Interior color of F4B-4 & P-26

Hi Stan, Don't know about the F4B-4, but the P-26s were just natural aluminum on the interior including the seat with a black instrument panel. Control knobs varied. Since most photos from that era are b/w it's hard to tell about them other than light and dark. You should check internet sites for a restored P-26, I'm pretty sure that the Air Force Museum has one. Ol ' 45

There is a great picture of an F4B on the web- do a search of Google Images. It was rebuilt by the museum from a P-12, but claim to have done a careful and accurate rebuild to F4B configuration and color. As I remember it, much of the interior was silver paint like the fuselage exterior color.

The pictures I found showed the interior as light gray:

probably wouldn't go for unpainted interior surfaces, due to corrosion by saltwater spray.

Pat

With the F4B-4, I think it would be smart to split the difference; shoot the interior with a silver and dull-cote it. It'll end up looking slightly metallic gray, which is probably pretty close to what it was. As for museum pieces, I'd be careful; renovated planes are frequently painted incorrectly.

As for the P-26, I don't have many references that are helpful. What I have seems to indicate a light gray, but I'm guessing here.

Don't worry about it; close enough is good enough.

---- Stephen

Actually, IIRC they were just natural aluminum with clear lacquer sprayed over it.

Everything I've located on the web says natural aluminum for the P-26, and light gray for the F4B-4. If they had painted the P-26 cockpit, it probably would have been in zinc chromate green. It's very unlikely that the F4B-4 would have been left in natural metal, because service aboard the carriers would mean it would be in a environment where corrosion occurs easily due to the humidity and salt, and they would want to protect the metal from that. There would be one way to check for sure, and that would be to contact the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum; they have a restored P-26 and F4B-4, and they pride themselves on restoring aircraft completely accurately as far as paint scheme goes. It looks like this guy, who pretty much scratchbuilt the entire cockpit for his Hasegawa F4B-4, put a fair amount of research into its paint scheme:

found the silver-doped wings interesting, as I always thought they were gray. BTW, I had the 1/32nd P-26, and it looks really sharp in that blue fuselage scheme.

Pat