Author Topic: What color Zinc Chromate would this plane have had? (Read 555 times)

Krusty · « **on:** December 14, 2006, 10:17:36 PM »

I know there were some variations, and I've seen a few helpful webpages about ZC and its use in bombers, but I don't know too much about fighters. I'm doing a P47D11 skin. It's really a D-23 from Leyte, in Nov'44 to Jan'45. Default D11 skin has ZC as yellow. Would it be safe to leave this as-is, or do I need to change the color for the jug I'm skinning?

Greebo · « **Reply #1 on:** December 17, 2006, 04:09:28 AM »

As far as I can tell all P47s had the yellow chromate paint. Apart from the cockpit area, which was green. I read a reference to it somewhere, but would have to dig through half a dozen books to find it. Also I found a few WW2 colour photos of P47s showing the wheel and gun bays in yellow.

These days a lot of P47 warbirds have the bays in green primer, but they've probably been repainted umpteen times since WW2.

Krusty · « **Reply #2 on:** December 17, 2006, 03:09:53 PM »

Ah, thanks Greebo! Yes I'd seen some green ones, but I didn't know what the deal was. Yellow it is!

Target2 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 18, 2006, 09:21:10 AM »

From what I've read while doing research for models, what color primer was used can be difficult to know. Photo's can be misleading because what was used at depot level maintenance could be different from what was used in the factory.

I think the best bet is yellow.

Stoney74 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 18, 2006, 06:13:12 PM »

All the Republic built P-47's used Yellow Zinc Chromate throughout the plane, except for the cockpit paint, which was Medium Green. All the Curtiss built P-47's (the G models) used Green Zinc Chromate throughout the plane, including the cockpit paint. In reality, all of our Jugs should have medium green interior paint and yellow primed surfaces, even though some of the skins use green ZC for interior and primer.

Source is "P-47 in Detail and Scale" by Bert Kinzey which I highly recommend.