Oh man, you guys Rock. I had completely forgotten about the Warner bros. wolf! Even better, since I operate a gun shop, the wolf with a tommy gun would be perfect. Although Little Red Riding Hood fits the bill too, and would look pretty sexy holding an M2! LOL. And that’s my problem. SO MANY OPTIONS. When I came up with the name I thought it would be easy. A woman with an evil grin reclining on a .50 cal or something... Great idea using youtube to view 40’s era cartoons!
RVMedic;
Paint. Its AF400 with a clear coat on top. I had originally planned on flats but they are a nightmare to maintain. The specific silver was chosen because I felt so many silvers are too bright or pale. I’ll have to dig around for the AF400 codes used from the chip catalog. Just spent 20 minutes looking and I’ll be darned if I can find my paperwork!!!
My specific scheme is representative of a typical 357th FG, 362nd FS aircraft. Code G4-P was flown by several pilots and one, Otto Jenkins, shared the same last name as my Grandmother. As my last name is Powers I wanted to use a code with a P in it, so I just added a BAR under the P, which was common practice if you had two of the same codes in a squadron. However, my scheme is not specific to Otto Jenkins version of G4-P, which was named Floogie II. It’s more a generic nod of thanks to all of the pilots of the 362nd. There were several G4-P’s so I went with the two tone scheme which was common in mid-1944. Another version was all aluminum and flown by Ed Hyman, and named Rolla-U-Bar. Keep in mind if you are going totally authentic, the 357th used a british green, as opposed to the US OD Green, due I suppose, to availability. But during the war these folks used pretty much whatever was available. So U.S. OD green would be fine too. War time P-51s looked like **** compared to what you see at airshows today. Insignia Red? Ha. It was whatever red supply could scrape up. Fine lines? Again, more like; use a piece of card board held against a cowl to make your checker board pattern. Overspray was common. Naturally none of us will do that, SO:
If you want to go even more authentic colors, here are the WWII codes:
Fed Spec 595B:
OD – 1408
Insignia Blue – 15044
Insignia White – 17875
Insignia Red – 11136
Identification Yellow – 13538
Jet Black – 17038
The blue on the Stars & Bars is not as dark as what most folks use today. One thing to be careful about is size ratios. A lot of folks use way too small a Star & Bar. We did the math by scaling for the RV-8 airframe and the outside diameter of the national emblem on the fuselage should be 20.25 inches in diameter. On the wing it should be 25 inches. Of course, after working to make it perfect my painter screwed up and forgot to “indent” the white bar into the inner blue circle. Most people miss it, but it stands out every time I see it.
I’d recommend using vinyl decals for all the detail stuff. That way if you go to sell the RV, the next owner is not stuck with the Unit code and can change it out to whichever of the three squadrons he likes, or just use his initials like so many others do on their WWII RV paint schemes. G4-P for instance, is all vinyl as is all the lettering and stenciling. By the way, the tail number is 5.5 inches tall, which is to scale for the airframe. The Tail number is my serial number, with the appropriate 4 added to the front for 1944.
I’ll post more images shortly.