Martin interior colours

[English Electric]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get some help with interior colours on Martin aircraft - specifically the Marauder, Maryland and Baltimore.

It's probably best to say what I understand about the colours in each and then be corrected as necessary (be gentle), but any input is really appreciated.

Martin Maryland - I'm building the Frog kit in its SAAF colours for another forum. There's been various suggestions on what's inside, but it seems that aluminium lacquer may be correct for both cockpit/fuselage interiors as well as wheel wells etc. Is this the case or would Interior green/Zinc Chromate Primer be more correct?

Martin Baltimore - I have no clue at all, but I would suggest as above (whatever is correct). I also have a Frog version of one of these I'm looking to start soon.

Martin Marauder - This seems to be the hardest to pin down. I've heard that they were matt black in the cockpit for everything above the instrument panel, together with seats/centre console/throttles/yokes, bronze green on the cockpit sides and interior (based on the colour of the padding used), aluminium lacquer on bulkheads, neutral grey in wheel wells/undercarriage. How accurate again is this - there appears to be various combinations, and getting it right isn't easy

What also is suggested is that Martin didn't use the standard primer colours found in USA aircraft of the time - especially in the Marauder... and to cap it all off - Martin may have used aluminium lacquer with an ingredient that makes it blue - a la Aotake. Was this common?

In short - help!

Thanks in advance

Chris

[dad's lad]

There's quite a famous colour picture of an RAF Baltimore taken I think on Malta that looks up through the bomb aimer's position and clearly shows what looks like a fairly yellowish colour (zinc chromate?) I can't find it on the internet at the moment though.

Clive

[Steven Eisenman]

Maryland: These very well could have had aluminum lacquer interiors, as most were taken from the French order and the French were to receive them in NMF. The only interior shots I have show an aluminum interior.

Baltimore, cockpit was most likely Bronze Green or Pine Green. The pictures I have show a dark cockpit. The rest of the aircraft interio could be aluminum lacquer. Although a lighter green could have been used.

Here is the nose pic, not much info from this. NOTE: There is no metal framing on the nose. So no frame lines should be painted.

As for the Marauder:

Marauders were unique...

June 20 2005 at 4:54 PM Dana Bell (Login DanaBellColors)

HyperScale Forums

from IP address 160.111.254.11

You're right about Marauders being a zinc-chromate-free zone. I've got only a few pieces of the story, and there's much more to find, but Martin B-26s were produced with a unique painting system. From the little I've found in documents, Martin was allowed to use some form of anodic coating with no primers. If your aircraft was camouflaged at the factory (as most/all short-wings were), chances are good that no primer came between the paint and the skin - all part of the waiver granted to Martin.

Interiors weren't supposed to be painted - cockpits carried insulation that was died either (probably) Dull Dark Green or (possibly) Olive Drab. Bomb bays were often painted Neutral Gray, but I can only guess that this was because the area took added abuse and needed additional protection (?).

[English Electric]

Fantastic - that pretty much confirms what I'd heard about all three!! The Marauders really are a pain... lovely looking aircraft though and definitely one of my favourites

Many thanks for your help guys

Chris

[Steven Eisenman]

Oh yes, anyone else notice that the underside color appears to have been applied over the top side colors, which appear to wrap around. Note the masked off stencil and the thin application of blue over MS.

[Tom Hall]

Having revisited this thread last night, I would like to dust it off as to the Martin Marauder.

Yes, the Marauder is tricky as to details. It's tricky for at least three reasons: (1) It was produced a fairly long time, during which there were many significant change orders; (2) It was built at two different factories, one in Maryland and the other, which opened in the summer of 1942, in Nebraska. The Nebraska plant did not do everything exactly as the Maryland plant did. Indeed, they sought to distinguish that plant's work with the designation "B-26C" as opposed to "B-26B" (Marauder Ia); (3) It was a very expensive plane with a number of atypical features.

I cannot speak much for the "A" (Marauder I) and later variants. In the 1980s, I visited David Tallichet's B-26 (of the plain B-26 series before the "A", as were the unhappy fuselages outside his hangar). In the hangar was a B-26 well along in its restoration. (It is now owned by Kermit Weeks in Florida.) Its bomb bay doors were open and I looked up into the the bomb bay. What struck me initially was that it seemed as if the owner, who had already repainted the exterior, had stripped the bomb bay interior or reskinned it! Once inside the plane, I could see that the bomb bay, including the catwalk, was still mostly in its original coating, as seen from chipping and dirt. It occurred to me then that modellers would have a problem with its colour.

Who has written that the bomb bay was Neutral Gray 43, and did that person specify the variant?

[Steve N]

Here's what I've been able to come up with regarding Marauder interiors. As mentioned, Martin did NOT use zinc chromate, or its "tinted" form better known as "interior green." The insides of Marauders were mostly unpainted, with black anti-skid coating on the floors, and dark green padding in the crew compartments. Seats, intrument panel, and control console are black. Seat cushions are bright yellow. It seems the bomb bays, wheel wells, and landing gear were painted neutral gray on camoflaged aircraft, but were left bare metal once camo was deleted at the factory level.

Here are some pics I've collected over the years of the Smithsonian's B-26B "Flak Bait." Most of her is still in storage, but the forward fuselage has been on display since the late 1070s..and is subject to continued abuse by grubby-handed tourists who seem intent on removing all the original paint (sorry, I've got a bit of an axe to grind with the museum over this.) Some of these pics were taken by me, others were collected from the internet.

First up, the forward fuselage:

Note the green padding (much of it faded to a muddy brown) and what appears to be a black armor plate.

The navigator/radio compartment. bare metal bulkheads and seats, fabric padded sides and ceiling, and black flooring.

This is what I meant by the tourists who can't seem to keep their hands off her. You can see how much paint has been worn away around the windows and aft edge of the fuselage. And when I was there in the space of a half-hour I saw at least a dozen people who instisted on counting the bomb missions by tapping them with their fingers. Note the black floor in the radio room.

The radioman's station. Seat looks more like aluminum lacquer than bare metal.

Cockpit. This came out of an old issue of "Famous Airplanes of the World."

[Steve N]

Moving on to the rest of the fuselage, in storage. This is the bulkhead separating the radio/nav compartment from the bomb bay. You can see areas of that blue-tinted coating.

The forward bomb bay. Definitely neutral gray. That's one of the nosewheel doors on the right, and some other bit on the left. It looks like some of the miscellaneous bits were just stuffed in the fuselage for storage.

Bomb racks are bare metal.

Looking back into the aft fuselage. There does appear to be some zinc chromate lurking back in there, but considering Flak Bait's very long and hard service life, it may be a repair/rapaint. Again, you can see what appear to be wing leading edge sections lying on the floor.

This is the tail gun controller. The bulkhead is a bit of a conundrum..it looks to be some sort of green..maybe because it's steel, which rusts a bit more readilly than aluminum (paint would also prevent dissimillar metal corrosion.)

And the tail gun area itself. unpainted mechanism and rusted steel armor plate (with green tinted armor glass window) but there's a lot of green in there as well. Possibly olive drab since it was highly visible from outside?

Cheers!

Steve

[Iain Wyllie]

nt

Edited August 4, 2014 by Iain Wyllie

[Tom Hall]

Yes, thank you for the photos of Flak Bait. According to Wikipedia, Flak Bait was a Martin B-26B-25-MA completed in April 1943. Wikipedia also says that she was built in Maryland, and I agree.

The plane I was in was a B-26 built maybe 20 months before that. Its bomb bay was roughly the same colour scheme. I'm not sure that all of the grays in either plane are Neutral Gray No. 43, however.