Warbird Information Exchange

Hello

Can some of you experts tell me if Grumman sent their Hellcats out the factory with a primer under the top-coats, the shade ( colour ) of the primer is what i'm after .

Rgds

Martyn

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Martyn, the likely primer would have been a zinc chromate primer which came in various yellow through green shades. I suspect that there would not have been much of this visible on the external parts of the aircraft (such as the wheel bays and gear doors of the TFC P-47!!) as the F-6 was a naval fighter and was likely to have had all exposed surfaces top coated (like the bearcat).

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Warbird Colour - Authentic historic aircraft finishes http://www.warbirdcolour.co.uk

I've seen several color photos of Hellcats on the assembly line at Grumman in Yellow Zinc Chromate primer. I don't think any of this would be visible after the final paint was applied (which was done at the factory)..even the wheel wells, struts, and insides of the gear doors were normally painted the exterior color.

I've seen many modelers depict weathered Hellcats (and other WWII naval aircraft) with lots of chipped paint showing bare metal..but in the salt air of carrier ops, the paint was religiously kept touched up to protect against corrosion. The paint would end up looking very patchy, and you might see a spot here and there where it was worn down to the primer, but you would almost never see exposed aluminum.

As a footnote, the cockpit should be interior green, and on the F6F-3 the area inside the aft fuselage seen through the windows behind the cockpit is light gray.


SN

I have the nose art off of an F6F that crashed in Hawaii during the war. The color of the primer on the inside of this piece is gray. I assume that it came off of a section of the cowling or off of a section of the engine accessory compartment.

Mac

That sounds right..from what I've read, Grumman used a gray primer on the interior of the aft fuselage, accessory section, and engine cowl. They may have used it in the cockpit as well, but that area was overpainted with interior green (a light yellowish green color..actually zinc chromate yellow mixed with a little black.)

SN