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As an example, I was absolutely shocked to find that a model company was releasing sheets featuring markings for 487th aircraft, with a sheet featuring B-25J Tuff Stuff due in March of this year! When the artwork went up, I was confused because of an overall camouflage scheme that I have never seen before with black undersides and disruptive green upper surfaces (see below).
View attachment 706936
Nailing down details for these aircraft has been difficult due to all of the changes, but I was hoping it would have been more consistent with the rest of the BG. This, along with the color of blue used for the engine cowls/spinners, for example, has been perplexing. There is also early vs late service, referencing the apparent factory camouflage seen below:
Hi Mike!
Sometimes there are lines/borders we create alone to separate possible from....let say improbable. The creators of the profiles clearly misidentified a shadow for a black under surface, which in this case was never used in the MTO AFAIK. One can compare the photo in flight you posted and the colour profile (obviously based on the former) and see how the darker under surface does not go from nose to tail. The misinterpreted NM cowling is another clearly visible element: in fact only one panel in front of the carburetor intake is in NM (probably taken from another not camouflaged plane), but the intake and the top surface of the nacelle is camouflaged. The lighter appearing colour in this area is because of the hot exhaust gases coming out of the single S-stacks.
There were white, blue, red and yellow rings to distinguish different squadrons. AFAIR blue was the colour for the second squadron in the group so it matches the position of the 487th BS. Often the propeller domes were painted in the same colour. At the end of the war the lower half of the ring was painted only. The blue used in this cases was a darker blue tone, not as light as shown. I have a photo of 7J in NM with lighter appearing ring and dome (I'm sure you've seen the photo) - no idea what the colour is.
The latter markings have been added or deleted in different periods so this may vary, but on the photo in flight of 7M there is no coloured ring IMHO and the propeller dome is in NM - see zoomed in detail above.
The lighter and darker appearing areas of the top camo can be explained easily (at least this is what I know about) with differently faded out panels, repairs and/or repaintings. This photo shows it well:
8B has an original factory camouflage and 8P - a field applied one
The new paint always appears darker than the original one. There is also a difference between the older (darker, more brownish) Dark OD Green 41 and the newer lighter OD (to become ANA 613) used after mid 1943. Repairs made with the older, darker tone differed from the original, lighter tone of the factory camouflaged a/c. I'm sure you've seen even older B-25 in the MTO, originally camouflaged in sand but with repairs and patches in OD (we're discussing one of them
here).
I checked an original photo of 7Z in flight as well and it's basically the same play of light and shadows. The black lower colour in the profile you've shown always ends abruptly at some panel line - compare with the photo below that this was not the case.
The nose probably shows some repair with a darker (OD) tone which goes over the NG:
There is some overpainting of the left nacelle which might have been in NM originally (a repair part), and the newly applied colours do not match the standard scheme, I agree. But again there are no black under surfaces IMHO. I've seen the exact same appearance on a plane from the 489th BS. It is possible that the original camo was changed for some reason, unknown to me.
The above photo clearly illustrates all those specific details mentioned above.
And a last one (from the book "B-25 Mitchell units in the MTO") - different shades of OD in any possible variation can be seen very well. The dark appearing nacelle is not black, but fresh dark OD, white lower half of the ring and propeller dome etc. The camouflage is field not factory applied though.
You might try and contact the manufacturers of the decals, asking them what sources did they use. I've seen many misinterpretations of old photos to "get a life" in models, decals, paintings. This doesn't make them real though.
I'm not a modeller per se, just trying this an that, but there are some brilliant modellers in this forum and I believe they will agree that representing a realistic faded camouflage colour is not an easy task. One needs several variations of the basic colour, darker and lighter, to create a nice looking replica (model). Those variations will be subtle and with soft borders, rather than sharp and heavy as in the profiles for the decals.
If you start building a model of this particular a/c, you might decide to show it here. I'm sure many of the forum-members will have some good ideas or share their knowledge.
The truth is out there!
Cheers!