Chipping a metallic finish??

[Jim R]

Hi all
My IAF Mosquito has a metallic finish so the questions relate to that.
Two questions which I have been unable to find answers to ....
Firstly is the metallic finish on an aircraft just metal or is it painted to look metallic?
Secondly if it's a painted finish what would chips, say along the wing leading edge, look like?
Thanks in advance.
Jim

 

[scottie3158]

Hi all
My IAF Mosquito has a metallic finish so the questions relate to that.
Two questions which I have been unable to find answers to ....
Firstly is the metallic finish on an aircraft just metal or is it painted to look metallic?
Secondly if it's a painted finish what would chips, say along the wing leading edge, look like?
Thanks in advance.
Jim

Jim,
I am probably completely wrong, but I thought the Mosquito was wooden, so I am presuming the finish is paint or did they take the design and build them out of metal?

 

[Gary MacKenzie]

Explains the percentage of metal on the fuselage and wings

 

[Tim Marlow]

Must be painted surely? As far as I’m aware, the standard finish on non camouflaged UK aircraft was high speed silver paint, so I would expect this one to be similar. This applied to most post war early jets as well as the Hornet. The only one I can think of in natural metal finish was the lightening.

 

[Jakko]

You can usually tell a metallic-painted vs. a natural-metal plane fairly easily. If all of it is exactly the same colour, it’s almost certainly painted; if you see panels in a range of shades, it’s bound to be natural metal. (If the plane has been polished, though, it’s a lot harder to tell.)

Painted metallic finish:

Natural metal:

 

[Jim R]

Thanks guys

Once again you have shown the strength of the forum, you've answered my questions perfectly.

Scottie - you are right of course. My only thought was were parts of the plane wooden frames covered in aluminium sheet?
Gary - that is a really good video and answered my query I still find it amazing the such a plane could be built of balsa and plywood.
Tim - Painted definitely. My thinking was that as the majority of Israeli operated Mossies were ex-French air force they would be painted over whatever the French camo was for use in Indo China.
Jakko - a picture is worth a thousand words and those two confirm that the IAF Mossies were painted.

Thanks again guys
Jim