Killingholme Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Hi all, I am struggling to find pictures of F2H-3s wearing the short lived experimental natural metal finish. I am building the (basic) Academy/Hobbycraft kit, which in it's latest boxing includes some nice cartograph decals including a natural metal aircraft from VF-31. Before I start painting, I would like to see what a F2H-3 looks like without any paint on! I also have a couple of detail questions: 1) Blue F2Hs had very highly polished wings with barely visible panel lines. It got me wondering whether the wings of 'natural metal' F2Hs actually were bare metal or they retained some sort of smoothing coating- like a P-51 laminar flow wing? 2) Were the intake ducts plain metal too? 3) wheel wells- green or aluminium? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 (edited) Volume 1 of the USN Aircraft Carrier Air Units published by Squadron Signal has a few pictures, all unfortunately quite small and in B/W. None show aircrafts of VF-31 One very nice colour picture can be found on Tommy Thomason's blog, Tailhook Topics (that is one of, if not the best online references for postwar USN aircrafts) http://tailspintopics.blogspot.it/2009/12/f2h-banshee-modeling-notes.html As Tommy also posts here, he may be able to add more information Edited October 31, 2017 by Giorgio N 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 And while checking Squadron's Navy Air Colors, I found a picture with 4 VF-31 aircrafts, 2 in blue and 2 in natural metal, with individual codes 104 and 109. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 4 hours ago, Killingholme said: Hi all, I am struggling to find pictures of F2H-3s wearing the short lived experimental natural metal finish. I am building the (basic) Academy/Hobbycraft kit, which in it's latest boxing includes some nice cartograph decals including a natural metal aircraft from VF-31. Before I start painting, I would like to see what a F2H-3 looks like without any paint on! I also have a couple of detail questions: 1) Blue F2Hs had very highly polished wings with barely visible panel lines. It got me wondering whether the wings of 'natural metal' F2Hs actually were bare metal or they retained some sort of smoothing coating- like a P-51 laminar flow wing? 2) Were the intake ducts plain metal too? 3) wheel wells- green or aluminium? Will They were natural metal, which means that there were a lot of different "colors". Also see http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2009/12/it-seemed-like-good-idea-at-time-vii.html. The McDonnell assembly approach resulted in a smooth wing surface. The inlet ducts were plain metal. I don't know about the wheel wells but I'll see what I can find. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 6 hours ago, Killingholme said: 3) wheel wells- green or aluminium? Will What I know: Gray scale pictures from below suggest that the wheel wells are dark, therefore green. However, the main gear wheel wells of the F2H-3 that was at the Quonset, RI museum appear to be green in the outboard wing panel (where the tire goes) and natural metal in the inboard wing section (strut). For pretty much sure, the interior side of the gear doors are red, including the ones that cover the main gear wheel wells. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I pulled volume 3 of John Elliott's USN and USMC Aircraft Color Guide, 1950-59, and found MIL-F-7179, dated 4/16/51 that stated that interior structural spaces that were previously finished in tinted zinc chromate primer of no standard color, were to be finished in zinc chromate primer to match non-specular interior green, so I guess that would mean that the natural metal Banjos would have their wheel bays painted thusly. I could not find any decent photos in all my references that showed the wheel bays, but it does appear the interior and edges of all gear doors and flaps were painted insignia red. I have no idea if the flap wells were red or were the zinc chromate matched to interior green. Best I can do, but I'm betting TT will be able to find better documentation- I have all three of his Banshee monographs, but I couldn't find any definite confirmation. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 14 hours ago, 72modeler said: I pulled volume 3 of John Elliott's USN and USMC Aircraft Color Guide, 1950-59, and found MIL-F-7179, dated 4/16/51 that stated that interior structural spaces that were previously finished in tinted zinc chromate primer of no standard color, were to be finished in zinc chromate primer to match non-specular interior green, so I guess that would mean that the natural metal Banjos would have their wheel bays painted thusly. I could not find any decent photos in all my references that showed the wheel bays, but it does appear the interior and edges of all gear doors and flaps were painted insignia red. I have no idea if the flap wells were red or were the zinc chromate matched to interior green. Best I can do, but I'm betting TT will be able to find better documentation- I have all three of his Banshee monographs, but I couldn't find any definite confirmation. Mike I'm pretty sure that "interior structural spaces" didn't refer to wheel wells per se. However on page 39, Elliott states that "Before (July 16, 1959) the instructions... implied that the landing gear and wheel well interior were to be painted with Zinc Chromate primer. In many cases they were also painted to match adjacent surfaces." So I think green zinc chromate or interior green is the way to bet. Note that McDonnell's practice of painting the entire interior surface of landing gear doors from the FH-1 onward was not a Navy spec requirement so there was some latitude in company-specific build documentation with respect to finish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killingholme Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 Thanks all, really appreciated. I feel confident getting it painted. I would certainly have missed the distinctive panel surrounding the gun muzzles. Contemplating now whether I ought to fill the deep panel lines on the wings, on reflection they don't look right for what were such superbly smooth surfaces in real life. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 done a bit more searching and looks like there are pictures on the web, even from good old Wikipedia... Here's a line up of VF-31 aircrafts in both NM and blue schemes. Trim colours are red according to the Squadron book https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F2H-3s_VF-31_NAN11-54.jpg Want a better picture of 115, the aircraft in the foregorund in the previous picture? Wiki to the rescue again and even in colour ! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F3H-3_VF-31_on_USS_Midway_(CVA-41)_1954.jpg The picture confirms the red trims and I also find interesting the antiglare panel, that looks green (a colour also used on other USN aircrafts) Not a VF-31 aircraft but one from VF-71, that seems to confirm the green antiglare panel https://www.newenglandaviationhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jacks-plane.jpg I have found several other B/W pictures with a google search but I believe the ones linked here should be enough to get an idea of what such an aircraft looked like 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now