Originally Posted by
Greg Wright
Radial power,
To answer you question it would have depended on if they were left in a natural aluminum finish or if they were painted in a Camoflauge color scheme. If left in a natural finish then no the zinc chromate would not get covered over.
But if they got painted then yes the zinc chromate would get painted over. Your two pictures from your previous post show just that. As the left hand picture is a natural metal surface and the right hand picture has been painted with a silver/Aluminum color paint.
Originally Posted by
Chris Nicastro
Andrea, which P-47 are you trying to model your plane after? Do you have a color scheme picked out?
Later in the war the US did not paint the planes camouflage because air superiority was being established in EU and later in the Pacific. If you know the history of the plane you are modeling then the period of the war will tell you most likely how to detail your plane.
Also, Crew Chief's followed orders to paint planes as the mission or location dictated. In many cases they used any paint they could find and the planes were painted in the field not a nice paint shop.
The factory Zinc paint would not be painted silver most likely because the planes were not painted silver around the tail area. The wings of a Mustang for example are made smooth at the factory and then painted silver but this was done to maximize speed and performance on that plane. P-47's did not have any reason to paint the tail silver for performance.
I think the model looks better when the skin is natural and you can see the Zinc details, it's like seeing into the planes details, like layers.
I suggest you do a little research on the plane your interested in painting your model like and post some pics on here so we can help.
Hello,
the specific airplane that I'm planning to model is serial number 44-20456. It is a P-47D-30 RE that flew in the 368th fighter Group (397th fighter squadron), tactical code D3-V. See attached pics.
This definitely looks like a natural metal airplane (excepts for the painted areas, of course), so I suppose that unless someone back then decided to paint it with an aluminium colored paint for some reason, then the area between the tail surfaces should show the typical zinc chromate yellow color. What I was missing when I started this thread was the piece of information that P47s were not painted with an aluminium colored paint dureing the war.
I tried to ask the question in a general way so that it may come in handy for other people besides me. If the "rule" is that natural metal finish (NMF) airplanes have their zinc chromate coating showing in these areas and camouflaged airplanes do not, then everyone can decide how to paint these areas depending on their chosen subject. Especially if no wartime P-47 was
painted with an aluminium colored paint. Asking specifically for this P-47D-30 RE may not answer the same question for someone modelling a P-47D-5, for example.
By the way, it's interesting that in the black & white pics one can clearly see the "Lizzy" nose art, while the color photos do not seem to show it, even though the serial number is clearly the same. Perhaps the airplane was repainted in between those sets of pics? But anyway I'm still very far from having a cowl to paint
Andrea