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8/12/2019 Interior Colours of US Aircraft Part 1
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Interior Colours of US Aircraft, 1941-45
Part I
byMartin WaligorskiPhotos courtesy of US Navy, Library of Congress, US Air Force
This is the first part of the three-part feature covering the finishes and colours used for theinteriors of American-produced aircraft of the World War II era. This part gives general
information on the development and the variety of finishes used. In thepart twowe will coverinteriour finishes of the US Army Air Corps / Air Force types.Part threewill be devoted to Navy
aircraft types. - Ed.
Proceed to Interior Colours of US Aircraft, 1941-45 - Part II
Proceed to Interior Colours of US Aircraft, 1941-45 - Part III
US combat aircraft rank among
the better known and
documented pieces of World
War II technology. So much sothat for a time it seemed that at
least for a P-51 or P-47 there
was nothing more to learn. But,as can be the case with
historical research, once in awhile a new discovery comes
that prompts re-evaluation ofwhat we know about a
particular subject. Historic
research related to modellinghas been full of such
development. One that comes to
mind is the subject of German
fighter camouflages which hasgone through a few
revolutionary changes duringthe last three decades, another isthe much younger work by
Dana Bell and others upon the
interior colours of US aircraft.
Introduction
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On a personal note, I remember researching colour information for a PBY Catalina project back
in 1995. To my mind the Catalina ranks among the better documented aircraft subjects out there.
I remember posting a note on rec.models.scale asking if RAF Catalinas would have carriedcolours in the crew compartments according to RAF specs, or if they would be finished
according to the original American specs. A simple question it may sound. To my surprise, the
discussion that followed revealed that there seemed to be a great white spot in the collectiveknowledge about what the original American colours would have been in the first place! Time
went by and I moved on to other projects, but the sense that something was wrong with the "Zinc
Chromate" interior finish of my model remained. So later on, when I came across Dana Bell'spublications about interior finishes of US aircraft, I knew that his work was right on target - here
was the area to be rethinked from the bottom.
As usual, you only find suitable references on a subject after your model is finished: This photo
of Jesse Rhodes Waller, A.O.M., third class in a PBY-5 at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, indicatesthat the interior colour of the fuselage behind the rear gun blisters was not just Zinc Chromate
(Sigh).
Earlier on, everyone simply assumedthat all US aircraft cockpits were Interior Green with other
internal surfaces in Zinc Chromate. When everybody agrees upon something, it becomes difficult
to think beyond the boundaries of common truths. Dana Bell recalls speaking with an aircraftrestorer who complained that the Interior Green in his aircraft had aged to a deep dark green. He
couldn't explain what had caused the chemical change, but he proudly announced that he had
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corrected the colour to the proper Interior Green shade. It simply never occurred to him that the
common wisdom was plain wrong.
We know now, contrary to these perceptions, that interiors of US aircraft weren't always Interior
Green or Zinc Chromate at all; in fact some kinds of aircraft were never painted in either colour.
The answers here are complex. It is one thing to prove an old theory wrong, yet another to find
out with a degree of certainity what colours were used. In the research trying to determinecolours of aircraft interiors, we are still halfway through.
Part of the problem is that "standards", even though they existed, were often seemingly looselydefined, which in turn lead to them being widely superceded by practical thinking. Unlike for
example the German RLM, USAAF did not seem to enforce its own standards. Paints that did
not meet correct colour specifications were used anyway, and often not checked on subsequent
batches. There were different paint makers, shortage of certain chemical ingredients, re-formulations to facilitate mass-scale production, and paints mixed locally at the assembly line.
With the risk of stepping right into a wasps' nest, my intention is to summarize current state ofknowledge on the subject and some of the prevailing opinions. This article is a compilation of
information I have assembled over recent years form various sources, including books, articles
and online discussion forums like rec.models.scale or Hyperscale. Any errors contained hereinare the sole responsibility of the author. Additional comments or suggestions are always
welcome!
Let's start with a review of interior paints, colours
and finishes used by the US aircraft industry of the
period.
