40TH FS 35TH FG Camouflage on P-39s (1 Viewer)

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jester63

Airman
38
0
Nov 19, 2010
Three Rivers, MI
Does anyone know how the P-39s were painted in this squadron? Were they camoflaged, or were they a solid OD green? I have been told they were OD Green with a red spinner white forward wing edges and a completely white tail section including horizontal stabilizers. I a have also seen a photo of them camoflaged in OD, Tan, and brown. This photo was a world war 2 cartoon, though so not sure its correct. Just wanted to see if any of you knew, because I am getting ready to build a 1/72 P-39 with the markings of this squadron. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks, jester63
 
Also here you are interesting pitures found on ... warbirdinformationexchange.org - a Warbirds Resource Group Site

Capt Bill MacDonald 40th FS New Guinea 1943
CaptBillMacDonough40thFS.jpg


P-39K 40th FS_35th FG New Guinea 1943_.jpg


Lt Gene DeBoer 40th FS
LtGeneDeBoer40thFS.gif


Lt Lew Raines 40th FS
LtLewisRaines40thFS.gif
 
That's awesome guys!!! Thanks soo much! That is a great help. Only problem is both posts have different color setups. My grandfather told me his had a white tail, but, I was just wanting to make sure. Any chance you know why there were two different paint schemes? Again, thank you very much for the help!

Jester63
 
I think that early variants of the P39 used by 40th FS in 1941-42 were painted with the USAAF standard camo scheme initially. But the white areas were added in late 1943. Here is a picture of White 51 I found in one of books about Airacobra. Notice the white wing leading edge and tail with the red tip of the fin probably. Although the image caption says it is a P-39N of unidentified unit but I have seen somewhere , a colour profile of the plane stating it was of the 40th FS.
 

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Ok, I think ive got the 39 figured out, now how much do you guys know about what the Squadrons bubbletop P-47's looked like? I found this Pic, but was unsure about the white tail section.

http://home.btconnect.com/morrissp/p47-1.jpg

The reason I question it is due to this other photo I found, which shows a natural metal tail section with blue, red and white stripes.

http://home.btconnect.com/morrissp/p47-2.jpg

Also' does anybody know if there were stripes on the wings too?
 
Wow, lots of great photos! Thanks for posting those. Now it looks like the Razorback with number 57 is silver with a white tail. I am assuming that is from the 40th FS since the 40ths numbers ranged from 40-69. Also the photo at that pacific wreck website matched the color drawing of the top "Bubble top". So is it safe to say that the tail section would have been white, like it is portrayed in the lower drawing "Bubbletop"? I also thought that it looked like that razorback didn't have any stripes on the wings' from what I could tell. I have not been able to find any overhead views. So I am still unsure of the stripes on the wings. The other thing is that according to this photo:

http://home.btconnect.com/morrissp/p47-2.jpg

It says that the tails were all silver with only the difference, being the color of the box that the tail number is in.
 
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According to my knowledge the white tails as a marking were very popular at the Pacific TO. So it can't be excluded that these were painted in the way for particular P-47Ds like the "Red 51". I'm not sure but it seems to me I have seen a picture of the Bubbletop P47 where the white tail was clearly seen in. Undoubtedly these pictures of the 70 here and the 74 at the Pacificwrecks site show P47Ds with NMF tails but not painted white. However I have seen a few other shots of planes of the 35FG with white tails, as memo serves.

As far as these black bands are concerned. Here you are an enlarged a little bit area of the image posted above. I think there was the band on the wing.
 

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