Shomo's F-6D - named or not?

[Dave Williams]

Just got my 1/32 Tamiya P-51D/K/F-6D kit and the Kagero decals for Pacific Mustangs, and have a question about Shomo's F-6D. I've seen references to it having the name "Snooks - 5th" on the right side of the nose, but the Kagero decals do not include a name. The decal instructions do have a photos of his F-6D from both sides and there is no name on either side of the nose. As near as I can tell, both photos were taken at the same time. The surroundings are consistent, the configuration of the aircraft (drop tanks, flap and control surface position, prop position) is the same, and the fact that the tail wheel appears to be sunk in the mud in both photos makes me believe that it's the same plane at the same time. Although you can't read the name under the cockpit, you can clearly see the 8 kill marks on the black square, the tail number is right in both photos, and it's clearly an F-6D (I've also heard they used a "stunt" standard P-51D with black stripe fuselage markings for some publicity photos after his MOH mission).

 

This post shows the decals, and also shows the two photos.

 

http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=233815

 

So my question is whether the F-6D he flew on the mission was ever named, and if so when. TIA.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Dave Williams

[D Bellis]

The decals and photos show the airplane that Shomo flew for his 'ace in a day' mission. The fancy "Flying Undertaker / Snooks 2nd" was indeed a P-51D dressed up for his Medal of Honor ceremony and press circus day.

 

More here:

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=14833&&do=findComment&comment=114093

 

HTH,

D

[Dave Williams]

Thanks. I agree that F-6D 44-14841 was used on the mission and "Flying Undertaker" is a bit of a red herring as, although it was a plane flown by Shomo, it was later on, and was not the aircraft used on the mission.

 

Looking at all photos, it seems that 44-14841 was seen in two schemes. First plain NMF overall as seen in the Kagero photos, and then later on with a yellow fin cap, around the 66 tail numbers, and on the spinner nose. The presence of the kill marks on the first version suggests that plain NMF was the configuration at the time of the kills. The photos that show the name Snooks - 5th on the left side of the nose also show the yellow spinner nose, so the name was definitely there with the later scheme. I haven't found anything to verify that the name was there with the early all NMF scheme, and the Kagero photos do seem to suggest that the name was not there.

[barkhorn]

Hi Dave,

 

My understanding is that at first the aircraft appeared like on the photos from Jim Crow's collection I included to the instruction sheet, and very soon it received all the decorations, possibly for the first 'official' photoshoot.

Indeed, the 'Flying Undertaker' was a different machine.

 

Best,

Maciej

[schmitz]

Thanks. I agree that F-6D 44-14841 was used on the mission and "Flying Undertaker" is a bit of a red herring as, although it was a plane flown by Shomo, it was later on, and was not the aircraft used on the mission.

 

Looking at all photos, it seems that 44-14841 was seen in two schemes. First plain NMF overall as seen in the Kagero photos, and then later on with a yellow fin cap, around the 66 tail numbers, and on the spinner nose. The presence of the kill marks on the first version suggests that plain NMF was the configuration at the time of the kills. The photos that show the name Snooks - 5th on the left side of the nose also show the yellow spinner nose, so the name was definitely there with the later scheme. I haven't found anything to verify that the name was there with the early all NMF scheme, and the Kagero photos do seem to suggest that the name was not there.

 

I've been researching this a bit too, which is how I happened on this site/posting (I'm a now-and-then aircraft modeler, but I won the big Tamiya Mustang in a raffle and decided to build the Shomo plane since he was a local hero).

 

The best photos I've found are the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archive - which is available on Flickr (try this link: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=shomo). There are pictures of F-6D 44-14841 both with and without the "Snooks - 5th" name on the (starboard - right side) of the nose. The pictures with "Snooks - 5th" also have the yellow vertical stab tip and yellow "66" on the tail, and a yellow prop spinner (the spinner is only yellow from the prop-blades forward, the paint separation line is a little jagged as if hand painted).

 

The pictures without the yellow bits still shows the square (3x3) kill markings, and the plane looks quite a bit dirtier.

 

From what I've read, Shomo's unit received the F-6Ds in New Guinea in late Dec '44 and shortly after were ordered to Mindoro to support the invasion of the Philippines. I would speculate that there wasn't a lot of time for pleasantries like washing the planes and painting the name and trim; presumably the yellow was added soon after. The plane was lost with a different pilot just 2 months later - before Shomo received the Medal of Honor and presumably while he was still flying photo-recon missions - the dolled-up "Flying Undertaker" was not an F-6 so I'm guessing Shomo never flew any missions in it, so either set of markings would be accurate. If you want to match the plane as it was on the January 11th mission, I think you'll have to guess at what the single kill marking looked like - I haven't seen any photos of that. I've decided the plane is so dingy that I want to add the yellow trim; I've got my daughter (a graphic designer) extracting the "Snooks - 5th" markings using photoshop so I can make a decal.

 

BTW, I spent about 2 weeks scratch building an F-6 camera port, and then saw Tamiya has released a new version with the parts already there! Are there any detail differences I should worry about besides the obvious camera ports?

 

Don Schmitz