Hi
I am probably asking an old question but
I am doing the xtrakit MK22 and they say that the seat should be green but it has a backrest cushion.
What colour should the seat and backrest cushion be ???

Now running for cover................................................


Brian

The backrest cushion was black leather in all Spitfires. I'm not sure whether the Mk.22 had a bakelite seat or not. If you decide it did, the only visible bakelite was the seat pan and the portion of the back that was not covered by the cushion. The outside and bottom had a metal support which was the usual cockpit green. If the seat was metal, of course it would be overall green apart from the cushion.

here is a quote from the spitfire forums about the seats:

"It's a common misconception that the plastic seat replaced the metal; it didn't, in fact mod 189 stated, specifically," To introduce the plastic seat as alternative design to assist production and provide alternative manufacture," and it was incorporated onto the production line from May 14th., 1940.
19-41-42, mod 522 was "To strengthen plastic seat." (this is the metal 'bucket' referred to)
In 1945, mod 1117 "To strengthen seat to enable "Q" type harness to be embodied" had the added note "4B essential on fitment of mod 922 if pilot's seat is metal or plastic and has a wall thickness of less than .15" " This seems to indicate the metal seat stayed in production, throughout, in fact I have found drawings, in the RAF Museum library, for metal seats in the Spitfire and Seafire, with post-war mods added to them.
Incidentally, mod 922 was for the introduction of the "QK" harness, which was still a Sutton, not, as so many believe, one with a quick-release parachute-type box; that was the "QS," which came in August 1946.
"

So there you go, the answer is "definitely maybe." Paint it however you like and the colour police cannot possibly prove you wrong.

lol :-)

LOL
Thanks for the prompt replies.
I now know what colour (I think) and also which seatbelts to add


Brian

In the 24s, at Duxford and Hendon, both seats are the dark red of the plastic (not bakelite - some civil servant should have been shot for calling it that) seat. Strengthened seats had green buckets; normal seats were all red.
Edgar
This should give you an idea:-

As you can see, two straps were attached to the corners, the left one normally had the parachute-style connection box. Two more straps went through a bracket, behind the pilot's neck, on the head armour, then dropped down behind the seat. This was the "ZB" harness, and, by the time of the 22/24, the straps were probably a medium blue.

Well, I'll be darned. Here, I always thought Spitfire seats were either metal or wood; whichever was available. Who'd have known plastic played a part.

I thought plastic came about in the late fifties, when they tried to un-child proof my metal toys for the sake of the economy.

the bubble canopies of P-51Ds and later P-47s are clear plastic (the late mark spitfires too, i imagine). The nose cones of later B-17s and also the B-26 too (plexiglass/clear acrylic is a type of plastic). lots of plastics in use during WWII actually.

Chemist's hat on.....sorry Lampie.
The first plastic was produced just up the road from me here in Birmingham in 1856 by Alexander Parkes. Being a modest chap he called it Parkesine though we'd know it as Celluloid.
Bakelite,which a Spitfire seat is most definitely not made of,was invented in the U.S. in 1907.
P.V.C. Polystyrene and most famously Nylon all pre-date WWII as does synthetic rubber which was produced in huge quantities throughout the war.
Cheers
Steve