Another Spitfire Mk. XVI question

[Bert]

The Eduard kit calls for a rear section of the cockpit as being painted aluminum. Is this accurate?

[Adam Maas]

12 minutes ago, Bert said:

The Eduard kit calls for a rear section of the cockpit as being painted aluminum. Is this accurate?

Yes, the interior of the fuselage is bare aluminum aft of the rear cockpit bulkhead (ie the seat bulkhead)

[warhawk]

Was this practice of painting Spit cockpits aluminum aft of the rear cockpit bulkhead introduced from the start of Spitfire production? 

I also see it on some restored Vs and IXs.

 

 

[Peter Roberts]

26 minutes ago, warhawk said:

Was this practice of painting Spit cockpits aluminum aft of the rear cockpit bulkhead introduced from the start of Spitfire production? 

I also see it on some restored Vs and IXs.

 

 

 

Yes. A modification was introduced at some point (don’t have details to hand - it is listed in Morgan and Shacklady, Spitfire the History) to stop painting the interior of the fuselage aluminium and to leave it in bare metal, but I think the effect would be similar on a model (to my eyes at least).

 

Interior of panels (eg Cowlings, wing gun panels, undercarriage doors) were also painted aluminium, as was the area in the wheel well where the leg retracted, though the wheel well area and undercarriage doors could differ with repainting at Squadron level when standards changed

Edited December 28, 2021 by Peter Roberts

[warhawk]

What I meant is was this rear part of the cockpit ever painted Green?

 

 

 

source: Anatomy of the Spitfire’s Cockpit at Spitfiresite

 

[spitfire]

 

Not 100% on this question but looking through my Edgar files found these which convinced me to paint the fuselage aft of the seat bulkhead silver on any Spitfires that I build, on a model the difference between silver paint and bare aluminium would be slight.

 

Posted 08 March 2014 - 06:06 PM

Behind the seat bulkhead didn't count as part of the cockpit; spill, or drop, something, and it's easier to see on silver than green.
Just to confuse matters, though, later in the war the area did go green, but, on a V, it should still have been the original silver.
Edgar

 

From 13-9-43, painting of the interior of the rear fuselage interior, on the IX only, was deleted. The cockpit green extended back to (and included) frame 12 (the former at the rear of the non-sliding glass.) From there it was n/m. As far as I can find out, it had been silver, before then, anyway, but I need a copy of a particular drawing to be absolutely sure.
Edgar

 

Posted 27 September 2013 - 08:22 PM

The drawing 30000 sht. 28D says:-
"For this machine all components & parts are to be finally protected with one coat of UP1 undercoat grey followed by a finishing coat pigmented with aluminium to D.T.D. 63A unless otherwise stated in the following list."
The list gives green for the cockpit, of course, which, at some later stage, was extended to include the rest of the interior.
Aluminium alloy parts, after working, and before priming, were to be anodised; the only mention of chromate comes for magnesium castings, and even they still followed that with grey undercoat, with silver over the top.
It's a pure guess, but the silver might have been discontinued due to ingredient shortages, which are mentioned in a 1943 lecture on the subject.
Wooden parts were white enamel, but still over the ubiquitous grey primer.
Edgar
 

Cheers

 

Dennis