B-17G Flying Fortress paint help

Green... But don't get too wrapped up in it... It depends on if you're doing a NMF or OD/Grey G-model... Most of the interior of NMF late Gs with the Cheyenne tail weren't primed with zinc chromate except in very select areas, most of which were the inside the wings, stabs, nacelles, and such, and unseen... I think this is the old kit with the E/F/early G tail though... You could go either way with a G.... Only the Pro Modeler version has the Cheyenne tail..

Also, from a purely asthetical POV (and personal taste), the yellow looks ridiculous in the waist, nose, and flight deck...  I don't do the bombbay or radio compartment either( I seem to build this kit every few years, Ive had about 8 of 'em and still have two more sitting in the hangar), they're invisible as well...

Using restored warbirds is a crapshoot as well... Some are, some aren't... The CAF's "Texas Raiders" is an OD/Grey with a completely primed interior, "Sentimental Journey", an NMF, isn't, except in the ball, tail, floors of the flightdeck and nose, and bombbay.   The flightdeck of "Sentimental Journey" has the grey quilted sound-proofing insulation on the flightdeck walls as well...

Just from what I had seen, I would say that the green zinc chromate would be the interior color.

I'd gotten to tour the inside of the B-17G on the front lawn of the Planes of Fame museum as a kid, and the interior was definately green. I think they all were, but I'll let some of the experts comment on that.

I for one can't wait to see this build unfold

It really depends on where the plane was built. Also, some planes were "Frankensteins", meaning they were build from many planes. One story that stickis in my mind is a B-17 that always had to be heavily trimmed because the tail end weighed so much! Turns out they salvaged two B-17s from different factories to build one. You could find multiple interior colors on one plane, just depends what they had handy. Yellow Zinc Chromate, Green Zinc Chromate, Interior Green, Bronze Green, Dark Dull Green, NMF you name it! Check this article out for a better idea!

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/01/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm

True dat... One of the more famous ones was the 91 BGs "Little Miss Mischief" that was an NMF plane but the entire tail from the wings back was OD/Grey after flak took out the ball turret... It also had an OD/Grey left outter wing

This is why:

Note what the flak did to the barrel of one of the .50s... Don't wanna think about what was left of the gunner..

Hans von Hammer wrote:

True dat... One of the more famous ones was the 91 BGs "Little Miss Mischief" that was an NMF plane but the entire tail from the wings back was OD/Grey..

Really? I member seeing pictures of that plane- I thought it was just an odd paint job, since later in the war alotta the aircraft started getting flashier paint jobs.

Imagine that....

I'm go on record here.........do not use yellow zinc chromate! Your best bet would be either dull dark green or interior green for the nose flight deck and radio room, the waist area was often unpainted. BUT that depends on the exact model of the a/c. Dont forget, very late F models DID have chin turrets as a result of the YB-40. Early G models did not have cheek guns because they figured the chin guns would make them unneeded. To my knowledge, E models were painted inside, most F's and some early G's were aas well, late G's were mostly not painted inside. I would say that that you would be wrong to use yellow zinc for the interior of a B-17, I have never seen anything to show it in a combat trimmed B-17. Also, I would go with dull dark green and interior green mixed into differant areas just make things stand out a bit more and a little bit of green zinc on differant things. I'm building 2 of that kit right now, I mix the differant colors into the same areas of the plane (i.e., interior green filght deck with green zinc pilot/co-pilot seats with a bit of a wash on anything green zinc to tone it down a bit)

Curious to see your build as it goes. Have you decided on makings yet?

I'll add my $.02...

After seeing the waistgun pics DesertRat posted and camera flash notwithstanding, I'm comparing the color to a bottle of Testor's "1164 flat green" I have and it looks pretty durn close IMHO...

And in 1/48, after the usual wash/weathering, it should appear darker and work well...

For  my money, none of the B-17's, with the possible exception of the British B-17C's, were painted any shade of green.

I've seen pictures of the early 17's with a dark green, quilted sound proofing material, from the bombardier position to the radio room. I believe that this was deleted as a fire hazard.

The bomb bays and the waist positions don't ever appear, to me anyway, to have any all over coat of green. I have pictures of the waist positions of the major models, E, F, and G that shows them to be unpainted. You can read the stenciling denoting what type aluminum it is, in this case Alclad 24S-T.

There is a beautiful wartime color photo of a B-17G  waist gun position with the framed, enclosed windows that the Monogram kit has. It shows the area to be unpainted.

And if you look closely at the waist position in Hans von Hammer's 'Little Miss Mischief' reply, you'll notice you can see the reflection of the ribs on the skin.

Is it true that all 17's were unpainted inside? ... No! But my reasearch indicates than most 17's were unpainted.

HTH

Tony H.

Wow thanks guys for all that info, think I'm going with an aluminum over all finish.  I have gone with green zinc for the insides.

One of my grandfathers was in a Flying Fortress during WW2, he was a radio op.

And if you look closely at the waist position in Hans von Hammer's 'Little Miss Mischief' reply, you'll notice you can see the reflection of the ribs on the skin.

Keep in mind that LMM, after that photo, was fitted with an earlier Fort's rear fuselage that could very well have been ZC covered... I don't know if the rear fuselage came from a Boeing, Douglas, or Vega-built Fort, it may not even be one from a 91st BG aircraft So it's a crap-shoot... My guess would be that the tail turret was likely unpainted, as it appears to be form LMM herself, as is the tail-group. 

At any rate, if you model a specific bird that there's a few interior shots of, you won't be "wrong"... My personal tastes run towards putting a contrasting color into the interiors of Forts, but only where the interior is easily viewed...  I do dioramas only, so viewing angles are limited, and I don't bother with stuff that can't be seen.  I used to, but it's a waste of time/material, IMHO... Paint's getting expensive these days... Also, not putting every detail included in a kit into the model is how you build up that spares box, knowwhutImean, Vern?

One of my grandfathers was in a Flying Fortress during WW2, he was a radio op.

I'm partial to the Fort as well like that. I had three uncles that crewed Forts (only one is still alive, Uncle Stan), one a pilot( Bud), the other two were gunners (Stan & Ronnie).  Stan & Ronnie didn't know each other but both were in the same Bomb Group as tail gunners. Stan was my Dad's brother-in-law, Ronnie, my mom's brother.  They never met until my folks' wedding in 1946... Stan and Ronnie were both great sources of B-17 stories and photos, especially Stan, who was a camera freak all his life...He's shown me a number that he took from the tail while in flight... Said it was the best seat in the house for a camera-bug...  He's promised me a large portion of his WW2 photos when he passes, hopefully not any time soon, but he's gettin' up there... Still works at Ace Hardware though. He's 88 and still pretty spry, he'll probably out-live me...