Lt. E. Dustin (Dusty) Schlueter, 28th Fighter Squadron, 413th Fighter Group

[denders]

So, I went to McKay's (used books, etc.) yesterday and found this book. I thought it may come in handy when Kotare releases their P-47.

 

 

While walking out, I discovered this in the book.

 

 

I have no idea who Bob is, but I guess I'll have to do some research. I don't see anything on page 131 but this is from page 132.

 

 

Perhaps I need to acquire a Trumpeter P-47N kit. 

 

 

[mozart]

Now there’s an interesting trail to pick up and follow Dave! Brilliant. 

[LSP_Mike]

Great piece of history.

[denders]

Thanks.

 

I started looking for information. I'm sure there are places to look that I haven't found yet. And my 'googlefoo' is usually lacking.

1. I have yet to find anything specific about the pilot. I found a list on wikipedia which purports to contain all AAF and USN aces. The subject pilot is not listed there.

2. I think that the squadron mentioned in the photo caption is incorrect. I'm thinking it should be the 21st Fighter Squadron. What I find about the 28th is that the 28th was only ever in Panama throughout WW2.

3. The 413th Fighter Group (1st, 21st, and 34th Fighter Squadrons) appear to fit the location that we read into the mission description in the note. They appear to have spent a lot of missions on fighter sweeps, etc. over Japan. The flew from Ie Shima at the end of the war. These pilots probably saw very little air to air combat which is a good reason the pilot wasn't listed as an ace.

4. I did find something that the tail of the 21st were yellow with the heart shape.

5. It appears that these pilots experienced the sight of the Japanese surrender party with the white/green cross aircraft.

 

onward

 

[LSP_Ray]

Found a better, cleared pic of Schlueter's BR in Squadron/Signal's "Thunderbolt: Republican P-47 Thunderbolt in the Pacific Theater," page 46. The picture is credited to Schlueter himself. It is captioned as being assigned to 21st FS, 413th FG, based on le Shima. Colors: pale blue heart on a yellow tail; cowl is also yellow and both tail and cowl have thin black lines between the yellow and NMF finish.

[denders]

Thanks Ray! I'm not sure I have that one. Cool! I'll have a look on the used book market.

 

EDIT1: YES!! I do have that one and Dana Bell's Air Force Colors Volume 3 (Pacific)

 

EDIT2: Hmmm, Dana's book shows a yellow heart on a blue tail.

Edited May 4 by denders

[LSP_Ray]

Looking at the photo, I think blue heart on yellow is correct. In B&W, typically yellow looks dark and light blue looks very light (why they used 'photo blue' pencils to mark up art work: if you photo copy it the blue doesn't show). In that case, the Squad/Sig book should be right. Very well could be Dusty himself gave them colors as it was his photo.

[LSP_Ray]

BTW: Did you see they did a color profile of BR on page 36? They don't show any noseart while the letter seemed to suggest there was some?

[denders]

Yes, I see.

 

So, from this book:

 

 

This. I'm not entirely sure it's correct. @Dana Bell???

 

 

And from this book:

 

 

Interesting that Sprue has Trumpeter products on sale starting today.

 

[LSP_Ray]

I saw that as I also have Dana's book. Note that Dana's book is two years older than 47's in the Pacific. Still, I usually go with Dana as he is usually right, but I question him on this one. McDowell provides a photo of an aircraft of all three squadrons of the 413 which seem to verify his colors. Dana says yellow heart on blue tail but with yellow cowl which doesn't seem to match the photo. And typically, the squad colors have cowls matching tails. Also, he has yellow tail and cowl on the 34th birds instead of white and white which the photo seems to verify. Makes sense so the three squads have different colors for quick ID. So, if it was me, I would go with yellow cowl and tail with blue heart.

Having said that, it's your model so you can do what you want. It would be nice to see another opinion, but don't know if there are any other pics out there.

[LSP_Ray]

Oooo! Check out this site! 413th Fighter Group, 413th Fighter Group (SE) P-47N

[denders]

19 minutes ago, LSP_Ray said:

Oooo! Check out this site! 413th Fighter Group, 413th Fighter Group (SE) P-47N

That’s cool! I could swear that I was on that site yesterday but none of those photos came up. I’ll have to go through them tomorrow. Thanks. 

[Dana Bell]

Hi Folks,

 

Back then I started with Kenn Rust's Seventh AF book, then began searching for conflicts and/or varifications.  The museum had several color films showing western Pacific fighter markings, and a really decent guy on the west coast (name forgotten) had a large collection of color slides (predominantly 318th FG), but my notes are long forgotten.  So while I once thought what I published was correct, I may have been wrong.  Perhaps contemporary color images will still turn up...

 

Cheers,

 

 

Dana

[LSP_Ray]

Thanks for chiming in, Dana!

I hope some more color shots show up, that would really help for all theaters if WWII. They should have been handing out color film to everyone so all us modelers would have an easier time!

[denders]

Thanks for your input, Dana!