United States Aircraft Markings (1 Viewer)

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I may look at an option of US Army training aircraft as it was claimed to have trained 80% of all US pilots in WWII. Can someone advise a reference for colours and markings for a training aircraft? I'd be very grateful for any advice.

Most of the J3s used to train pilots at civilian schools during WW2 carried the standard cub yellow scheme with the black stripe lightning bolt on the side of the fuselage.
 
Thanks for the advice.

180px-Piperj3c.jpg

c/o wikipedia.com

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c/o wikipedia.com

I've got a choice of the almost legendary civilian Cub Yellow scheme or in Army colours ... oh decisions decisions ...
 
Or one with AEAF stripes, or the one used by, IIRC, the 4th FG, with a Sharks mouth nose......or one of many civvy British-registered examples, one of which is based not far from you....
 
As memo serves the Olive Drab was used for painting J3S that served in US Army. These training ones were painted with light colours including the yellow.
 
Does anyone have any references for the toning down or greying out of the USAAF national insignia notably found in UK operations of 8th AF? Many photographs show these greyed out markings on B-17's [camo and nm] ,B-24's, P-51's, P-47's etc...
 
Grey instead white on US insignia; an example is shown in the last part of How to Paint the Grumman TGF/TBM Avenger quoted early in this thread. I yet to find how it was done in ETO however :idea:.
On the page 3, No.12 and the note underneath says" Gray on upper left wing Insignia shall be obtained by mixing one volume each of Light Gray and Insignia White."
 

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Everything is possible as there was a war on and not all 'official' markings were carried out. Look at P-47's that had very large insignias under BOTH wings. That was not the official USAAF standard but rather something for the Eurpean Theatre.
 
Size and placements of B-17 markings and insignia's

Micdrow

Source:
The Mighty Eight Warpaint Heraldry
by Roger A Freeman

----------------------------------

I am looking for aircraft markings for 12 and 15th Air Force aircraft like you have for the national insignia on the B-17.

Thank you

Bearcatdash2
 
Could it be that the white was just faded and dirty from use and weathering? The directions in models can give you the instructions to give it the used look. I always used to paint oil marks and paint chipping on planes when I'd build model. I remember seeing a picture of a light pink colored P-40 used in the desert. It was a modern picture and the pilot was a woman. Someone commented on a girl painting the plane pink but it was pointed out that the sand color they used initially faded to that color.
 
Over the years I have seen photos and references to the US national markings with the GRAY star (toned down) I have never been able to find any written spec for this.
The first three pics are from "USAAF Aircraft Markings Camouflage 1941-47" by Robert Archer 1997.
The first set of color insignias is from "Battle Colors Vol 1" by Robert Watkins 2004
The second set is from "Battle Colors Vol IV" by Robert Watkins 2009
I found it interesting that the first Battle Colors includes the gray marking and the second doesn't. Neither volume mentions the gray in any of the text.
I have also seen the yellow bars in books and even on a 1/48th decal sheet, but never seen a photo or a spec for them.
 

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It's probable that the short-lived yellow bars hardly got into use. The red surround to the 'Stars and Bars' had just been ordered, and many units had yet to add them to the bars, when the order was countermanded!
Basically, the red surround could be seen between early to mid August and late August 1943, with the orders for their removal to be completed by September 3rd, 1943. Some units didn't even get around to adding them, whilst others had just added them when they had to be overpainted with fresh, Insignia Blue paint.
 
I realize it may have been just for a short period of time. Was it just something someone decided to do? If not where are the specs? I've looked in a lot of books and have never seen any.
 
Don't know about the yellow in the bars, but the red outline was added, with the bars, to make them more visible. The bars were added to present the insignia as a rectangle at a distance, as the star and disc could easily blur into what could appear as a cross or merely a circle. However, after complaints from the PTO, where it was thought the red could be confused with the Japanese markings, the red outline was ordered to be overpainted in blue. The order to add the bars was issued on June 28th 1943, to be implemented by September 1st 1943. The order to change from red outline to blue was dated August 14th 1943, only two to three weeks after the initial changes began to take place!
The specifications for the bars were that they should be a one circle radius (of the blue disc) either side, and one half the radii deep.
The later toning-down with grey was a measure to overpaint the white areas, mainly the bars, in a thin wash of neutral grey, in order to render them less conspicuous, paricularly on bombers painted in Olive Drab, and it seems that this only lasted a relatively short priod of time, but, again, with examples cointinuing in service due to operational pressure.
I've never seen any specifications, or details of dates, theatres etc, for the yellow area within the bars, and wonder if this has perhaps been mis-interpretation of photographs at some point?
 
Hello All,

I am wondering if anyone knows which font was used on the P-51 named Ferocious Frankie?

I am interested in the modern aircraft which is flying around today.

Also, does anyone know the exact colour codes and/or have a proper 3-view of this aircraft?
 

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