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B-24 Liberator Lead Ship aka Judas Goat


Gerhard

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I learned something new!!

 

The phrase (Judas Goat) was also used in World War II by the 8th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator crew members. Each bomb group employed a nearly worn-out bomber known as a formation, lead, or assembly ship. These aircraft were brightly painted with group-specific high-contrast patterns in stripes, checkers, or polka dots, enabling easy recognition by their flock of bombers to form up from various airbases over England and fly strategic bombing missions over Europe. After guiding their own combat bombers into the appropriate formation groups the assembly ships would return home—thus their poor condition and lack of camouflage and weapons mattered little.

 

b24d-jpg.606000

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2 hours ago, ringleheim said:

I recall being about 13 years old, 35 years ago, and learning about "assembly ships" from this piece built by Shep Paine.  It was in his book on dioramas, which I still have.

 

Monogram+B-24_heading.jpg

 

Great memories there. Shep was a huge and I mean huge inspiration to my generation, so was Verlineden

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8 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

Oh yeah I wore out my 1st Edition of How to build Dioramas. I got my 2nd edition handy at all times. 

 

Sheps shadow boxes and figure painting were 2nd to none

Yes, that's the book I'm referring to.  I think I bought my copy in 1983 or 1984 and it's still with me and in great shape!  I actually referred to it just a few weeks ago!  

 

Shep is awesome, as is Francois Verlinden.  I still have a few of his old books too, from around the same time frame.

 

 

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9 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Absolutely , Shep and Francis were absolutely influential on modellers around the world. Good memories indeed.

Here is another one.

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8 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

Interesting wear on the back side of the prop blades.

 

 

Seems like a lot of WW11 propellers wore that way. I can think of several war era pics Ive seen with (more major) wear like that on the back only 

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