This photo taken at the North American in
Inglewood provides a perfect example of thevariety of interior finishes employed on but a
single aircraft, it this case the B-25. The enginenacelle behind the worker shows two differentshades, one on the outer surface of the nacelle, and
another on the bulkhead facing the wheel well. The
singular cross-member in the middle of the
bulkhead partially hiding behind the neck of theworker is in yet another colour, significantly darker
than the previous two. The undercarriage strut ispainted in silver.
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Zinc Chromate
Anyone who has ever read anything on the subject of US aircraft interiors must have stumbled
upon the name Zinc Chromate. Yet, do you know what Zinc Chromate is? Understanding it is an
essential starting point for the discussion on anything concerning interior colours.
Zinc Chromate is a corrosion resistant agent that is added to certain coatings. Even today,chromate finishes including Zinc Chromate provide superior corrosion resistance. Additionally,
Zinc Chromate is highly toxic thus protecting the surface from proliferation of organic matter.
In the aircraft industry of the 1940s, Zinc Chromate was used as an anti-corrosive barrier primer;it could be described as a sort of painted-on galvanizing. It has been developed by Ford Motor
Company by the late 1920s, subsequently adopted in commercial aviation and later by the USMilitary. Official USAAC notes mention successful application of Zinc Chromate primer startingfrom 1933, but it has not been adopted as standard until 1936.
Back then as well as in the paint industry of today, the term Zinc Chromate does not refer to apaint colour, but rather a protective coating. Therefore, the precise colouring of it is and has not
been considered as important as the chemical composition. In the official notes of the period, the
name Zinc Chromate is often accompanied by the name of particular manufacturer, thusmentioning Ford Zinc Chromate, DuPont Zinc Chromate or Berry Brothers Zinc Chromate. This
means that the actual colour of Zinc Chromate coating may have varied from batch to batch or
manufacturer to manufacturer without it being viewed as an issue.
The 'native' tone of zinc chromate crystalline salt is a bright greenish-yellow. When put into a
vehicle with binders to make paint, this colour would be the raw result.
Such raw Zinc Chromate primer would also give a semi-translucent coating, not very opaque like
a pigmented paint or lacquer. This property becomes especially interesting when we considerthat aircraft factory instructions often called for just one protective coat of primer. As a
consequence, the colour of the underlying surface might have a significant effect on the final
appearance. For example, raw Zinc Chromate applied on the white background would lookyellow, while applied to bare metal aluminium it would look more like apple green.
Similarly, any pigment might be added to the raw paint mixture to go with the Zinc Chromate,thereby modifying the colour. Some of today's mixtures use iron oxide -- giving that rusty redappearance you can often see on prefabricated steel beams in highway and building construction.
So what does all this mean? Perhaps no more than there hasn't ever been any specification in theindustry for a Zinc Chromate colour. This in turn caused alternative designations to pop up in the
literature that attempted to describe the colour value of the Zinc Chromate finish - Zinc
Chromate Yellow and Zinc Chromate Green being the prime examples. These will be described
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next.
In US Aircraft industry, Zinc Chromate was in widespread use already at the outbreak of World
War II. In comparison, Germany and other axis powers didn't use it at all, relying on lacquer-based protective coatings - one reason why we never saw any Luftwaffe aircraft in bare-metal
finish! The British adopted Zinc Chromate in their aircraft production starting with Martin-Baker
M.B.5 of 1945, several years after the Americans.
Zinc Chromate Yellow
In US aircraft use in the 1930s to 1940s, the Zinc Chromate primer was frequently used in the
raw mixture yellow tone. This is sometimes referred to as Zinc Chromate Yellow. Like stated
above, there is no definitive colour pattern as this may have varied between manufacturers and
batches of these primers.
In the immediate pre-war and early war period, the raw yellow Zinc Chromate primer seems tohave been dominating.
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The raw Zinc Chromate primer was yellow in tone with just a hint of green, as can be seen here.
The photograph shows working on the horizontal stabilizer for a Vultee Vengeance dive bomber
at Vultee factory in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Another example of "raw" Zinc Chromate primer, this time on the outer skin of a Consolidated
B-24 Liberator.
