In color? Not that I know of. I've been looking for a 1940 or 1941 "Painting and Cementing" guide to see what differences it might have from the
1943 copy we have on ShipCamouflage.com. Since I don't have proof, I might as well lay out the reasons for my suspicions to let others decide for themselves.
I don't know how many of you ever look at photos of
Old metal airplanes, but they don't reflect light the way painted planes do. Aluminum/silver paint is also a bit darker in tone than white. So, when I came across the below photo at Seattle NARA a number of years ago it jumped out at me:
Attachment:
File comment: CA Houston Scout Plane Hangar
Photo 14 902-39.jpg [ 106.96 KiB | Viewed 2157 times ]
That ain't white paint folks. The two darker areas underneath the sealed porthole are from where the light ISN'T bouncing off the beam to highlight the bulkhead, and there's just a whole lot of stuff going on light and appearance wise that doesn't happen with flat white paint. It's CA-30 Houston's hangar bay, and obviously it was so different than the "white bulkheads and overheads" common wisdom that it caused a big "?" to visibly float over my head. So, I've been looking for evidence and explanations ever since.
Last year, I was looking for CV-5 photos for
Steve and came across this one:
Attachment:
File comment: CV-5 Hangar Bay, 1938
80-CF-21156-2.jpg [ 70.88 KiB | Viewed 2157 times ]
Light reflecting off the ventilation ducts doesn't look right for white. The "No smoking" sign is noticeably brighter than the surrounding bulkhead paint and the porthole that is opened is showing the OUTSIDE paint (#5 Standard Navy Gray, which is darker than white) on the surface and it's lighter than the bulkheads as well.
Like I said, no proof... no documentation, but I consider it STRONG circumstantial evidence that hangar bays of USN ships were not painted with white on the bulkheads and overheads but were instead painted in some form of reflective metallic paint.
_________________
Tracy White -
Researcher@Large"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-
Barbara Tuchman