[pstrany]

Keep in mind that a large percentage of the laborers that built these aircraft were slave labor. They were not inspired by patriotic ferver, but rather by the idea that if an aircraft did not roll out the door on a specific schedule, they could well be pulled out of the line and shot. Add to this that a lot of the laborers were foreign nationals who did shoddy work on purpose as a form of revolt against their taskmasters, and the poor quality of late-war German aircraft is hardly surprising.It is interesting that in the Fw 190, the front half of the underside of the wing was painted. in the Me 262, the entire underwing surface was left unpainted - which makes more sense. Certainly paint would have been at a premium in the closing days of the war, remembering that petroleum products go into paint manufacture. The quality of the paint used on the Me 262 was terrible. If you look at pictures of Wnr 500200, Black "X" of KG 51 after the war, where excess fuel had spilled down the fuselage it almost completely washed away all traces of paint (Classic Pub Me 262 Part 4, Pg 793 is clearest.) This was a not unusal pattern to see on Me 262 aircraft.The only suggestion I would have would either be a perceived aerodynamic advantage (helping to smooth the leading edge of the wing) or to make the absence of paint on undersurfaces less visible. To be added here is the fact that not just undersurfaces of the wings received this treatment, but also the undersurfaces of the fuselage in many cases as well. Going back to Black "X", the undersurfaces of the nose were painted (it was manufactured as a separate part) but the rest of the fuselage was not (per Green/Evans in Eagle Publications' "Stormbird Colors".)Paul