Zinc Chromate Greens
Sometimes, Zinc Chromate was mixed with Lamp Black paste to give a bit more UV resistance
(Zinc Chromate is very sensitive to photolitic reactions) and more durability in high wear areas.
Mixing with black gave greener tones, which, depending on the amount of black added could run
from apple greens to medium olive greens.
There were many variations in Zinc Chromate Green. Originally, manufacturers were expectedto mix raw Zinc Chromate, black enamel and aluminium paste or powder. Several blacks and
greys could substitute for the black enamel, and a shortage of aluminium powder/paste caused a
reformulation without it in 1942.
Some aircraft manufacturers ordered pre-mixed Zinc Chromate Green (Curtiss Cockpit Green,
ordered from Berry Brothers, being an example of this).
There is evidence that such variety of shades occurred in the manufacturing practice of US
aircraft factories. Where sufficient colour evidence is available, it is possible to find all three
colours used on the same aircraft - for example, the yellowish raw colour in the wheel wells, the
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apple green tones in the gun bays, and the darker green in the cockpit.
A perfect example of Zinc Chromate Green can be seen here. This photo of the internal wing
structure on Douglas A-20 bomber. The ribs have been covered with mixed (tinted) ZincChromate primer that we will refer to as Zinc Chromate Green.
Untinted and Tinted Primer
US Erection & Maintenance instructions of the period often refer to "untinted" and "tinted"
primer to describe raw Zinc Chromate primer and the same primer tinted with black. While blackwas the intended additional pigment, the instructions did not specify the formulation of colours.
Therefore it is not unlikely that manufacturers felt free to pick substitute pigments when needed.
A Navy memo from 1942 goes even further and recommends using Indian Red, lamp black, or
any other suitable indicator to use with a second coat of Zinc Chromate primer to distinguish
between single- and double-coated surfaces. In the light of this memo, Vought's Salmon pinkwas also simply tinted primer.
Salmon
Salmon was a pale pink-coloured chromate primer used by Vought in production of the F4UCorsair. It was produced by mixing Indian Red pigment with raw Zinc Chromate primer.
The actual tone was reddish orange.
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Colour sample
As Salmon was a mixed primer, claiming an exactcolour shade for it would be misleading. However, the
FS colour match could be somewhere betweenFS
32276 and 32356.
Cockpit Green Colours
While the raw yellow-tone Zinc Chromate was technically a very effective anti-corrosion primer,
it was found to be less suitable for crew areas. The bright interior surfaces coupled with bare
metal surfaces underneath caused excessive glare and eyestrain for the crews.
Actually, there was a directive issued by the USAAF during the war specifically prohibiting the
use of plain Zinc Chromate primer in crew occupied areas.
Selecting the appropriate mixture to replace raw primer in the cockpits has been initially left tothe manufacturers. In most cases, various mixtures of Zinc Chromate and black were the mostreadily available replacements, resulting in shades that are sometimes referred to as Light Green
or Cockpit Green. The "formula" probably did vary and some manufactures may have used
commercially available paints that were closer to Bronze Green or even ANA 612 MediumGreen.
The name Cockpit Green has gained the official status only briefly in the 1943 ANA (Army-
Navy Aircraft) colour agreements, where green-tinted Zinc Chromate was briefly called CockpitGreen before the final name Interior Green was assigned as described below. However, despite
an official colour chip being provided in the ANA standard, it is believed not to be widely
adopted, especially as the standard proved short-lived and the instructions usually called forexisting paint stocks to be used up before shifting to a new colour.
Interior Green (ANA 611)
In September 1943, US Navy specified a Zinc Chromate and Lamp Black mixture to a colour
standard, which became a standard ANA 611 Interior Green. The instruction was an after-the-fact attempt to standardize a variety of greens being used to paint crew areas.
The formal name Interior Green came along with ANA Bulletin No.137 issued at the time, which
designated black-tinted Zinc Chromate primer as ANA 611 Interior Green. Of note is that the
Interior Green was no longer to contain aluminium paste.
In time, this colour's use and mixture became more widespread than the others. However, the
eventual transition period leaves a lot of space for speculation. Because of the previous (and
mounting up) ambiguities in colour specifications, it might have happened that the standard
Interior Green didn't look very different from any formula that a manufacturer had used before,and today it would still be difficult to say which formula was used to make a sample.
