Bell Green......

[JohnB]

Looking at color photos in publications such as the "P-39 Airacobra in Detail and Scale" and on-line photos of both restored a/c and original color photos of P-39's you will see a green that is not the usual Interior Green and seems to only be used on Bell a/c. In the D&S book it is called "Bell Green" so, for want of a better description, that is what I call it. I thought I'd post some info here to shed a little light on that color since, as far as I know, there isn't a reference anywhere as to it's FS595 shade. Since I've built several P-39's and P-63's I decided I needed to find a "mix" that would approximate Bell Green. Here is my interpretation of the paints needed to make your own Bell Green. I expect some of you might disagree as to what the color actually is but bear in mind this is only MY take on it. You might want to go a different route.

 

 

[Peterpools]

HI John

I checked my color reference and of course, there is no specification for Bell Green. it is very much like Dark Dull Green and Bronze Green which are not specified colors either.  All the variations stem from aircraft manufacturers sourcing out the anti- corrosion paint from location paint manufactures who all worked from the actual military specifications for interior green, which is a mix of at least 10 separate chemicals. Due to both war time shortages and how the specifications were interpretated, the final interiors colors were different.  I also read that one of the chemicals/additives was used in steel armor plating production and there was a shortage of it and the military diverted all of it to steel armor production, so the color of interior green changed again. Bell even produced the P-47G for stateside training and its interior colors differed from Republic in Farmingdale for those reasons.    

Best recommendation I read was to try and match the color as best as you can which doesn't help, as restoration aircraft had to guess at the colors as well.

Wish I could come up with a better answer.

 

[JohnB]

5 hours ago, Peterpools said:

HI John

I checked my color reference and of course, there is no specification for Bell Green. it is very much like Dark Dull Green and Bronze Green which are not specified colors either.  All the variations stem from aircraft manufacturers sourcing out the anti- corrosion paint from location paint manufactures who all worked from the actual military specifications for interior green, which is a mix of at least 10 separate chemicals. Due to both war time shortages and how the specifications were interpretated, the final interiors colors were different.  I also read that one of the chemicals/additives was used in steel armor plating production and there was a shortage of it and the military diverted all of it to steel armor production, so the color of interior green changed again. Bell even produced the P-47G for stateside training and its interior colors differed from Republic in Farmingdale for those reasons.    

Best recommendation I read was to try and match the color as best as you can which doesn't help, as restoration aircraft had to guess at the colors as well.

Wish I could come up with a better answer.

 

Answer? I wasn't looking for answers, just trying to provide some modeling information for anyone building a P-39 or P-63. I'm very familiar with what you said in your post and was trying to provide a color "mix" for Bell Green. Maybe I should have said "I usually use Testor's but it would probably work okay with others." 🙄

[Peterpools]

Sorry John

I should have read your post more carefully and not jump into my explanation. I finished researching the interior and exteriors colors for the Jug I am working on and all the information was still rattling around in my head. 

 

[JohnB]

Thanks Martin for moving this thread to the right spot.