SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

Correct Color for Wheel Wells on Sea Hurricane?

2128 views
7 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    April 2004
Correct Color for Wheel Wells on Sea Hurricane?
Posted by giantsfanatic on Saturday, July 23, 2016 8:59 AM

I'm currently working on an Airfix 1/72 Sea Hurricane kit (Operation Torch) and it's not clear to me what color the wheel wells should be.  The instructions show the landing gear as silver and the interior of the landing gear doors as green but there is no color callout of what color to paint the wheel wells themselves.

Should the wheel wells be green? Silver? Some other color?

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Saturday, July 23, 2016 9:22 AM

I don't know much about British aircrfat, but i just need a quick search and i believe all hawker aircrfat had the wheels legs and whel wells painted Aluminium.

Check post number 4 here.

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/hurricane-mkii-colors.33272/

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    April 2010
Posted by Theuns on Saturday, July 23, 2016 9:28 AM

Most Hawker planes I have seen, (even worked on Hunters) had a silver paint on the inside of the wheel wells and sometimes the UC doors aswell.

 

I would recon silver would be good for you.

 

Theuns

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Saturday, July 23, 2016 9:39 AM

Not sure on the wells- I have also seen them painted some paint as bottom of wings and fuselage.

But, the issue of the LG legs is a complicated issue. On most modern aircraft, after the invention of the oleo strut, the landing gears contain several hues, and this is an area to do some research.  Sometimes the gear leg was left as a casting, which is matt, not shiny.  Sometimes it is painted.  Originally many land-based planes were left unpainted, but shipboard planes were almost always painted.  The colors cover the rainbow, including aluminum paint.  This treatment includes the fork or axle assembly, the area below the oleo.  The oleo strut was a combination air spring and hydraulic shock absorber.  There is a piston, that attaches to the top of the assembly that holds the axle. It is a stainless steel  tube, and polished highly, because it goes inside a seal and you want that seal to last and not leak air or hydraulic fluid.  As a result, it is very shiny, and can be done with alclad (probably too much work for such a small area), a good gloss silver or chrome, or a little strip of BMF wrapped around the piston.

The lower assembly, below this piston, would be free to turn, and the plane wouldn't track straight, so there is a scissor assembly to allow it to move up and down, but not rotate.  This assembly is usually steel with some sort of coating, not chrome, but maybe a lessor material- zinc, cadmium or whatever, or else painted.  The treatment of this scissor assembly varies from airplane to airplane.  Additionally, there is a brake line that goes from the LG hinge down the strut, with a flexible hose section where the oleo is. It is usually not furnished but is an area you can add if you want to super-detail your model.  This hose was most commonly black.

So you see, a landing gear is actually quite a complicated piece of gear (especially as you include the retract mechanism.  An important part, too.  A navy fighter my company was working on at the time I left for another job (but is still a top line aircraft) had a landing gear that was 30% of the weight of the empty aircraft (not including engines or avionics)! 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • From: ON, Canada
Posted by jgeratic on Saturday, July 23, 2016 10:31 AM

Going by what has been posted in the past in other forums, particularly by those who have researched in earnest, the wells were painted aluminum at the factory.  It was close to a flat finish, not shiny.

If the undersurfaces were repainted at squadron level, it is likely the unit did not bother masking the wells, and the whole area was sprayed in the new paint colour.

regards,

Jack

  • Member since
    April 2004
Posted by giantsfanatic on Sunday, July 24, 2016 11:51 AM

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Sunday, July 24, 2016 12:35 PM

Don Stauffer

 A navy fighter my company was working on at the time I left for another job (but is still a top line aircraft) had a landing gear that was 30% of the weight of the empty aircraft (not including engines or avionics)! 

Sounds like the Skyhawk to me.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: North Pole, Alaska
Posted by richs26 on Monday, July 25, 2016 12:48 AM

Actually the Sea Hurricanes were taken from RAF stocks so they would be painted to RAF practice.  Just copy an RAF Hurricane door pattern.

http://www.armouredcarriers.com/hawker-sea-hurricane-variants/

WIP:  Monogram 1/72 B-26 (Snaptite) as 73rd BS B-26, 40-1408, torpedo bomber attempt on Ryujo

Monogram 1/72 B-26 (Snaptite) as 22nd BG B-26, 7-Mile Drome, New Guinea

Minicraft 1/72 B-24D as LB-30, AL-613, "Tough Boy", 28th Composite Group

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.