from Hyperscale's "Plane Talking" forum (
http://www.clubhyper.com/forums/forum.htm), a thread entitled "F6F-3 Helllcat Primers and coatings" from January 29/08:
"About a week ago someone posted about camouflage colors being applied to a seemingly NMF F6F-3 Hellcat. I did some digging and found my copy of the 3/3/43 revision of the F6F-3 specs. for the application of the protective coatings and finish. I'm going to summarize this to keep it less technical. Here goes.
This applies to F6F-3, Hellcats, BuNo. 04775-05054 and 08894-09038 which would be the first two production batches of Hellcats for the fleet. Later aircraft are generally similar.
The first section deals with finish requirements according to Navy requirements of Spec. SR15-C. It states that Non-specular Sea Blue, Semi-gloss Sea Blue, Intermediate Blue and Insignia White are the colors for the airframe exterior. These colors replace aluminized lacquer as an exterior finish. That would have been the prototype Hellcats. They also replace the earlier Non-specular Blue-Gray and Non-specular Light Gray finish.
A shop coat of primer was required. This was applied as soon as possible after parts or assemblies were fabricated. This was thinned zinc chromate primer and comprised the first coat of the finish. The first coat of the finish system was this zinc chromate shop coat.
Tinted primer replaces aluminized zinc chromate primer. Tinted primer is made by mixing ten ounces of black enamel with one gallon zinc chromate primer. “The color resulting from the above will vary and is not required to match any color standard.” (My quotes) The result of this is Interior Green, similar to ANA 611 or FS 34151.
Tinted primer replaces semi-gloss Bronze Green on the interior of the cockpit.
It’s interesting to note that 11 gallons of Zinc Chromate and 15 gallons of Tinted Zinc Chromate were required for each Hellcat produced.
It’s also interesting to note that 5.5 ounces of Indian Red, paste were required as well. I have seen this ‘Salmon’ primer on the structure of the elevators of recovered parts.
The exterior was considered a Class ‘A’ surface and was to receive 1 coat of zinc chromate primer (shop coat) and 2 coats of the appropriate camouflage color. This also included the cockpit which received two coats of ‘darkened primer’ (My quotes). This resulted in the cockpit having two coats of interior green primer.
It also states that ready mixed non-specular gray should be thinned with 1 ¼ parts thinner to 1 part non-specular gray. This was applied to the entire interior surface of the airframe excluding the cockpit.
The firewall was not to be painted. The entire airframe was to be painted with zinc chromate primer and then the finish coats according to the type of service the part was subjected to. The exception was Class ‘D’ surfaces which were anodized parts.
It is interesting to note that in the painting chart dated April 15, 1944 the National insignia (Stars with Bars) on the upper left wing was not required to have Insignia Blue applied to the border. A photo of a Hellcat with this exact style insignia appears in the old Aerodata International book on US Navy Fighters of WW2. Further the Insignia White on the National insignia was to be painted with a 1:1 mix of Non-specular Light Gray and Non-specular Insignia White.
Hope this all makes sense.
William Reece"
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