Colorized photos are no more reliable than b&w photos for color interpretation.  They’re just the opinion of the person doing the colorizer.

I agree. I think too many people depend on colorized photos.

 

In further research it looks like the yellow primer may have been put on top of the red primer on exposed surfaces like the wings and fuselage. I'll keep looking. This is fun.

[thierry laurent]

Some color pictures of wartime artefacts from a wreck have been published on the web. I saved them somewhere. They clearly show the salmon color use.

[AlbertD]

38 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

Some color pictures of wartime artefacts from a wreck have been published on the web. I saved them somewhere. They clearly show the salmon color use.

I found those a couple of hours ago and they are very interesting. It crashed mid 1943 and was a birdcage Corsair too.

[easixpedro]

Check out the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. They’ve been restoring one and have copious pics of the Salmon primer they uncovered. Believe it was one recovered from Lake Michigan.

[Joe Hegedus]

11 hours ago, AlbertD said:

 

 

In further research it looks like the yellow primer may have been put on top of the red primer on exposed surfaces like the wings and fuselage. I'll keep looking. This is fun.

Normal practice was for untinted ZC primer to go on first, followed by a coat of tinted ZC (that would be either the salmon-colored primer made by adding iron oxide pigment, or a darker shade of green made by adding either aluminum powder or black to the ZC.   According to Dana Bell, adding aluminum powder results in the "apple green" color, similar to Model Master ZC green, while adding black gives the darker "interior green" color).  The reason for the tinted second coat was to allow easy visual verification by QC inspectors that the second coat was indeed applied.

[Kaeone57]

Gentlemen, Ladies, LSPers,

 

From what I've gathered over many years for an F4U-1 and some Early -1"A"

 

-"Salmon" ( with Indian red paste in the chromate base to achieve the shade color/tone)- on everything as a secondary primer coat in interior and exterior application. Fuselage, tail sections, outer wing panels, cowling interiors.

 

This is excluded in... 

 

- Cockpit- dull dark green/interior green derivative of a Vought/Brewster/Goodyear application and variations based on paint stocks and manufacture at the time. Excluded are from "Salmon" are the tops/ bottoms of the wing center section, parts of forward fuselage, eg: accessory section covers and sometimes tail gear wheel bay, colors explained below.

 

-"Yellow" zinc chromate primer- exterior of center wing section throughout production. At times the tail gear bay and engine accessory section depending on production block time frame saw "Yellow" zinc chromate in these areas. But later became standard on F4U-1"A" production.

 

There's more to this but these are basics.

 

If not clear, as I know most times I really suck at typing my thoughts, lmk and I'll do my best to clarify.

 

Alfonso

Corsair fanatic

 

[ScoobyDoo]

On 11/23/2020 at 4:39 AM, easixpedro said:

Check out the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. They’ve been restoring one and have copious pics of the Salmon primer they uncovered. Believe it was one recovered from Lake Michigan.

As Jenning’s stated, where the salmon was exposed to the elements, it had a final coat of the exterior color. The only exposed areas that showed visible salmon on that Corsair was the tail wheel area. The main gear wells had a final coat of light gray.

 

It has lots of salmon, but all in the interior. Sadly the museum is leaving the main gear bays in salmon despite finding it with light gray as the top coat.

 

[ivanmoe]

Got some pics related to the primer in question, so I thought that I'd share them:

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by ivanmoe

[ivanmoe]

More pics:

 

[ivanmoe]

One more tranche of pics and the backstory of the primer:

 

 

Early on, Vought and Brewster had quality control problems at their Corsair plants. The original spec for the production Corsair called for 5 coats of zinc chromate. However, within months, corrosion commenced to appear. Vought and Brewster reacted by painting the pink-tinted primer over the top of the ZC. The thinking was that by doing so, they'd get at least two visible coats of anti-corrosive on the plane and staunch some of the oxidation issues. This went on for several months before the manufacturers returned to all ZC. Quality control issues at the plants gradually abated and the pink primer disappeared into faint memory. Grumman and Douglas never experienced the problem. I was told this story thirty years ago by the former chief of airframe inspections at the Navy's Alameda O&R facility.

[phasephantomphixer]

You can also refer to this posting I made Dec. 30 which shows pink primer application dedication;