Color of Shorts C class beaching gear

[neillbill]

Any of you folks got ideas on the color of the beaching gear for the C class 'Empire' flying boat?

I'm working on the Welsh 144 one right now and starting the paint..

I have a suspicion from a Sunderland build long ago that it might be yellow?

Thanks

Bill

[pigsty]

I have a very good book on the C Class, but it has surprisingly few pictures of the boats on their gear, and all of them are b/w and a bit grainy.  Nonetheless, most suggest the gear was unpainted, and in fact might have had darker materials on the upper ends of the legs.  One picture seems from the lack of reflections to be painted, but there's absolutely no clue as to the colour.  Sunderlands during the war commonly had grey beaching gear, in a variety of shades.

[Aeronut]

The C Class main beaching gear was made up from mild steel plate with cork collars to give it some floatation. I cant believe that something made from steel had to enter salt water wouldn't have been given some sort of protective coating. On the other hand the tail gear was mostly wood so may well have been unpainted.

[neillbill]

Thanks that makes sense I found a few pics which seem to indicate the leg was about the same color as the airframe, the cork collars are sometimes darker sometimes not, probably the difference between wet and dry.

Bill

[Ed Russell]

They appear to be some sort of coated metal on most photographs. A common theme on civil and military ones is for the upper flotation member to be painted. Red and green maybe?

Military

Civil

 

[neillbill]

OK I'm going with red/green on the upper float makes sense if the legs are handed and you want to know which one goes where when they are being floated out

Bill