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=32276,32356http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=32276,32356http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=32276,32356http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=32276,32356http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=32276,32356http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=32276,323568/12/2019 Interior Colours of US Aircraft Part 1
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Colour sample
FS 34151is believed to closely match ANA 611Interior Green
Bronze Green
Like Zinc Chromate, the term Bronze Green is generic and describes a dark green finish obtained
using oxidized bronze as a pigment. Still used today, the term is another example of a namedesignating a chemical composition becoming the name of a colour. Many people associate the
word Bronze with red-brown colour, but this is not the case for Bronze Green. The pigment itself
contains mostly Copper Carbonate, a compound responsible for the green patina often seen on
old Bronze monuments.
Bronze Green-based colouring has been widely used inceramics, producing good-looking medium and green glazes
such as one shown above.
Dana Bell was the first to unveil the existence and use of these colours in Air Force Colors, Vol1 almost twenty years ago. Although it is now generally agreed that Bronze Green was widely
used for cockpits, we still cannot claim to have the answers to all the questions about Bronze
Green and its successor colour - Dark Dull Green.
Bronze Green was specified as standard for U.S. Army cockpits in the late 1930s, but was also
used by the Navy. Grumman and Republic seem to have used Bronze Green extensively,possibly more than other manufacturers. This may be attributed to both companies being located
in the Long Island area, subcontracting paints form the same sources.
Bronze Green has been confirmed for the seats of North American P-51 Mustangs - which were
probably subcontractor-supplied. Pilots' seats and many of the internal fittings in the Boeing
bombers were also painted in this colour.
Bronze Green could have been used also for forward anti-glare panels on silver aircraft. For
example, Army maintenance instructions called for its use on B-18s.
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34151http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34151http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=341518/12/2019 Interior Colours of US Aircraft Part 1
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Colour sample
Establishing a reasonable FS match for Bronze Greenis not easy, different sources have quotedFS 24050 or
24052.What is known is that it was a lacquer with
semi-gloss surface finish.
Dark Dull Green
Dull Dark Green was an outgrowth of Bronze Green introduced in September 1942. When
introduced, Dull Dark Green was intended as a substitute/replacement for Bronze Green. There
has been much confusion about the difference between the two colours. Without being
conclusive, it would appear that the shades were very similar, with Bronze Green being slightlydarker and semi-gloss. The sheen of Bronze Green was one reason why the all-matt alternative
was sought.
When issued, the Dull Dark Green was to be used for tactical aircraft with enclosed crew cabins -i.e. bombers. However, it seems to have gained much greater popularity than intended by the
ANA officials. The use of Dull Dark Green can be confirmed for cockpits of F4U Corsairs, later-production Avengers, P-51s, and P-47s as well as forward crew areas of B-17s, B-24s and B-29s.
Interestingly, the use of Dull Dark Green in fighters ignored the general specifications calling for
interior green in those aircraft.
Dull Dark Green was no longer included in the 1943 ANA colour standard, but the colour was
still used. For example, later Erection & Maintenance manuals for the P-51D called for DullDark Green for certain cockpit components like seats.
Colour sample
FS 34092seems to be a reasonable match for Dull
Dark Green, with a comment that the original colourwas slightly darker.
Grumman Grey
Grumman was unique to use their own, non-standard primer on all Grumman aircraft. In modern
literature it is often referred to as Grumman Grey.
Colour sample
FS 36440is believed to be a reasonable match forGrumman Grey.
Aluminium
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=24050,24052http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=24050,24052http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=24050,24052http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=24050,24052http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34092http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34092http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=36440http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=36440http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=36440http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34092http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=24050,24052http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=24050,240528/12/2019 Interior Colours of US Aircraft Part 1
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Aluminium ("Aluminum" in US English) paint finishes have been widely used in the aircraft
industry since the 1910s. Aluminium paint was created by mixing the appropriate clear carrier
paint with aluminium powder or paste. Unlike other paint pigments that are finely groundpowders, aluminium powder consists of tiny "flakes". As the paint dries on the surface, these
miniature flakes flatten out over their underlying surface forming a superb protective layer. That
action is what made aluminium paints so valuable as airplane finishes. On fabric surfaces,aluminium finish had also an added value of making fabric less brittle and longer lasting. Last
but not least, at the time no other pigment provided a lighter yet opaque painted finish.
