Jump to content

Cuban Sea Fury U/C colours


neilh

Recommended Posts

I understand that at the time of the Bay of Pigs, the Sea Furies were painted in an overall Olive drab. Does anyone know what colour the inside faces of the gear covers and wells would have been?  Several mentions online suggest the surviving example in the museum has been repainted in a "fantasy" scheme. I'm guessing the bays might be Hawker yellow, legs would be aluminium or light aircraft grey?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take your best guess mate. Of the 17 aircraft that Cuba had, only 4 or 5 were serviceable to combat the invasion and those were reportedly serviced by stripping the unserviceable aircraft, so it could have been as factory painted or touched up by the Cubans. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are a few B/W photos of the Cuban olive drab Sea Furies in "Hawker Sea Fury in action" and "Latin American Air Wars and Aircraft 1912-1969" which show the inside the gear covers in a lighter color. It is very likely that the inside the gear covers as well as wheel wells were retained original color of silver dope.

 

Jun in Tokyo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/horaburo/albums

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fury and Sea Fury gear wells were painted Hawker yellow, never ZC or silver as has been noted incorrectly many times

Hawker yellow was used as a primer by Hawkers on all internal surfaces of Furies including engine bays gun bays

and gear wells. This is confirmed by my observations of several unrestored aircraft (VW.647 VW.623 VW.232 & WG.630)

 

Gear doors were usually the underside colour

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks all.  I have made my own mix of Hawker yellow for the engine bay and gear wells based upon the visible parts of the wheel bay at Yeovilton. To me, it's more of a yellow cream colour than the green hues YZC. Perhaps I will use it for the insides of the doors.  Photos on line also show a lighter shade and as the overall colour was Olive green it could be the interior primer colour or maybe aluminium paint? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that's interesting. Even allowing for lighting/flash that wheel bay seems to have what I have thought of as " Hawker yellow" ( area under the "pipes" and  some of the flanges), a much " greener" yellow like US ZC ( LH side foreground) and almost US interior green (in the centre), plus a mustard colour at the far end!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/29/2017 at 1:05 AM, neilh said:

Now that's interesting. Even allowing for lighting/flash that wheel bay seems to have what I have thought of as " Hawker yellow" ( area under the "pipes" and  some of the flanges), a much " greener" yellow like US ZC ( LH side foreground) and almost US interior green (in the centre), plus a mustard colour at the far end!

All the metal work is the same colour, what your seeing is various discolouration caused by many years of grub plus 

the preservative the aircraft got doused in at one stage.

There are various fabric/leather like pads in there as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, thanks Steve. I guess the Hawker yellow is the pale creamy yellow. Now you mentioned it I think I can see the texture of the fabric / leather strips.

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...