"...It is not a "natural metal finish," but rather an aluminum lacquer. No one really knows whether the interiors were painted differently when the exteriors lost the "golden wings" colors, but from my own experience of the USN aviation department, I think they didn't do anything that didn't have to be done. In other words, I think the Marine SBD-1s were left in aluminum lacquer.

I know for a fact that the SBD-2s had an interior green color... because the CO of VB-6, who flew SBD-2s until they re-equipped with SBD-3s just before they went to Midway, told me so (interview with LCDR R.E. Best, USN, Ret).

However, those airplanes were never "golden wings" in markings, but arrived overall grey, were later painted blue
on their uppers, which makes things just different enough. FWIW, I asked Dick about this point, and while he had nothing specific, he did say that there was so much effort going on during the period before the war "none of my SBD-2s had the same shade of blue on them," so I think my belief that nothing more than was necessary was done, so you can safely go with aluminum lacquer interior..." Tom Cleaver

Joel

You probably know this but I believe the dive flap interiors are red. Do post a couple of pics of the final build. Also, I think the overall grey was ANA 602 light grey but this looks the part.

Brian,
The vast majority of SBDs center dive flaps were painted the same Gray as the bottom of the aircraft. A mistake that I also made on my 1st build.
Joel

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Sorry Joel, I just disagree on this. I know thats the conventional line of thinking but my searches 2 years ago brought up some controversy on the issue, and I came away from it believing green interior in the case of the SBD-1. I cant cite sources, just scratched notes on the instruction sheet. I urge anyone interested to investigate for themselves.

Or just "run whatcha brung" because these color debacles can be nail biters sonetimes, right one day wrong the next and then right again a couple years later.

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Mike,
As long as Joe is satisfied that the colors are correct, that's all that matters.

All I'm saying is that it was the standard paint orders of the period. Prior to WW11 all aircraft should have had Aluminum lacquer cockpits. It's not like they switched from Interior Green to Aluminum lacquer. I'm not even sure as to why they decided to switch other then the glare issue. Or maybe that the Aluminum pigment was needed as Aluminum sheet.

Here's a quote from a article on the Swedish IPMS site:

" Some sources state the SBD-1s most probably had Aluminium lacquer interiors, while others claim some Mixed Green/Interior Green with Zinc Chromate for the remaining airframe"

I took this to mean that the cockpit itself was Aluminum lacquer, but that the rest of the interior was painted a Green Interior color.

I had this issue with the Buffalo build as well since I was modeling a specific event: the Battle of Midway. Even simple things like going from the tri-color prop tip to Yellow wasn't done in a day. Jim Maas sent me pictures of black props with tri-color tips that dated mid 1942, which made even less sense.

Joel

I haven't had issues with regular styrene cement (liquid or not) causing fogging canopies. In my experience, even CA is okay as long as it's not an enclosed canopy inside which the fumes get trapped and form fogging. Of course, with styrene cement you have to make sure to avoid spills.

Generally, canopies don't come under much stress in a finished model so weaker glues are often sufficient. I've used PVA, Microscale Kristal Klear and Gator's Grip. The last two

Joe, does liquid cement dissolve through Future to make a styrene-to-styrene bond?
So far I've attached Future-dipped canopies with PVA or similar glues.

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I haven't had issues with regular styrene cement (liquid or not) causing fogging canopies. In my experience, even CA is okay as long as it's not an enclosed canopy inside which the fumes get trapped and form fogging. Of course, with styrene cement you have to make sure to avoid spills.

Generally, canopies don't come under much stress in a finished model so weaker glues are often sufficient. I've used PVA, Microscale Kristal Klear and Gator's Grip. The last two

Joe, does liquid cement dissolve through Future to make a styrene-to-styrene bond?
So far I've attached Future-dipped canopies with PVA or similar glues.

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guys it's my understanding that if you dipped the canopy in future you don't have to worry about fogging. also only superglues will fog the clear plastic, correct me if i'm wrong.
i've never used styrene glue for the canopies. i thought they were made of a different plastic that is not compatible with styrene glue.

joe