72modeler

Many of the Korean War Mustangs that were collected from various units and went through major overhaul at the Sacramento and San Antonio Air Depots before being shipped to Japan likely had the original surfacer/putty removed and then were painted in silver lacquer. I have read that the Mustangs that were held in storage in Japan after WW2 were also put into use, so were more than likely to still have the factory applied finish ion the wings- I am guessing that they were mostly low-time airplanes and so chances were good that they were still in their original finish, where the wings were concerned. You can see, in good quality photos of Korean War Mustangs, that some are still in natural metal with painted filled wings, and some have stripped wings and are painted overall with aluminum lacquer.. Restored Mustangs on the civil register can be seen both with and without the surfacer/putty/aluminum paint on the wings, and some can be seen with stripped wings in either painted or polished form. There is not much need for a Mustang's wings to be in the original finish to maintain a perfect laminar flown nowadays, as maximum combat performance is no longer required, and the ,low octane/low lead avgas that is available saps a lot more performance than not having a filled, puttied, and painted wing. Mike

Is this your Fort? https://b17flyingfortress.de/en/b17/43-38972-lucie-aka-duke-spook/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/6333255711633529/visual-search/?x=16&y=16&w=532&h=532&cropSource=6&surfaceType=flashlight https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/43-38972

Dennis, I seem to recall seeing a photo of your B-17; IIRC, it had the nsme "The Spook" along with a caricature of a Skull wearing a top hat, and I think holding a cane and white gloves, but for the life of me, I don't remember in what book I saw it. I found some data on what might be the same B-17F; the codes were ET-J., serial was 42-29704. Here is what I have found so far; in the photo with the crew, you can see the name and I think behind it and covered by the prop hub, is the nose art. Best I can do right now, but maybe this info will jog somebody's memory. I will dig into my B-17 reference books to see what I can find, Is this a great hobby, or what? Mike Delivered Cheyenne 6/2/43; Rapid City 20/2/43; Kearney 12/3/43; Assigned 336BS/95BG [ET-J] Alconbury 29/3/43; Framlingham 12/5/43; 2m, battle damaged ... https://95thbgdb.com/aircraft/29 https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205360906 Evidently there were several B-17's with the same name! (I am really confused, now!) https://books.google.com/books?id=Zq231WMxUXYC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=B+17f+42+29704+the+spook+crash&source=bl&ots=miLORliLiX&sig=ACfU3U0-PBmXxz1SL1z_luNQ0ZhgLC9XjQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjb6qzqk9uFAxUTnokEHab8BTI4ChDoAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=B 17f 42 29704 the spook crash&f=false

As for the package guns, I'm not entirely sure on those yet. Best I've seen so far is a cutaway drawing that makes it look like there were ammo boxes underneath tables in the navigator/radio operator compartment behind the cockpit. Matt, you are correct about the package guns; the guns themselves were contained in the blister fairings, and there was a slot in the fuselage adjacent to each gun where the rounds were fed from boxes within the fuselage, I seem to recall seeing a photo of the boxes as well as the guns with the blisters removed that showed where the rounds were fed from inside, but for the life of me, I can't recall where I saw them, and I didn't think to save them- most likely because I thought at the time, "My, that's very interesting." but since it wouldn't be visible, especially in my preferred scale, I neglected to save the information...dumb, I know! Mike

Curses, Tony! Saw that after I posted- thanks for the reminder! Mike

As Graham has stated, the H and J were very similar; see below for some description of the differences between both types, taken from B-24 Liberator, 1940-45. If you can look at a copy of the MMP B-24 Consolidated Mess, which has been reprinted, IIRC,you can see the detail differences in every production block from every assembly plant for every B-24 that had a nose turret fitted. Mike B-24J In many respects the B-24J resembled the B-24H but in NMF. The Emerson nose turret (cylindrical) became standard production although the Consolidated Turret (sloped front) was used on several blocks at CO. Enclosed waist guns with jetisonable K-6 mounts were added. The pitot tubes were now located at a slightly raised angle and above the navigator's observation window. A new redesigned autopilot and bombsight were added. There were also minor differences in the Libs produced at the different plants within the production pool. Such things as boot-type de-icers, different bombardiers scan windows, flush type pitots, different paint schematic for the anti-glare panel, inward/outward nose gear door panels and wingtip lights ALL of which could give mechanics working in the various Theatres of Operation nightmares. Several different sets of prints were required to understand which parts were "interchangeable" or "custom" depending upon the originating plant." It should be noted also that the "J" was built in larger numbers than all the other variants and was built at all five plants within the Liberator Production Pool. B-24H Very similar to the B-24G, the B-24H coincided with some of the activities going on with the "G." Improvements were made to waist gun location that staggered the gunners on each side. The Emerson turrets for the nose and the MPC for the tail were now standard. The overall length of the Liberator now grew to 67' 3 & 3/16" or almost a foot longer than the "D" or "E." Increased protective armor plating was installed around the pilot's deck. Yet, one of the most effective changes was the addition of the left (port) aileron that greatly enhanced the trimming of either wing. Also the OD paint was discontinued with the "H" at all facilities in March of 1944 so that all ships would now be shipped with their natural metal finish (NMF).

