Recent content by 69dodgechrgr

Hey Chris, I've been away from my research on your uncle for awhile but caught the bug again on vacation. The wife and kids were hanging out in a book store in downtown Rapid City SD, not my thing, so I wandered off and found a cool hobby shop called Who's Hobby. Stumbled across a Monogram...

Thanks again for all the help guys I really appreciate it! Now I can be confident when I lay down the tail paint. I'll start another thread in start to finish builds once I get a little more work done on her. I do need some additional help figuring out the bomb mission marks on the nose. I...

Ok, version number 4 with black rudder and small thinner triangle surrounded by a black circle.

Thanks for all the replies and input guys. I've redone my tail art once again to reflect the information received over the past couple days. Once again let me know any thoughts on improving the accuracy.

fubar, that was the earlier scheme. Here's a picture showing the latter. Looks like a band of black-yellow-black on the leading edge with bare aluminum underneath.

Looks like you are probably right Wurger. I did some further research and almost all of the late war 450th BG bare metal planes have the tails painted as you describe. I even located a rare color photo of one which is attached below. I was assuming all of the planes had some white on the...

Here's a photo of the Judy Lee 68 and the Swamp Rat 77 in flight together. Both have the same tail paint scheme.

Well after much research I've decided she was most likely bare aluminum. It seems most late war planes in the 450th had the same paint scheme on their tails. Here's the final tail paint I decided upon. Anybody with thoughts feel free to let me know.

Thought I'd add a photo of the crew. The entire crew lost is listed below but one of the regular crew, Cpl. Elmer Grusendorf, was ill and grounded on the day of the crash. I'm not sure which of the other Cpl's was his replacement for the mission but this explains why I have listed 11 names...

I'm looking for some assistance in researching the B-24 Liberator "Sage Lady". This plane was piloted by Lt. Charles "Chuck" Stiede who was my wife's uncle. The plane was part of the 450th Bombardment Group "Cottontails" / 723rd Squadron. On February 16th 1945 she was on a mission to bomb...