F-16 Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 I noticed that most pictures of hellcats during the war show the prop hub painted the same blue as the aircraft. Were all hellcat prop hubs painted blue or was it done at the squadron level only? I am doing a plane from F6F-5, VF-46 (1945) and Superscale says that the front/forward portion of the hub was painted blue, but not the whole hub. Should I paint the whole hub blue, or just the front part? Was this standard operating procedure on navy planes in 1945? Scott CNJC-IPMS Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joe Hegedus Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Early Hellcats that were painted in the blue-gray over gray scheme seemed to have the prop hubs in an unpainted or aluminum lacquer finish or flat black. Mid-war Hellcats in the 3-tone scheme commonly had the prop hub and dome painted intermediate blue like the fuselage sides and fin, although some had the hub and dome painted in NS Sea Blue like the top of the fuselage. Others seem to have the hub and dome in flat black like the blades. Some squadrons seem to also have painted the hub and dome in other colors; I have a picture of a USMC F6F-3 that has white on the cowl ring and fin, and the prop hub and dome also appear to be painted white but other airplanes from the same squadron at the same time have the hub and dome in intermediate blue. The F6F-5 in the overall blue scheme seems to have the hub and dome painted flat black in most of the pictures I've seen, but there are variations. It's entirely possible that the dome on your subject could be blue, but if it were me, I'd probably go with black. The variations I've seen typically have the dome, or part of the dome, in a lighter color. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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