Revell PV-1 Ventura

[B-17 guy]

What is ANA 504? Never heard of that one?

[Otto]

It is a gloss Olive Drab, a bit more brown than ANA613 It converts to 14087, when that was a registered color in the 595A

[Otto]

Here is a quote from the manual;

"Cockpits of service aircraft, other than flying boats, are to be finished in a dull dark green to match the Army-Navy Color Standard. Other personal spaces are to be finished in semigloss pastel green or blue. No exact shades are specified, but are subject to approval of the Bureau of Aeronautics in each case. Cargo spaces and all structural spaces are to be finished either with tinted Zinc Chromate primer, or similar to other interior spaces at the discretion of the inspector at the manufacturer's facility. Tinted Zinc Chromate primer can vary in color from yellow to dark green."

[blunce]

Here is a quote from the manual;

...or similar to other interior spaces at the discretion of the inspector at the manufacturer's facility. "

Well that leaves the door wide open!

[Otto]

Well that leaves the door wide open!

Ta-daaaaaaaa This is why, the next time that a judge at a contest tells you that you used the wrong color, you tell him to Kiss some intimate part of your anatomy. Or I guess, that you could just be rude, and tell him that he knows not what he is talking about.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Otto

[Hal Marshman Sr]

Color pics reveal Dull Dark Green on all interior surfaces, to imnclude the wheel wells and main spar. According to the above, there could be variations. Hal

[afspret]

Maybe its just me, but something seem off with the top turret. To me it looks as if the turret is either not the right height, is sitting to low when mounted or the turret ring is to big. Also, the gun barrels seem to be to long. Otherwise it looks like a pretty good kit.

[Otto]

It's just you. Seriously, on the PV, that is the way the turret is. It sits very low.

[Dave Williams]

I think the external ring around the turret is too tall in the kit. Photos in the Squadron show that the lip around the turret almost merges into the top peak of the upper fuselage with only a very small height lip visible, but the lip on the kit stands up above the fuselage too much at the top center of the fuselage. I think the kit ring can easily be sanded down a little to fix the problem.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Dave Williams

[David Rapasi]

They must have redone the turret ring. I just received my kit this week and the turret lip is flush with the upper fuselage.

The props from an AMT F7F look pretty close with some reshaping and changing the length.

Rocket launchers from a Tamiya F4U 1 kit, with a little sanding, will work.

Dave

Edited January 15, 2012 by David Rapasi

[Steve N]

The problem with the AMT F7F props is that they molded the blades backwards, with the backside facing forwards. And you can't just cut the blades off and turn them around, as they're not symmetrical and would then have the trailing edge facing forwards if set to the correct pitch. That's why there are several aftermarket made props for the Tigercat kit. Getting a set of those and cutting down the blades would solve the Ventura prop issues.

SN

[Falcon50EX]

Re the Ventura interior colours: Olive Drab not outside the realm of possibility, considering Lockheed was using Olive Drab in their P-38 interiors. According to the Ginter book the exterior surfaces were primed with a rust-brown coloured primer; i guess this might be just a unique lockheed mix of Zinc Chromate primer. I think i might try adding some red to my Testors YZC when i get a PV-1 to the primer stage.

Hopefully we will start seeing completed Venturas soon.

david

[David Rapasi]

The problem with the AMT F7F props is that they molded the blades backwards, with the backside facing forwards. And you can't just cut the blades off and turn them around, as they're not symmetrical and would then have the trailing edge facing forwards if set to the correct pitch. That's why there are several aftermarket made props for the Tigercat kit. Getting a set of those and cutting down the blades would solve the Ventura prop issues.

SN

I must have a different F7F kit. The props in an earlier posting, comparing all of the props, the F7F prop doesn’t look like the props in my kit.

The upper one is the Ventura kit prop, the bottom one is the re-contoured prop from my AMT/ERTL F7F kit.

The only difference I see other than the width is, the F7F prop has a little more twist than the Ventura kit props.

On a finished model I think it would make a satisfactory replacement.

Dave

[Scooby]

Re the Ventura interior colours: Olive Drab not outside the realm of possibility, considering Lockheed was using Olive Drab in their P-38 interiors. According to the Ginter book the exterior surfaces were primed with a rust-brown coloured primer; i guess this might be just a unique lockheed mix of Zinc Chromate primer. I think i might try adding some red to my Testors YZC when i get a PV-1 to the primer stage.

Hopefully we will start seeing completed Venturas soon.

david

The pictures that I posted of the Ventura that was used to design this kit had four distinct colors for interior green in it's unrestored interior.