Oh, good golly, Miss Molly! Let's see what we have here: speed brakes the correct shape- check! correct narrow chord slatted wings- check! gun blast panels with both styles of gun ports- check! positionable control surfaces- check! accurate V-shaped windscreen - check! (Hard to tell in the photo, but what I can see looks pretty good!) correct stabilizers and stabilizer root fairings- check! ...and they will be doing one in God;s Own Scale as well? Put me down for at lest one of each, please! Looks like the way they have engineered the A kit, they would need to do completely new fuselage halves for an E or F-10. That being said, we all owe you, big-time, Duncan! 'Mike

If you go to the 368th FG Association website, you can find several photos of the P-47D's you asked about: http://www.368thfightergroup.com/ I found photos of: 33-33576 D3-K underlined,r 'Hard to Get' 44-33136 D3-K 44-21018 D3-X 'The Old Man' I also think your airplane was K rather than X .The K's used on 368th FG were an unusual style; there was a photo of D3-K and D3-K underlined; if there was more than airplane in a squadron with the same individual aircraft letter, the letter of the second aircraft was underlined with a bar the same color as the code letter. I found no evidence on the website that there was a Jug with an underllined X code letter. Hope this helps! Perhaps a shout out to @Tbolt might get you better information. Mike

Thomas, I have a copy of the William Wolf book The B-26 Marauder- The Ultimate Look. I looked at the text and photos in the armament section, and I can provide some information that might be useful. The Martin 250 top turret was fed from four 200 round ammo boxes, two of which were located on the LH and RH side of the turret assembly- one on the top of the other. There was a booster motor attached to each gun to draw the rounds from the boxes to the guns. Each waist gun was fed via a 240 round ammo box located in the ceiling forward of each gun position, with the ammo being led from the ammo box to each gun via a flexible belt. The tail guns were fed from an ammo box located on each side of the fuselage- each box held 200 rounds and traveled to the tail guns through a long metal roller track made by the Lionel model train company. that ran along each side of the rear fuselage; each roller track held 300 rounds, and the rounds were stacked vertically. There was a booster motor fitted to each of the tail guns that were used to draw the rounds from the ammo boxes and roller tracks to each gun. The photos showed the ammo boxes for the top turret and waist guns, but not the boxes for the tail turret, although the roller feed track was illustrated. None of the photos of preserved Marauders showed the ammo boxes for the tail gun. Perhaps photos of B-26B 'Flak Bait' might show the tail gun ammo boxes, but might not have the same setup as the other preserved Marauders, which are all B-26G's IIRC. I'm not a 1/48 modeler, and I'm not familiar with the new ICM kit, so maybe another Marauder maniac can be more helpful. Best I can do from my references- sorry! Mike

I don't really understand the rationale behind this, either, and I'm even less an aerodynamicist than you, Graham, but I also recall reading about getting the B-24 'on the step' a couple of times from some articles or monographs on the Liberator. From the B-24D pilot's manual: 'After reaching cruising altitude, level off- get on the step, and pick up speed before power is reduced to cruise settings. If power is reduced too soon and before the aircraft has picked up full momentum for cruising, it would mush along in a high drag, high angle of attack attitude in trying to regain speed under reduced power, and would probably be quite sluggish. Approach the cruising condition from the top- both speed and altitude; never from the bottom!' (I have NO idea how or why this procedure was recommended!) From Wikipedia on flying the B-24: 'I was necessary when flying the B-24, to get "on step". This meant climbing to about 500 ft (150 m) above cruise altitude, leveling off, achieving a cruise speed of 165–170 mph (266–274 km/h), then descending to assigned altitude. Failing to do this meant that the B-24 flew slightly nose high, and it used more fuel. ' My only thought is that this procedure might have something to do with the characteristics of the Davis aerofoil.... basically, you got me, my friend! (Is this a great hobby or what?) Mike

Yep- we had a discussion on this very topic back in 2021! Here it is, for your reading enjoyment- glad to see the exact figure was 2.5 degrees- thanks @don f! Mike https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235096512-b-24-liberator-rudders-are-angled-up/

YESSSSS! Thank you, Duncan, on behalf of all of us, for your efforts in making this possible! I hope also that Clear Prop will do as they have done before and release the kit in both scales; regardless, I will certainly get the 1/48 one, as I have always wanted to do Bruce Hinton's 'Squanee.' As you stated, they are going to sell a TON of these, and hopefully somewhere down the line, give us an F-86E/F-10 ! Whoo hoo! Mike @SabrejetTime to begin work on getting us an Avon Sabre, Duncan, and assure your place in the Modelers Hall of Fame!

I believe it was one of the two Tomahawk IIb's listed as being part of No. 73 OTU at Fayid. I have a friend whose uncle flew this very airplane when he was at Fayid for advanced training, and Neville Duke was one of his instructors; my friend has his uncle's logbook, F/O Raymond Harlow, and AK431 EoD is listed as one of the P-40's he flew; he later went on to fly Hurricane IIc's and P-47D's in the CBI, and Spitfire XVI's postwar with 695 Squadron. I am working on building the 1/48 Airfix kit in these same markings as a tribute to my friend's uncle to give to him. He was thrilled that I was able to find a period photo of one of the planes his uncle flew, as seen above. Mike

Wow! I learned something new today! Thanks, Chris! Mike