RAF interior colours

[ezio]

Dear colleagues,

I've been discussing on this topic with Italian modelers but the informations we have are fragmentary and discordant.

As general rule from an Italian famous modelers handbook we have:

• from 1918 to the end of the thirties - panel colors according the materials (wood, linen etc.)
  
• from the end of the thirties to a date unknown - Red Oxide Metal Primer 30109
  
• from a date unknown to mid fifties - Grey Green 34226
  
• from mid fifties to seventies (?) - Night Black 37038
  
• from mid seventies on - several greys
  

Now I wonder if there existed a standard or a rule for these colurs or if each company used a colour of each own.
For the Bison I'm building I chose to paint the pilot cockpit aluminium and the crew vane wooden because I read in Putnam book on Avro planes that the structure was steel tubes and wooden panels with an external aluminium paint coating.

I know that the rule above is a simple rule of thumb and for this reason that now I'd like to analyse thoroughly because I'm preparing an article for my local IPMS branch.
Is there anybody who can help me?

Many thanks in advance

Ezio

IPMS Italy

[Rob Monfea]

Hi Ezio,

I don't think there's a simple answer to your question - sorry.

Most UK built WWII aircraft had interior Grey/Green (equivalent to BS283) Although Matt black was also popular with some manufacturers (e.g. Hawker) for various parts of the cockpit.

US built aircraft tended to have various shades of zinc chromate (depending on manufacturer).

Modern day RAF aircraft cockpits are generally finished in Admiralty Grey.

Hope this adds something,

Rob M.

[ezio]

Thank you Rob. I hoped there was a standard which prescribed the interior colours and that the companies had to follow.
You say that hawker planes used black but you mean before the war like the Osprey, Hart, Hind and so on or even the Hurricane?
I've always been thinking that the Hurricane interiors were grey green like the Spitfire and the Mosquito...

Ezio

[Rob Monfea]

Hi Ezio,

Some of the late war Hawker aircraft (e.g. Typhoon) had a combination of grey-green (lower half of cockpit and Matt black (shoulders up).

Cheers,

Rob

[ezio]

Thank you Rob every information added is a great help and a step towards the try.

ezio

[hartd]

I think Rob is right to say it's a complex picture, Ezio, and I suspect that your conclusion that it's aircraft by aircraft has some merit at least up to WWII. One colour that was used on aircraft (seaplanes for sure but I think more widely) before WWII was white. I know this was used on some prewar metal aircraft, but maybe not for the whole interior. Another apparent colour which some writers have ascribed to early post WWI aircraft is a sort of dirty pink which is actually the red oxide based undercoat showing through. But this is a reference to model articles and I've never seen this effect on a real airframe. Shuttleworth is a good place to go to get close to RAF aircraft from WWI onwards, finished in as authentic markings as you are likely to get.
David H

[rossm]

It even depended on the manufacturer - I have a letter from a Hampden navigator stating (about Hampdens):

"Interiors were initially in matt medium grey but English Electric built models (starting P2062) were in light cockpit green."

[ezio]

Thank you Rossm and Hartd, now it's more and more clearer that I have to check plane by plane at least before WWII.
I found in the web the site you adviced me to visit (http://www.shuttleworth.org/shuttleworth_aircraft.asp). I've seen that there's the Dragon Rapide, one of my favourites since I was a child.

Ezio