Here are the images again:

Real bullet holes. I think the theory was it was an angry hunter.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Scooby

[Otto]

The pictures that I posted of the Ventura that was used to design this kit had four distinct colors for interior green in it's unrestored interior.

Here are the images again:

Real bullet holes. I think the theory was it was an angry hunter.

The upper green in the picture is not even listed in the Navy book. I doubt that this bird ever went threw rework, since they did not keep them that long back than. This would than be classified as "Tinted at inspectors approval". Also, was this an Army or navy bird? Or even British or Ausy.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Otto

[Tracy White]

It was canadian.

Looks to me like the darker green (Bronze green??) was sprayed over zinc chromate... there's a lighter green evident in some areas.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Tracy White

[Otto]

Canadian, would mean that it was painted to British specs. The color could be A-N "Dark Green 30".

[Scooby]

Canadian, would mean that it was painted to British specs. The color could be A-N "Dark Green 30".

Yes, it is RCAF. Oddly it was delivered in the colors similar to the Navy PV-1s in the Revell kit. It was a intermediate blue on the top with light grey on the bottom, some think it was the Atlantic scheme but it was not. The decals for the RCAF version in the Revell kit are for this exact aircraft during the war.

Here are a few more images showing the interior colors. As I mentioned, Revell used this aircraft to design their kit. I am going to go back and take more pictures of the aircraft to determine how many different shades of green are on the interior.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Scooby

[Otto]

There the colors look completely different and could be "medium green 612".

[rcaf_100]

Canadian, would mean that it was painted to British specs. The color could be A-N "Dark Green 30".

But this Ventura was built as US Navy PV-1 BuNo 33315, and transferred in June 1943 to the RCAF as 2195.

So it looks like it was built to US Navy specs and transferred upon completion.

The 'bronze green' was very likely over-sprayed on the zinc chromate post-war when it was refurbished for use as an Armament trainer circa 1950-51.

I know that this was used on RCAF Harvards, North Stars, Lancasters, etc, post-war so it wouldn't be far fetched for the boys at the Repair Depot to use the green paint they had on the shelf to spruce up the interior during overhaul.

http://www.odynet.ca/~bwalker/RCAF_2150_2199_detailed.html

[Hal Marshman Sr]

Quote "Yes, it is RCAF. Oddly it was delivered in the colors similar to the Navy PV-1s in the Revell kit. It was a intermediate blue on the top with light grey on the bottom, some think it was the Atlantic scheme but it was not. The decals for the RCAF version in the Revell kit are for this exact aircraft during the war"

Not Intermediate Blue, but USN Blue/Gray over USN Light Gray. Intermediate Blue was used in conjunction with Sea Blue tops, and Insignia White bottoms. Hal Sr

[Scooby]

Quote "Yes, it is RCAF. Oddly it was delivered in the colors similar to the Navy PV-1s in the Revell kit. It was a intermediate blue on the top with light grey on the bottom, some think it was the Atlantic scheme but it was not. The decals for the RCAF version in the Revell kit are for this exact aircraft during the war"

Not Intermediate Blue, but USN Blue/Gray over USN Light Gray. Intermediate Blue was used in conjunction with Sea Blue tops, and Insignia White bottoms. Hal Sr

Yes, my mistake. I meant Blue/Gray. The instructions say Intermediate blue but I knew it was blue/gray.

[Cobrahistorian]

Now, the question is, was the Canadian bird delivered with chin guns? The bird I'm building was 19 airframes behind it on the production line. My hunch is, 33343 didn't have them, but I need to confirm that.

[scvrobeson]

The props in question. I don't really mind the shape at all

This thing was an absolute joy to build. I know there's a small seam behind the canopy, but I'll fix that. The fit was perfect all around, and the schemes leave so much room for weathering, being based in the Pacific.

I really recommend everyone go pick one of these things up, especially for the $30 they're charging for it!

Matt

[Otto]

Thanks for posting those pictures. As I was looking at them and the engines, I noticed that something looked strange in the nacelle shape. I just couldn't put my finger on it. Than it dawned on me. The coweling and engine nacell looks too tapered. So I did some measurements. The R-2800 which is in the PV-1 was 54" in diameter. It would never fit in the cowlings scaled down. The base of the cowling where it meets the nacelle is almost an 1/8" too narrow. OK now we need someone to come up with new cowlings and nacelle fronts from leading edge of wing forward. The nacelle I could live with but the cowling looks silly. On the Koster kit it looks very good but here---- well just silly. This will definitely stop me from starting the kit and divert my attention back to building the Koster kit.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Otto