F6F-3 Hellcat

[4bogreen]

Hello guys,

I have read a nice topic here about the colors of WWII navy aircraft. My era of expertize is Soviet stuff normaly, but i find the hellcat a very cool looking plane. Its a nice contribution to my ''pacific'' theatre (the zero follows next)

I have the following in 1/48 scale,

-Eduard F6F-3 hellcat (uss princeton, cat mouth)

-Wolfpack folded wings set

-Aires cockpit set

-resin weighted wheels

-Aires wheelbay and gears

-Karaya .50 barrels

Paints,

-Vallejo us navy color set for airbrush

My question is; The color of the inside of the wingfold, is that interior green or insignia white? and the wheelbay is a mix of interior green and insignia white? The info i had reed, was a bit fuzzy on this...

Thanks in advance,

Remco

[Steve N]

I'm assuming you're doing a "tri-color" camouflage aircraft. In that case:

The wheel wells, landing gear struts, wheel hubs, and the insides of the gear doors should all be white.

I'm not 100% sure on the wing fold..this is the best period photo I could turn up in a quick interwebulator search..looks like white to me, with various silver/bare metal fittings and black hoses.

SN

Edited July 2, 2012 by Steve N

[4bogreen]

Thanks for the photo Steve,

It seems to me that they painted the white while the hellcat has the wings unfolded. The ''Technical'' parts when folded, excluding the wheelbay seems to be painted in interior green or zink chromatic yellow? Is that an option?

Regarts,

Remco

[bigjugs]

All gear and wheel wells are the underside color, white.

Inside of wing folds on the outer wing portion appear to be Sea Blue and a light color (Intermediate Blue, White, Interior Green?), as per this picture of a factory fresh Hellcat.

The Fuselage side could be an external color, such as intermediate blue. But most likely an interior green as the fuselage side of the wing fold is hidden by the wing and thus not likely subject to camouflage.

[don f]

Here's the bottom of an F6F-3. Note that the forward part of the wheel well is dark, perhaps tinted zinc chromate (Interior Green). Were all the F6F-3's finished this way? Who knows? Interesting picture. And look at all those "highlighted" panels lines!

Don

[bigjugs]

Nice underside picture. I would also say that the inside of the doors are dark color also. Odd they would paint white only the rear of the well in which the wheel sat. Since the "black" tire occupied that area when in up position, what a waste of effort and white paint. Unless it was simpler to use a large needle in the airbrush.

[Jennings]

The *entire* gear bay was the underside color. I know it looks dark in that pic, but that's a) a very ditry airplane, and b.) it's a small space that's in deep shadow. You had a spray gun in your hand, loaded with white paint. The line is moving along quickly. You paint everything you can see with your spray gun. It's *all* white. The Ginter book on the F6F has some good pics. It's all white.

[don f]

Didn't take long for the it's in the shadows argument to crop up. Here's a close-up of the stdb. wheel bay, same as the upside down picture, that shows some of the structural elements at right angle to the top of the bay. Other such elements are visible in the aft part of the wheel bay. And the inboard structures forward of the "wheel" part of the bay, if painted white, should be visible as are the similar structures in the inboard part of the aft wheel bay. Even the F6F-5 wheel bays may not have been all GSB. Quoting research by William Reece, "The area where the landing gear leg meets the spar is Interior Green but all the rest of the landing gear, struts, doors, wheel bay, wheels, and tail gear are Glossy Sea Blue."

Edited July 3, 2012 by don f

[4bogreen]

First of all, i want to thank you guys for your help. These pics and info are a great help for me. I think that i will do the following;

- Paint the wheelbay white and the spar with gearleg zink chromate (interior green)with a bit of white overspray and chipping.

- The ''fold section'' (where the white paint not can be spayed when wings are unfolded)zink chromate color.

O, the engine cowling inside, is that also in interior green? or grumman grey? (i thought the F-3 had interior green engine cowlings on the inside)

Regards,

Remco

[don f]

O, the engine cowling inside, is that also in interior green? or grumman grey? (i thought the F-3 had interior green engine cowlings on the inside)

Regards,

Remco

If you have not already looked, lots of info posted right here on ARC USN Interiors by WIlliam Reece and others.

Here's the quote from William Reece's posting USN & USMC Aircraft Interiors of WWII:

F6F-3 Hellcat. Cockpit: The first 100 F6F-3s almost certainly had Bronze Green cockpit interiors. The rest had FS 34151 cockpits. The engine cowling and the fuselage interior including the area behind the cockpit where the small windows are located was Light Gray FS 36440 (Grumman Gray). Remember on all of these a/c the general rule is that the wheel bays, landing gear struts, wheel centers, landing flap bays, etc. are the under surface color. The area ahead of the rear main spar in the wheel bay was interior green. This area was unmasked and so may have had some significant white over spray. Interior Green should be the dominant color.

Read the posts in the link above. There's more info.

Don