I had always wondered if the color the USAF museum painted
the interior of "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby" was the right color.
I know they had DuPont make a new color (Shoo Shoo Baby
Blue I believe) from paint chips, but was it the right color?
Well, we may have uncovered the answer.
While starting the refurb of our throttle quad,
we removed a plate that had been painted prior
to installation. the part open to the air was indeed
a blueish color. But the portion that was metal to metal
was a dark green - more of what I expected the
"Bronze-green" interior color to be.
Tell me what you think:
The piece and the structure it was removed from
(you can see the definite blue hue to the paint on the quad, but the
angle of the flash doesn't show the blue circle correctly)
The piece, showing the blueish circle exposed to 60+ years of
air, and the green, almost fresh-looking paint around it
To me, it looks like the blue is some sort of primer and the green is the top coat. The green matches the interior color in almost all military B-17s that I've seen, including the pieces from a Y1B-17 that I have.
This references a web site at which you can get "color" chips of
the FS number color. Of course, it is an approximation, as
your monitor settings will affect the actual color shown on the screen.
It is a good read, talking about how the colors were not
standardized, and giving a good approximation of FS numbers
for the various colors and tints..
I just remember the interior shots of Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby
in the AeroDetail book on the B-17, and thinking the color was
too blue. I've seen some other pictures in other books, and
the color looks less blue. I'd like to get a definitive FS number
of Shoo Shoo Baby Blue. Any help out there?
