B-17F interior

OK, it's been a couple years since I've sat down and built any kits. The recent snow in the Midwest has given me a little extra time, and I'd like to start on a Monogram B-17F. Easy enough kit that I can finish it before the snow melts. Could someone tell me the interior color? I seem to recall zinc chromate in some areas and aluminum in others. But what and where?

Thanks, Mike

Reply to
Mnm879
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Reply to
Steve Collins

Interior green is a better choice for the cabin. I have been in Fuddy Duddy's cabin and it was a dull, medium dark green. I took a pic of the rear from the waist gunners' positions and can look it out if you need a scan.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m07.aol.com, Mnm879 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 1/22/05 5:29 PM:

Here's something I downloaded and saved from Lee Kolosna, who also quotes Dana Bell:

"In the cockpit area, Bronze Green or Dull Dark Green is the general rule for F and G model B-17s. The crew compartment areas aft of the radio room often were natural aluminum with Chromate Yellow or Chromate Green longerons. Wheel wells were usually Interior Green. The Bomb Bay area could be either Bronze green or Interior Green."

"Dana Bell reported (in a post to RMS in March of 1998) that the official spec for the B-17F, revised in August 1944, called for Dull Dark Green in the cockpit, bombardier/navigator area, and radio compartment. Dull Dark Green is not quite as dark as Bronze Green (I've inspected both on pieces of crashed aircraft in the presence of Larry Webster and Dana Bell), but for a modeler, using FS 34092 (Testors refers to it as Euro I Green, Polly Scale as RAAF Foliage Green) is pretty close in both cases. When I model an aircraft with a Bronze Green interior, I add a little black to the Polly Scale paint."

"Also, my discussions with the two above mentioned color experts have led to the very frustrating conclusion that there are no absolutes with World War II US aircraft interior colors. Those bombers made by Boeing could have different interior colors than those made by Vega. Also, from day to day, the colors could change, even in the same factory."

"Finally, as I write this post, two pieces of a wrecked B-17G that I dug out of the ground with my own hands (from a crash in 1944 in Garner, North Carolina) sits before me on my computer stand. Our local IPMS Chapter (Eagle Squadron, in Raleigh) had a field trip to the site and scoured a famer's field with metal detectors. I kept two samples: one piece is definitely Interior Green A/N 611, and the other appears to be Bronze Green. They are definitely two different green paints on the same aircraft. If it were me, I would paint the F model as mentioned in the first paragraph."

"I hope this helps a bit, and good luck!" Lee Kolosna

Reply to
Jane Moss

Great info!!

It never ceases to amaze me, how so many modelers have a "fetish" for Zinc Chromate and/or Interior Green. Even when so many photographs seem to suggest that there are *no* hard-set rules; they seem to adhere to the belief that it *must* be ZC or IG, and *nothing* else.

Reply to
Greg Heilers

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