Jump to content

Cockpit colour of early US Navy jets?


alex

Recommended Posts

Good morning,

I am building the nice Tamiya Skyray kit, and I'm a bit confused about the cockpit colour - according to tamiya, it should all be "german tank grey", which doesn't look right to me.

AFAIK, the cockpit should be more a light grey (IPMS Stockholm site recommends Humbrol 156, Medium Sea Grey) for the cockpit tub. But the ejection seat, should it be grey as well, or should I go for a dark grey/black?

Thanks for any help!

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Skyray had dark gull grey (DGG) cockpit interior (which was pretty much the standard from the FJ-4 Fury/F9F Cougar through to the F/A-18 Hornet).

The seat is a little more tricky, if it's the non-Martin Baker seat, that too would be DGG but some Skyrays had a M-B seat fitted which would've been black.

I can't recall what seat coincided with what serial number and whether earlier aircraft were retro fitted with the M-B seat - I guess it's a case of whether that sort of thing bothers you.

Wez

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Alex - official colour is FS36231 Dark Gull Gray for the cockpit.

Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea grey seems to be an acceptable substitute if you are looking for an out of the bottle Tamiya paint match.

For the ejection seat -try here. I love this site.

http://www.seatejectcolor.com/seat/index_en.html

it looks as though Skyrays got fitted with MB mk 5 seats later in their lives. The earlier Douglas seat was probably gray too.

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/bat-out-of-hell.html

Hope this is of some use

Jonners

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

Hi, all!

I can't find as the interior a cockpit was painted FJ-1 Fury.
Valom by shaft as almost black FS 36081 what doesn't correspond to a photo a cockpit in the Naval Fighter. A  Siga cockpit as the medium gray specifies color but doesn't specify the standard of color. On model in the 48th scale from internet the interior a cockpit is painted in interior green FS 34151.

Where truth?
Article on coloring a cockpit of early USN jet in http://tailspintopics.blogspot.co.uk/  (?) seemed to me...... but I can't find her!

 

B.R.

Serge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A general (though not totally foolproof) rule of thumb is that, the US Navy started changing from Int Green and black cockpits to gray about the same time as they changed the exterior paint from GSB to Gull Gray over White.  So, the FJ-1, -2 and early -3's would likely have had Interior Green flooring and sides with black instrument panels, along with F9F 2 and -5 Panthers, F9F-6 Cougars, F2H-2, etc. 

It is with the Gull Gray over white birds such as F9F-8, F3H, F2H-3, FJ-4 etc that the gray cockpit also appears.

 

A big exception to this is if an aircraft had a total overhaul for late life as a Navy Reserve or Training jet; the F9F-5 here at the Pima Air & Space Museum has the gray cockpit indicating it was one of the last Panthers in service, though its exterior was retro-restored to GSB finish. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi All,

 

The FJ-1 cockpit appears to have been black, which was in line with North American painting it's F-86 cockpits black until around 1952 (IIRC), when they switched to Dark Gull Gray.

FJ-1 NASM

 

This 1952 video of the FJ-2 seems to show a Dark Gull Gray cockpit:
YouTube FJ-2 video

The jets in the film are actually the XFJ-2 prototypes, but one would think that production FJ-2s would have had gray pits, too.

 

Cheers!

 

Ben

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

For an Fj-1 id go with the Interior Green.

FJ-1 maked with P-51 on one line?

Late cockpit interior colour P-51 is a

Interior Green?

11 hours ago, Ben Brown said:

The FJ-1 cockpit appears to have been black, which was in line with North American painting it's F-86 cockpits black until around 1952 (IIRC),

But F-86 was late FJ-1?

I think FJ-1 the father F-86 and not vice versa. Or so to say the first XP-86 with direct wing anb  FJ-1 these are the baby birds who have hatched from one nest.

 

What we see at this photo cockpit FJ-1:

BI29864.jpg

Deck is black, but other colour as I see no

black. Is or grey.....or green...but no black!

 

B.R.

Serge

 

P.S.

