discussion P-40 seat colour?

[Guest]

Hi all; I'm about to start on Academy's 1/48 RAF Tomahawk II. I'm a bit confused about the seat colour, as I've seen some references that say P-40 metal seats were left unpainted (ie bare metal). Anyone know for sure??

 

[stona]

Dana Bell makes the point that Curtiss painted their aircraft at the point of production. As far as the interior colour he says.

"The cockpit of the P-40 was Curtiss Cockpit Green, which was the Berry Brothers' (a local paint vendor) approximation of Interior Green. Reportedly it was a little browner than Interior Green."

Interior green is essentially Zinc Chromate Green, that is Zinc Chromate primer tinted with black and in the early days aluminium paste. The colour varied considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer and wasn't standardised until September 1943 when the formal name Interior Green came along with ANA Bulletin No.137. This 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.

I'd do my seat in ZC Green but wouldn't worry too much about the exact shade!

Cheers

Steve