B-25J 489th Bomb Group, 'Ruthie'

[Hugh Thomson]

I am about to make a start on the 1/72 Hasegawa B-25J using the Bombshell Decals for 'Ruthie' of the 489th Bomb Group in Corsica early 1945.  The Bombshell decals say 'Ruthie' had neutral grey undersurfaces. But Kitsworld do the same aircraft and they say the undersurafces were natural metal.  From what I have read elsewhere the Group practice in late 44 and early 45 seems to have been to paint the upper surfaces of the a/c olive drab and leave the undersurface natural metal so my gut feeling is that Kitsworld is right (though I have seen other models of 'Ruthie' using neutral grey).  Before I take the final plunge I wonder if anyone has any comments.

 

FYI - there is a colour photo here of 'Ruthie's' nose and cockpit section. Looks natural metal to me.

 

http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/planes5.html

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Hugh

Natural metal, of course. By early 1944 most of B-25s had been delivered in natural metal. In MTO, most of the groups applied olive drab on top surfaces of their aircraft after a particularly costly Luftwaffe night raid. During this raid flares on parachutes had been dropped by the first bomber, which illuminated B-25s in revetments. With their top surfaces in natural metal sparkling in the dark they were easy targets. There was another thread about this question some time ago, but I do not remember under which title. Cheers

Jure

[Simon Cornes]

I have recently read the Kagero book on B-25 ops in the Mediterranean and it very much depends on the timing and location of your particular airframe. Some were delivered in OD/Neutral Gray, others arrived in natural metal and then got a rough coat of OD applied. As it wasn't applied at the factory I suspect that's why it then wore so badly, as did the blue of the stars and bars in the Mediterranean sun. Not sure what the starting point for the 489th was off hand.

 

Simon

[Ed Russell]

I believe the raid referred to was on 13 May 1944 at Alesani, Corsica, so anything modelled before that would be all over natural metal. If the re-painting was a reaction to the raid it probably would have happened fairly quickly.

[Hornet133]

Relatively few B-25J models had been delivered to the units in the Mediterranean before the May 1944 raid. Most came in later in Natural Metal and had the camo applied to the upper surfaces locally as described.

 

'Ruthie' is indeed one of the airframes delivered in Natural Metal with a rough coat of camo paint applied to the upper surfaces only. One can see a small patch of Natural Metal to the right of the Red prop warning stripe (i.e towards the tail) where they missed a bit.

 

The Kagero book is highly recommended if you can get it by the way.

[Hugh Thomson]

Thanks very much everyone for all the very useful information. I'll certainly try and get the Kagero book.

 

Natural metal undersurface it will be.

 

Regards