The situation with instructions to models begins to clear up.
 Valom  instruction is based on photo a cockpit from "Detal&Scale FJ Fury"

Fury_Cover.jpg
This photo in D&S from the museum. Such, as:

deliveryService?id=NASM-SI-2006-2192221922

Resource:

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/north-american-fj-1-fury
But we know that restoration in the museums not always happens good in questions of accuracy of color!
As I have understood a Siga just interprets a black-and-white photo of a cabin which I gave above as the medium gray, the producer in 48th scale treats a black-and-white photo of a cabin as interior green. :(


pfffffffffff.... whether there is no at an option forum "computer
remove two wrong options!"? :):):)

 

If there is no that I will use the option "Call Tailhooktopics!" ;):)

http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2015/04/cockpits.html

 

B.R.

Serge

Edited by Aardvark
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Aardvark said:

Hi, all!

I can't find as the interior a cockpit was painted FJ-1 Fury.
Valom by shaft as almost black FS 36081 what doesn't correspond to a photo a cockpit in the Naval Fighter. A  Siga cockpit as the medium gray specifies color but doesn't specify the standard of color. On model in the 48th scale from internet the interior a cockpit is painted in interior green FS 34151.

Where truth?
Article on coloring a cockpit of early USN jet in http://tailspintopics.blogspot.co.uk/  (?) seemed to me...... but I can't find her!

 

B.R.

Serge

You couldn't find it because that post is in a different blog, Tailhook Topics Drafts. See http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2015/04/cockpits.html

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

You couldn't find it because that post is in a different blog, Tailhook Topics Drafts. See http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2015/04/cockpits.html

Sir,  I have already found him:

5 hours ago, Aardvark said:

If there is no that I will use the option "Call Tailhooktopics!" ;):)

http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2015/04/cockpits.html

 

also I have written the comment there!
Unfortunately, my knowledge is possibly not enough to find the answer to my question in yours the blog. Because I haven't seen a mention of FJ-1 in your article!
Yes, in your article any questions on coloring cockpit of FJ-2/3 & FJ-4, but FJ-1 mention perfectly are removed, sorry, I haven't seen...
Could you, how to write the conventional authority on area of US navy planes, who has made a mistake in identification colour cockpit FJ-1 :

- Valom?

- Siga?

.... or model maikers in 1/48?

 

B.R.

Serge

Edited by Aardvark
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, there was some detail variation in the color of post-World War II Navy cockpits and limited color photography so the best I could do was post what I did have and refer to the general specification. To extrapolate from what's in that post, the FJ-1 would probably have had a black instrument panel and at least black tops on the side consoles. The sides of the consoles and floor should have been interior green. However, from the pictures of the FJ-1 cockpit that have been posted in this thread, it looks like the cockpit, including the sides of the consoles, was painted a very dark blue-gray (note the difference between the black of the instrument faces and the color of the instrument panel in the color picture) and the floor, a lighter color. The NASM color picture suggests the floor was painted a lighter blue-gray, but since it had to have been taken with a flash or using bright lights, the colors may not be true; in the Boeing gray-scale picture, the floor is an indeterminate color but it could very well be interior green.

 

Don Hinton took pictures of the NASM's FJ-1 cockpit when it was at the Navy museum at Pensacola. However, it may have been repainted after it was removed from flight status; certainly the exterior was repainted. In his color pictures of the cockpit, the interior is all over very dark gray—not quite black—except for the black instrument faces and stick grip and the light-colored canvas boot at the bottom of the stick grip.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Ginter's book on the Skyray he writes the Douglas seat could be either DGG or black. They were painted both colors. Again, according to his book, the Martin Baker Mk P5 replaced the Douglas seat starting with BuNo 134744 and subsequent. The Mk P5 was similar to the seat, the MB Mk 5 in the early Navy Phantoms. The Hypersonic seat for the early Navy Phantom looks very much like the illustration in Ginter's book. The cockpit, vertical surfaces should be DGG with the upper top consoles being black. Instrument panel appears to be all black as well.

 

The photo at Tommy's blog of the MB Mk 5 looks to be pretty much the same as the drawing in Ginter's book.

Edited by jpk
Updates info
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...