interior colour of fabric on a late 30s mixed construction monoplane?

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi Chasp - sorry its a bit general but am painting a fuslage interior - which wont be readily visible - so I need a plausible answer. Would fabric covered areas of the fuselage tend to be painted in whatever internal colour was used - or left in a "natural" state, with the dope colour showing through?

Cheers

Jonners

[Old Man]

Depends, Sir.

Fabric will be bleached or un-bleached, or in other words, basically white or buff.

If the doping scheme used a color-less dope for the first couple of coats, there would be no bleed-through of the final colored dope coats, and the fabric would remain its original shade. The R.A.F. used as its initial coats a dope pigmented to brick red with iron oxide, and this bled through to show a pink shade, usually with a streaky appearance. The U.S. air services at this time used bleached linen, and initial coats of color-less dope, so fabric interiors would be more or less white.

I have never seen any indication of interior fabric surfaces being painted.

[Mike]

Not exactly the exact timeframe, but I was looking at some pics of a Chippie with its underside inspection panels unzipped and hanging down. They were a sort of mottled pink colour, allowing for fading over time

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

cheers chaps - gives me enough to go on!

decision will be made on which looks best with the light grey interior!

Jonners