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Correct colors for B-25B Doolittle planes


azp38

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Olive Drab 41 and Neutral Gray 43 for the exterior colors. Crew space interiors should be Bronze Green.

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This link has a film from the USAAC with 9 minutes of converted B&W film footage. The original film was color, but was transferred to B&W for mass production and distribution, but I haven't found the original footage online.

Most of the footage shows unfaded paint that has been lightly chipped in a few areas. Unfortunately,  the yellow cowl rings from the 1944 movie weren't really there. The aircraft were all fairly new and went thru modifications at Mid Continent in Feb 42 and final mods at Sacramento between March 27-31 which may explain their fresh look, as they'd only been used in trying at Eglin for about 3 weeks. HTH, James

 

Edited by jcorley
Corrected li k
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Some pics to help you. BTW....some were a bit "weathered" by the time of the raid.

h53421.jpg

h53423.jpg

Page 33.jpg

h53425.jpg

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As others have mentioned, Olive Drab on top and Neutral Gray on the bottom.  These planes were fairly new, but they had bee worked hard, so they exhibited a lot of fading and touch-ups.  The fabric control surfaces were also faded to a lighter color than the rest of the plane.  Many, if not all, had the forward cowl rings painted in a darker, fresh Olive Drab to cover up the squadron colors.  The yellow prop blade tips were also overpainted with black (I'm assuming because the raid was originally planned to be a night attack.)

As for the interior, as I understand it the cockpit and nose compartments were Bronze Green (a dark, blueish green.)  Bomb bay and wheel wells were unpainted aluminum or silver lacquer (including the insides of the gear and bomb bay doors.)  Everything aft of the bomb bay would be Tinted Zinc Chromate (US Interior Green would suffice for modeling purposes.)

 

Cheers!

Steve N  IPMS #30925

 

 

 

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