Depending on the application, the carrier paint could be clear dope, clear varnish, lacquer or oil-
based primer.
The first aircraft to take advantage of Aluminium dope were Zeppelin airships. In 1912 the
British Cellon company commenced commercial manufacturing of Aluminium dope, and from
then on it rapidly became a worldwide standard for aircraft finishes. Aluminium dope was usedas a topcoat finish, but also as primer.
Aluminium lacquer has been the overall finish for cockpits of early yellow-wing F2A Buffalosand F4F Wildcats, possibly also other pre-war Navy types.
One area were aluminium lacquer was frequently
used was undercarriage legs and struts. Please note
the considerable difference in shine between thepainted leg and fork, cast aluminium alloy wheel
hub and exposed steel of the oleo. The leg (shown
before) is a front undercarriage of the B-25
Mitchell.
Distinguishing between Aluminium lacquer and bare metal finish can be confusing. Although
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pure aluminium is resistant to corrosion, aluminium alloys initially used in airframe production
were not. Thus, metal aluminium elements required priming, initially with oil-based primers and
then with Zinc Chromate. The situation changed in early 1930s with the adoption of aluminiumalloy sheet named Alclad. Alclad was an aluminium alloy sheet covered externally with thin
layers of pure aluminium as an anti-corrosive barrier. It is this solution that made it possible to
dispense with painting of the airframes after 1943. In principle, this development had nothing todo with the use of Aluminium Lacquer, which can be seen on various internal fixtures of aircraft
throughout the discussed period.
View of the wing brace assembly of the B-25 Mitchell shows a mixture of bare Alclad and ZincChromate-covered components used during production.
Olive Drab
The US Olive Drab was an outgrowth of RFC green, the WWI aircraft colour used by theBritish. Although primarily an outer camouflage colour, the use of Olive Drab is documented in
some cases also for cockpits - like on P-38s and L-4s.
Olive Drab has also gone through some significant evolutionary changes. During the period 1938
- 1945 there were alt least three official Olive Drab specifications for the USAAC/USAAF.
Pre-war Olive Drab No. 9
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Dark Olive Drab 41 Olive Drab ANA 613
Prior to World War II, the standard Olive Drab shade of the USAAC was called Olive Drab No.
9.
In 1940, when Army and Navy got together on the ANA standard it was decided that No. 9 was
too light, and should be substituted by Dark Olive Drab. The "new" paint (which actually hadbeen available since 1932) was designated Dark Olive Drab 41.
It would have seemed that the standard had been set, but this was not to be.
Olive Drab 41 was originally a mix of seven different pigments. When the war started it soon
turned out that that massive amounts of Olive Drab paint were going to be needed, and paintmanufacturers began to look for ways to reduce the number of ingredients. Additionally,
Cadmium was widely used as a paint stabilizer. However, cadmium was a scarce resource and
the paint industry found itself in competition with the steel industry that required cadmium as ahardener for production of armour plate. The result was that cadmium was removed from paintmixes. As a result, the wartime Olive Drab 41 might only have a couple of different pigments in
it, the formulation varying between different paint manufacturers.
All this has resulted in paint that proved (knowingly) much less stable in field conditions. New
aircraft matching (or not) specification colours at the door of the factory could demonstrate quitedramatic changes of colour once deployed in the field. Different batches of paints would fade at
different rates to different base colour. For example, pilot of the 14th Fighter Group operating
Lightnings in North Africa have reported that under African sun their early-model P-38s turned
into bright purple!
Based on the analysis of the remains of crashed aircraft in the ETO, German researcher Has
Ploes claims that there were at least two variations of the Olive Drab paint. Originally bothpaints would have had almost the same shade but one of the two paints weathered very quickly
to a reddish shade. This paint was used by Douglas on A-20 Bostons and by Boeing on the B-17Gs. The other paint, much more steady and resilient to ageing, has been found on crashed P-47s and P-38s.
