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P-51D/K Fuselage Formation Lights


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Another purty one I like, I made DIY paint masks for the new Revell kit. "Horses Itch", 357th FG Leiston Suffolk UK, 1944:

 

 

Horses%20Itch_4-XL.jpg

 

IMG_1940-X2.jpg

 

 

Although the chromatic film makes the nose and spinner look highly faded in the last pic the nose and spinner are NOT white. If you look closely at the first pic, you will see the demark lines for the typical 357th yellow and red checks and stripes respectively. 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Well, lets get our terms right.......Wing tip nav lights are on all aircraft and boats/ships/etc.(onStarboard, Red Port).....The 3 underwing lights on the Starboard wing are to signal the ground troops, IIRC.......The lights on Red Dog (photo above) are a very late war add...And there is little written info on this set of lights....Do not know if they were a factory add or a field add ( or both).........However they were the equivalent of todays "slime lights" onmost military aircraft...........Basicallyjust to let pilots know where their  wingman/other formation aircraft are.....

Edited by oldthudman5
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Well, lets get our terms right.......Wing tip nav lights are on all aircraft and boats/ships/etc.(onStarboard, Red Port).....The 3 underwing lights on the Starboard wing are to signal the ground troops, IIRC.......The lights on Red Dog (photo above) are a very late war add...And there is little written info on this set of lights....Do not know if they were a factory add or a field add ( or both).........However they were the equivalent of todays "slime lights" onmost military aircraft...........Basicallyjust to let pilots know where their  wingman/other formation aircraft are.....

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On 6/16/2019 at 3:53 PM, Jennings Heilig said:

 

Allegedly.  There is no documentary evidence to support that.

 

If Merle Olmstead, a crew chief with the 357th, indicates and identifies aircraft in the group painted in RAF dark green (at several instances) in the book  To War With the Yoxford Boys, The Complete Story of the 357th Fighter Group, that's good enough for me.  Can't get much better primary information than from someone who was there.

 

He does acknowledge that there is controversy over the issue but lists a factor on page 286 that makes it probable that these aircraft were painted in RAF green.   Since space was a premium on cargo vessels, paint was one of the items that was, as he calls "reverse Lend Lease" as it wouldn't make sense to ship paint to Britain.  The closest thing to Olive Drab were varying shades of RAF green, and this is what we see on many U.S. aircraft. (Olmstead, 286).

 

You'll probably never find documentary evidence of any use of RAF paint stocks by USAAF units...they just did it. 

Edited by Juggernut
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