I would like to know what color primer was used by Polish aircraft manufacturers during the War.

Were they similar to the interior green as used by the British, or were they more of a chromate based color like the US used?

Or were they something else entirely?

Sorry to be pedantic, and I don't know about Polish primers, but the British primer colour was probably grey grey primer (certainly on Spitfires- Edgar Brooks found documentation, see below).

On early Spitfires, maybe other types, interior non-cockpit areas had a top coat of aluminium paint over the grey primer. The cockpits had a top coat of, as you say, interior grey green over the primer. Canvas was primed in a dark red dope, I think, then given a coat of aluminum paint on the outside, then the top coat colour (e.g. camouflage colours).

See Edgar's post here:
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234947393-primer-colour/?p=1416805

Hi Max

Hopefully Antoni will spot this and have an informed answer. Among the Polish interior colours I've noted from builds have been silver, various greys and a darker blue-grey.

All the best

Rowan

Ryszard may know a well. Maybe pm him?

Most kit manufactures (apart from Mirage) state aluminium. There are photographs that show this was not so on production aircraft.

Warren A Eberspacher & Jan Koniarek did a lot of research in order to build a replica P.11c (2/3 IIRC). They state that grey was the standard on all Polish military aircraft of the inter-war years apart from some trainers and reconnaissance aircraft. The PZL P.11c and PWS 26 in the Krakow museum have light grey interiors but there may be some that will argue it is not authentic of original. The P.11 has the cockpit interior grey as well as the seat and interior of the cowling ring. Some parts are aluminium such as the cage that encloses the seat.

Photographs of the interior of a PZL P.37 Łoś captures by the Soviets show it was painted in quite a dark colour. Some Polish modellers believe this was Khaki but historians say that artefacts and parts recovered from wrecks have a bluish-grey colour similar to Intermediate Blue.

The Karaś is more complicated. The sides painted in the same Intermediate Blue shade with some parts of the structure aluminium. Flat areas, as would be seen through the canopy, khaki. Best to follow the instruction sheet in the Mirage kit.

Photographs of the cockpits of prototypes such as the PZL p.38 Wilk show a darkish colour was used, probably the Intermediate Blue colour.

Ok, thanks.

I have the Mirage Lublin RXIII Ter Hydro, and am getting ready to start on it, and was curious.

While the kit is nice, there are a few points where I'll be diverging from building it straight out of the box, including a resin Wright Whirlwind J7 engine.