Further attempt at simplification on the part of officialdom came in March 1943, with the ANA613 standard, which unified the Army and Air Force Olive Drab to a single shade following the
Army specification, which was lighter than Olive Drab 41.
Although officially affected by ANA directives, USAAF did not display much interest in this
new paint. It would appear that they just chose to ignore the chips, and ordered paint
manufacturers to continue to match the Dark Olive Drab 41 paint chips. Thus Dark Olive Drab
41 was still being produced and used in production of camouflaged aircraft throughout the war.
One documented adoption of ANA 613 paint was were the very late (post mid-1944) Douglas A-20G/Hs and J/Ks produced for the Soviet Union. Machines produced for lend-lease were
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camouflaged throughout the war, and Douglas was forced to switch from Olive Drab 41 to a
lighter shade of Olive Drab, which can be assumed to match to the ANA613 chips.
Colour sample
There seems to be a consensus in the model paintindustry about adoptingFS 34088as the correct shade
for faded Olive Drab 41. Other reasonable matches for
Olive Drab (from dark, factory fresh finish to bleachedand weathered) could be in the rangeFS 34064
through 33070 to 34088
Medium Green
In the initial war period, the Army specification for a standard topside camouflage was OliveDrab 41 with Medium Green 42. Medium Green was to be used in irregular blotches on leading
and trailing edges of wings and stabilizers and vertical tail to disrupt the contours of the airframe.This pattern lasted throughout 1942, but was generally dispensed with later.
Like Olive Drab, Medium Green has gone through similar evolution of designations:
Medium Green 42 Medium Green ANA 612
It is not known for sure how much Medium Green was used for interior finishes. Several Army
instructions dated as long as end-1943 called for Medium Green finish on interior portions of
cockpits that were subject to direct rays of the sun. Bell might have used a variation of Medium
Green for the cockpits of P-39 Airacobra.
On a side note, Medium Green appears to have been very similar in shade to Dark Dull Green, sodistinguishing between the two based on photographic evidence may be very difficult.
Colour sample
FS 34092seems to be a reasonable match for Medium
Green, with a comment that the original colour wasslightly lighter in shade.
Insignia Red
The use of Insignia red has been documented on the internal flap surfaces of SBD Dauntless.
The pre-war US Army Insignia Red was a vivid bright red, and was not suited well for
camouflage purposes. During the colour unification work performed by ANA during the initial
months of the conflict, RAF Insignia Red was found to be much less intense, of darker hue andgenerally better suited for the purpose. Ironically, the same month the RAF colour was accepted
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34064,33070,34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34064,33070,34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34064,33070,34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34064,33070,34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34092http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34092http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34092http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34064,33070,34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=34064,33070,34088http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=340888/12/2019 Interior Colours of US Aircraft Part 1
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by the USAAF, red was eliminated from the insignia of all US combat aircraft.
Colour sample
FS 31136is a match for Insignia Red.
A word of caution. However complete the above colour review might be, you can always expect
to find the unexpected, like this vivid red colour beneath the fuel tank cover on upper wing of thePBY-2.
Continue to Interior Colours of US Aircraft, 1941-45 (Part II)
References
Literature:
Dana Bell - World War II US Aircraft Interior Colors, Fine Scale Modeler October1997
Dana Bell - Air Force Colors, vol. 1-3 Robert D. Archer - The Official Monogram US Army Air Service & Air Corps
Aircraft Color Guide
John M. Elliot - The Official Monogram US Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft Color
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=31136http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=31136http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/02/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us_part2.htmhttp://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/02/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us_part2.htmhttp://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/02/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us_part2.htmhttp://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorserver/showcolor.asp?fs=311368/12/2019 Interior Colours of US Aircraft Part 1
17/17
Guide
Doll, Jackson, Riley - Navy Air Colors, Vol. 1, 1919-1945. Dave Klaus - Color Cross-Reference Guide Bert Kinzey - In Detail and Scale Dana Bell, Lee Kolosna, William Reece, Larry Webster - various postings and articles