Colour of front wheel bay of Me 262 B-1a/U1

[freeeze]

Hi all!

 

I'm potentially about to open a can of worms. I'm currently building the Me 262 B-1a/U1 night fighter, and I have decals for the Red 8 or Red 10. After some research online, I found that the Red 8 is on display in Johannesburg, and that it has been repainted a few times over the years. Pictures of the restored aircraft (e.g. here, on IPMS Stockholm) show that the front wheel bay now has a reddish brown colour. However, I wonder if anyone knows if the wheel bay originally had this colour as well, or that this reddish brown is an artifact of the restoration and repainting process. All sources I can find say the wheel bays of late Me262s would have been aluminium or RLM02, but I don't see why you would repaint the front wheel bay red in that case, especially since the wheel bays of the main gear are unpainted aluminium. 

 

I hope someone can help me further.

 

Thanks in advance!

Friso

[Jochen Barett]

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, freeeze said:

but I don't see why you would repaint the front wheel bay red in that case,

looks like red oxide primer, and is very even.

 

The Me262 was a warplane with only a short expected life,  when they were restoring the Me262 at the NASM, they had to add primer between the wing spars and skins as the dissimilar metals caused corrosion.   It maybe the case that this a museum bodge to deal with a corrosion issue. 

 

You could email the museum.   I'd suggest that unpainted internals are more likely, as the Germans were trying to everything as economically as possible.  

 

I'll @SafetyDad @G.R.Morrison @David E. Brown  as they maybe to add more.

[SafetyDad]

Thanks Troy for the shout.

 

This issue isn't that easy to provide a conclusive answer for. All the decent Me 262 front wheelwell shots I can find in my references are of restored airframes, and as such, have been repainted. Interpreting contemporary B&W pictures seems to show that the nosewheel leg was painted either 66, 76 or left in bare metal.

 

At the back of my mind is something about a post-war red anti-corrosion agent applied to  Red 8 before it was shipped overseas. Look again at the IPMS Stockholm pictures - this time at the turbojet plumbing/ancillaries and you get the idea. Same colour as the wheel well? I'll see if I have more info.

 

SD 

[Werdna]

On 02/07/2022 at 10:23, freeeze said:

but I don't see why you would repaint the front wheel bay red in that case, especially since the wheel bays of the main gear are unpainted aluminium. 

 

Agree with the above.  All I would add is that in the face of a lack of proof/evidence, 'reasoning' can often be the only other fall-back position.  In that sense, and given that the materials/construction of the nose wheel bay was practically the same as the main gear bays, what need would be served by applying a different surface finish to the others.  In other words, I would be inclined to go with either 02 or unpainted for all three wheel bays.

[freeeze]

Thanks all for your help! The idea that the red colour in the nose wheel bay is some anti-corrosion paint makes sense to me, so I've decided to paint the wheel bays aluminium.