MickE Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 I have just started Academy's Grumman F3F-2 and the instructions say to paint the cockpit interior silver and so does the instruction sheet for the Accurate Miniatures kit. However, pictures on the Internet show the cockpit painted in light grey and the Eduard Zoom etch set has the side panels and part of the instrument panel in dark grey. Does anyone know what the colour should be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ltdann Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 Silver for sure 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 @Tailspin Turtle will know for sure, but I believe the cockpits were all aluminum. Museum examples and those built by John Tischler might have had grey cockpits, but his were all replicas, not original airframes. Tommy will know. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickE Posted October 9, 2022 Author Share Posted October 9, 2022 Thanks guys I did wonder if the aircraft in museums and collections were truly representative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 Aluminized lacquer with a "black" instrument panel and bit/boxes. For much, much more, see: http://www.ginterbooks.com/NAVAL/NF112.htm 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 1 hour ago, Tailspin Turtle said: Aluminized lacquer with a "black" instrument panel and bit/boxes. For much, much more, see: http://www.ginterbooks.com/NAVAL/NF112.htm I highly recommend the above, NF112, Grumman F2F/F3F And Civilian Variants. It's very well detailed! It's also the best source of F2F info. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Bell Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 There's a simple trick to understanding most of the Navy's interwar cockpit colors - if the exterior of an aluminum fuselage was Light Gray enamel, the interior would be the same. (Aluminum enamels and lacquers didn't adhere well to the Navy's primers.) Once the Navy switched to zinc chromate primer and aluminum lacquer exteriors beginning in 1936/37, the interiors switched to the same color. As noted above, the F3F-2 came with the aluminized lacquers. (Of course, everything got messier in 1939/40 with the introduction of the greens...) Cheers, Dana 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmaas Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 One caveat to Dana's response - at least some F3F's had an 'anti-glare' addition to the cockpit sidewalls. Of course, the photo insertion process isn't working, but go to http://www.aviation-history.com/grumman/f3f-3a.jpg and you'll see that the forward part of the sidewall is black. No idea when this started in the production process. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickE Posted October 26, 2022 Author Share Posted October 26, 2022 Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ltdann Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 Correct, the F3F-3 had the sidewalls forward of Station 8 painted flat black. See page 101 in the Ginter book. Roughly the front half of the cockpit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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