Shade of Paint For a B-24J

[mandoman]

Back with another stupid question. I'm nearing the painting stage of the 1/48 B-24J Liberator. I already did the B-24D a few years ago, and it was painted what appears to be olive drab. The instructions for the J say "Use picture on box cover to match for correct painting". That's a real help. It looks like aluminum, and when I try to remember what I've been told about these plains, I seem to recall that they were rigged for D-Day, and were not painted at all. Did they use aluminum on those beasties? I don't even know if they had a strong enough aluminum alloy back then. In any case, what do you experts, and amateurs, use for painting the "silver" WWII aircraft. I assume it's the same on all such models, regardless of what role they played. Thanks.

 

[T Bolt]

A B-24J could be either olive drab/neutral gray for earlier in the war or bare aluminum for later. The camouflage paint scheme is easier to do. To do bare aluminum I use floquil railroad colors 'Old Silver' then after a few days of drying mask over some of the panels and spray the whole thing 'Bright silver" If there are any solid color markings do them before the silver and mask them as solid color paint tends to lift off the silver when you pull off the masks if done on top of the silver.

 

[mandoman]

Thanks T Bolt. Great suggestions, and some of which I probably wouldn't have thought about, such as the lifting of the silver when de-masking. Thanks.

 

[Crimea_River]

If you go with the olive drab scheme, you have plenty of flexibility as the colour was known to weather irregularly and it could be anything from factory fresh O.D. to any almost light brown.

 

[Airframes]

But check on the Block number/factory, as the patterns were different between Consolidated, Ford etc.

 

[mandoman]

Well, now you're talking over my head. Since I painted the B-24D in olive drab, I think I'll go with the aluminum look with the B-24J. Besides, it's an older kit, and only comes with decals for one paint scheme, aluminum. It's good to know I have the option of olive drab, as I originally thought aluminum was my only option. Thanks.