Flying Tiger P40B paint color questions

[richardcraig]

Hi guys .. I know I haven't been here in ages .. and even less on the aircraft forum , but I have been challenged to build a flying tiger P40B from Trumpeter... I know it has it's problems but I will live with the mistakes and do my best on the construction and the painting part of it .. And this leads me to my questions .. I have figured out the colors I will be using on the outside of the plane but now my question is .. Since these planes were built for the English, would they have tried to match the interior color to the British cockpit green or would they have painted them in the American interior green color? Same goes for the inside of the wheel wells.. interior green or some other British specific paint scheme? Any help would be appreciated.

Rick

[panzerjager2]

I am an Armor-geek from WAY WAY back.............. One of the main reason is just what you're asking aboooot. the infamous Zinc Chromate..... Which all I ever learned was: there is a different shade for the Army Air Corps, Marines and Navy. Then the make is so dang easier by having a different shade for almost every year of the stinking war.......................................
PJ2

 

[richardcraig]

Lol ... well sort of ... you see these P-40s were for the English and they wanted them painted in their colors .. the question is more were they anal enough to ask them to have their own grey green cockpit color or were they the American Interior green color .. If it is interior green then yes it is a weird greenish yellowy kinda color..lol .. Thanks for your answer!

[Tobi]

Apr 1, 2017 23:58:01 GMT -5 richardcraig said:

Lol ... well sort of ... you see these P-40s were for the English and they wanted them painted in their colors .. the question is more were they anal enough to ask them to have their own grey green cockpit color or were they the American Interior green color .. If it is interior green then yes it is a weird greenish yellowy kinda color..lol .. Thanks for your answer!

Hi Richard,

not being a plane expert by myself, but I did some research years back on this because I also wanted to build a Flying Tiger P40.
I always thought the undersides of these birds were standard US grey, not British sky or duck egg green? The source claimed for upper sides British-like, but made with US colors.
Then this should give a strong indication towards American cockpit color.

I hope I do not stir up something! I got the impression there are plane modelers out there which are even far more obsessed with "correct" color than the die-hard "Dunkelgelb" faction.

[richardcraig]

Hi Tobi ... I agree completely ... These planes were built to British specs .. and Curtiss used Dupont paints to get as close as they could to their colors... The underside has been debated for years but after reading some of the research on the net I have come up with my basic scheme.. I have 3 different Tamiya mixes for each color..lol. Now the problem is I haven't found any info on the cockpit colors... I'm guessing they stayed in the regular American interior green ,but you never know the Brits might have wanted it in their colors too... If I can't find any info I will go with the interior green color. I'm starting to miss my tanks ..lol

[Tobi]

If you could post some of your Tamiya mixing ratios I would highly appreciate. They are my favorite medium to airbrush, with dark blue label lacquer thinner from Gunze.

[richardcraig]

Hi Tobi ... Here is the best article I found on their colors ... He did a lot of work on this ..
www.ratomodeling.com/articles/AVG_cammo/


Rick

[sturmbird]

Apr 2, 2017 2:05:37 GMT -5 Tobi said:

Apr 1, 2017 23:58:01 GMT -5 richardcraig said:

Lol ... well sort of ... you see these P-40s were for the English and they wanted them painted in their colors .. the question is more were they anal enough to ask them to have their own grey green cockpit color or were they the American Interior green color .. If it is interior green then yes it is a weird greenish yellowy kinda color..lol .. Thanks for your answer!

Hi Richard,

not being a plane expert by myself, but I did some research years back on this because I also wanted to build a Flying Tiger P40.
I always thought the undersides of these birds were standard US grey, not British sky or duck egg green? The source claimed for upper sides British-like, but made with US colors.
Then this should give a strong indication towards American cockpit color.

I hope I do not stir up something! I got the impression there are plane modelers out there which are even far more obsessed with "correct" color than the die-hard "Dunkelgelb" faction.

somewhere I have a book on the AVG, and there are three or four color photos inside. Seems like there were P40b's and P40e's in use, and the green looked different than what the Army used. But also was a more plant like green. The camo looked like green and black, but was very muted in contrast. I need to hunt that book up as I want to do Boyington's airframe.

gary

[richardcraig]

Hi Gary ... If you look at the article I posted, he did some very extensive research ... the green is very dark while the dark earth color faded very quickly to a brown sand color.. The P-40E's were delivered in the Olive Drab and Neutral Grey scheme. There are quite a few color pictures in the article . Boyington's plane was number 21 of the 1st Pursuit squadron .. It might be one of my choices... but my first idea is Older's number 68