British contract Bostons: interior colours please

[Seahawk]

I've started an early (W-serialled) Boston III.  I believe (pse correct if I'm wrong) that these were ordered against a British contract and that therefore the fuselage interior would be UK interior green.  But what of other interior areas like the wheel wells and engine cowling interiors?  Zinc chromate yellow?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Troy Smith]

Hmm, IIRC there is/are ex British contract Boston(s) in Australia,  I think the chap on Australian Bostons is @Sydhuey

 

whty, well they got early British contract Bostons

Quote

For the Boston III's all I can say is K.I.S.S., simplistic is good and yes the Dupont versions of Dark Green , Dark Earth and Sky for the Boeing built machines and Fuller paint for the Douglas built machines is spot on, there was nothing special about these aircraft they were taken off the tail end of the RAF contract as an interim filler for the Dutch till there DB-7C's were ready, only thing marking wise was "Kon Marine" painted on nose and the Dutch triangles over the RAF markings, the serial number batch was Boeing build AL347-AL369 and Douglas build AL887- AL907, if you see pictures of RAF machines with serial numbers close to these they will all be the same only variation would be machines going to the mid east had there Green overpainted, Now once the machines got into action in New Guinea from the beginning of 43 there was a shortage of paint so you will see patches in Australian Dark Green, Olive Drab and Australian Foliage Green, as they lived outside in the tropics fading was a major issue, but if an Aircraft went back to 3 AD at RAAF Amberley( were all the over hauls/rebuilds of Bostons took place , they had at least 3 wrecked Bostons there as a parts source (A28-19, A28-4 and A28-2) they came out in the standard original colours (look at the photo above of DU-Y, A28-18 this aircraft came out of a complete rebuild in late 43 and was delivered to the sqn in Jan 44 this photo was taken in Mar 44 you can see the colours are crisp and unfaded, the Boston III's stayed in there 3 colour schemes there whole lives (or as close to as possible), the A-20C's were a mixed bag some were in the three colour scheme (A28-25 DU-N) but most were in Std Olive Drab over neutral Grey (A28-23 DU-O, A28-24 DU-P, A28-28 DU-U ,A28-30 DU-W), these aircraft had quit rough paint jobs with the old stars and bars painted out with olive drab and various patches in whatever shade of a dark green they could get, The A-20A's just stayed in std US Olive Drab Over Natural Grey and the A-20G's were the same though the initial batch of G's had nicely applied markings you can not see the old stars and bars etc but latter batches ended up more like the C models with whatever paint they could get , also marking became lazy only the a/c serial number not the A number was added to latter a/c eg, DU-V was only 67 not A28-67, and some had lower wing roundels some didn't. A28-60 DU-P "Hilda Shane" the CO's aircraft I have been told was kept immaculate until its loss in the Bombing raid on 22 Nov 44.

A28-8 undergoing restoration as can be seen after 60 years the colours are still quite good , US Fuller Dark Green, Dark Earth and Sky (A28-8 Douglas built)

 

 If you compare to the picture of the Japanese Boston AL904 the schemes are very close A28-8 is AL907

 

the interior parts visible look like a version of grey-green, not zinc chromate

[Dave Fleming]

FWIW purchase Hudson’s were grey green

[Learstang]

So any British Bostons that were sent to the Soviet Union would have had British interior green not some version of zinc chromate? Would the same apply for the Bell P-400 Airacobras?

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[Seahawk]

Thanks.  I'm happy that the fuselage interior was MAP Grey Green (or a close relative thereof) though grateful for the confirmation.  Still not sure I have a definite answer regarding the wheel wells and engine cowling interiors.  Unless anyone comes up with any better information, I'll go with Grey Green for them as well, based on the colour of the exposed fuselage skin beneath the wing root shown in Troy's photo.

[Troy Smith]

11 hours ago, Learstang said:

So any British Bostons that were sent to the Soviet Union would have had British interior green not some version of zinc chromate? Would the same apply for the Bell P-400 Airacobras?

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

hmm, probably not

you may have forgotten this buried in a Sovietwarplanes thread

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php?topic=1714.msg19118#msg19118

note link to Russian site

which is about as good an answer as you get these days?

 

cheers

T

[spitfire]

4 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

hmm, probably not

you may have forgotten this buried in a Sovietwarplanes thread

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php?topic=1714.msg19118#msg19118

note link to Russian site

which is about as good an answer as you get these days?

 

cheers

T

There are some great photos in that link, I had missed them somehow so thank you for posting, I wonder what the fate will be of the recovered airframe, it's probably there but I cannot read Russian.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dhogue]

When I did my RAF Boston and Hudson, I did some research into export paint. I never found anything that indicated the interiors were different coming off the production line. The Hudson grey green color was what Lockheed used for their planes in general and is seen also in USN Venturas. Douglas used an interior green color that had a distinct olive drab look to it. You can see it in the color publicity photos taken at the factory. Not sure of the Bostons made by Boeing 

[Sydhuey]

On the Aussie Modeller International site is a good set of pictures of the restored DB-7B at the RAAF museum in the "Walk Arounds" section, they may give you an Idea.

[Seahawk]

Thanks, everyone: some thought-provoking reference material there.  I have just found in the Crowood Havoc and Boston book a colour photo of Havoc II AH435 at the factory and with the cockpit lid open: the interior of the pilot's cockpit Is definitely something close to MAP Grey Green.  Similar colour shot of Boston III W8268 but more distant so more indicative than conclusive.   Nothing to help on the interior of undercarriage bays and doors .

[Roger Holden]

On 05/02/2019 at 19:53, dhogue said:

 Douglas used an interior green color that had a distinct olive drab look to it.  

Indeed; that was Fuller's version of interior green which must have had more black in it.

[VH-USB]

On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 3:08 PM, Roger Holden said:

Indeed; that was Fuller's version of interior green which must have had more black in it.

Somewhere in my files I have a 1942 Fuller aircraft paint chart and it may contain a paint chip of their 'Interior Green'.

 

Tim