Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 Hi all, I'm building Modelvit's lovely, if fiddly, new kit and this aircraft is one of the options. The kit omits any colour spinner front and forgets to tell you to paint the prop tips yellow, but the big thing is that just before they were used over Korea, there's a set of BW photos showing this machine plus others in flight and 390 has a pair of parallel, oblique fuselage stripes which look rather natty. The internet and previous kits seem to have settled on these being red with either a dark red spinner or a blue spinner font. BUT- and I know all the provisos of BW photo interpretation – the photo shows the tone of these strips to be very different from the red code next to them, and the closest tonal match on the image is to 'Dotty Mae' FQ-394 - of which a colour photo exists showing a medium blue single fuselage stripe and spinner. So the question is - what am I missing that everyone else has gone with red stripes? I can literally find no other sources of info. cheers Jonners the occasional Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 If you do a search for 'F-82G FQ390' you will find period photos and decal sheets from various makers that cover 'Mid Night Sinner.' Some show this aircraft with blue spinners and two matching blue stripes mid-fuselage; also shown is another aircraft that has yellow spinners and matching yellow strioes. Could these be flight colors? IIRC, Red, blue, and yellow were often used used as flight colors? Just an uneducated guess on my part. Most of the photos of FQ390 show colored spinners, but no stripes, although in the photo you posed, it does. FQ394 is also shown as having blue spinners and blue stripes. Maybe at some point in time, the pilot of -390 was made a flight leader, and thus the flight leader stripes were added? Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 2 hours ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said: Hi all, I'm building Modelvit's lovely, if fiddly, new kit and this aircraft is one of the options. The kit omits any colour spinner front and forgets to tell you to paint the prop tips yellow, but the big thing is that just before they were used over Korea, there's a set of BW photos showing this machine plus others in flight and 390 has a pair of parallel, oblique fuselage stripes which look rather natty. The internet and previous kits seem to have settled on these being red with either a dark red spinner or a blue spinner font. BUT- and I know all the provisos of BW photo interpretation – the photo shows the tone of these strips to be very different from the red code next to them, and the closest tonal match on the image is to 'Dotty Mae' FQ-394 - of which a colour photo exists showing a medium blue single fuselage stripe and spinner. So the question is - what am I missing that everyone else has gone with red stripes? I can literally find no other sources of info. cheers Jonners the occasional Flight colours appear to have been red, white and blue (white rather than yellow), so I'd suggest blue spinner and blue stripes. I have seen a colour photo of '394 "Dottie Mae", with a mid-blue fuselage band, so that much is certain. However there is a colour photo of '366 (another F-82 which flew exclusively with the 4th FS in the Korean theatre) with white spinners, in formation with an anonymous F-82 (presumably 4th FS too) which has yellow spinners! These aircraft were despatched to the Far East straight from NAA, via the Sacramento Air Materiel Area (for preservation), the San Francisco port of embarkation and 13th ARP Sqn at Kisarazu, to the 4th FS(AW) at Naha. So precise dates of the 'Korean' markings is difficult to pin down. '390 served with the 4th from January 1950 until March 1952, at which point it was shipped to Alaska for service with the 449th FS(AW) at Ladd AFB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted February 2, 2022 Author Share Posted February 2, 2022 1 hour ago, Sabrejet said: Flight colours appear to have been red, white and blue (white rather than yellow), so I'd suggest blue spinner and blue stripes. I have seen a colour photo of '394 "Dottie Mae", with a mid-blue fuselage band, so that much is certain. However there is a colour photo of '366 (another F-82 which flew exclusively with the 4th FS in the Korean theatre) with white spinners, in formation with an anonymous F-82 (presumably 4th FS too) which has yellow spinners! These aircraft were despatched to the Far East straight from NAA, via the Sacramento Air Materiel Area (for preservation), the San Francisco port of embarkation and 13th ARP Sqn at Kisarazu, to the 4th FS(AW) at Naha. So precise dates of the 'Korean' markings is difficult to pin down. '390 served with the 4th from January 1950 until March 1952, at which point it was shipped to Alaska for service with the 449th FS(AW) at Ladd AFB. Thank you! It's such an under investigated area that I'm sure there are more colour scheme tangles to be undone fro Korea, and as you have pointed out elsewhere, the F-86A remains bafflingly united too. I suspect we have more chance of an injection Yak -9U first! Many thanks Jonners 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 2 hours ago, Sabrejet said: Flight colours appear to have been red, white and blue (white rather than yellow), so I'd suggest blue spinner and blue stripes. I have seen a colour photo of '394 "Dottie Mae", with a mid-blue fuselage band, so that much is certain. However there is a colour photo of '366 (another F-82 which flew exclusively with the 4th FS in the Korean theatre) with white spinners, in formation with an anonymous F-82 (presumably 4th FS too) which has yellow spinners! These aircraft were despatched to the Far East straight from NAA, via the Sacramento Air Materiel Area (for preservation), the San Francisco port of embarkation and 13th ARP Sqn at Kisarazu, to the 4th FS(AW) at Naha. So precise dates of the 'Korean' markings is difficult to pin down. '390 served with the 4th from January 1950 until March 1952, at which point it was shipped to Alaska for service with the 449th FS(AW) at Ladd AFB. Duncan. I think you are correct on the flight colors being red, white, and blue. In the Warren Thompson book Korea The Air War 2, there is a large color photo of F-82G 'Call Gal' FQ400, 46-400, assigned to the C.O. of the 4th AWS taken on Naha, Okinawa; it has diagonal red-white-blue stripes, black spinners, and the squadron badge on the fin. Photo taken before the squadron was sent to Japan June 26, 1950. That being the case,' Mid Night Sinner' could very well have had blue spinners and blue flight stripes. Mike Wonder why that one F-82G seen in period color photos had yellow spinners and stripes- from another squadron that had yellow as one of its flight colors? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 8 hours ago, 72modeler said: Duncan. I think you are correct on the flight colors being red, white, and blue. In the Warren Thompson book Korea The Air War 2, there is a large color photo of F-82G 'Call Gal' FQ400, 46-400, assigned to the C.O. of the 4th AWS taken on Naha, Okinawa; it has diagonal red-white-blue stripes, black spinners, and the squadron badge on the fin. Photo taken before the squadron was sent to Japan June 26, 1950. That being the case,' Mid Night Sinner' could very well have had blue spinners and blue flight stripes. Mike Wonder why that one F-82G seen in period color photos had yellow spinners and stripes- from another squadron that had yellow as one of its flight colors? This one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 7 hours ago, Jon Kunac-Tabinor said: This one? Yep- that's the one! If it were only a P-82C/D in those colors and markings! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wschurr Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 I think Mike is on the right track. My guess would be the squadron color. The 4th Fighter Squadron’s (The Fighting Fuujins) colors are yellow and black so I’m thinking the squadron commander flew one with two stripes even though there is more than one so marked.The rainbow bird might have been decorated for group/wing/or air division boss. This scenario more or less fits USAF customs. This is just a WAG; nothing is cast in concrete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 Hi all - thanks for the info - so this is what I've gone for. Cheers Jonners 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Oh I say that does look good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 23 hours ago, Sabrejet said: Oh I say that does look good! Roger that! Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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