I answered in the invasion stripes thread, but just for clarity. Unless you have a photo to back up the profile, don't trust the profile.
In the same book that has that profile there is one of a 4th FG Mustang in full invasion stripes, yet the pilot went down in that Mustang to become a POW before D-Day. That Mustang never had invasion stripes
All the groups went with the same orders from above on application of the stripes. In fact the photo evidence right on D-Day shows the HO codes partially overpainted with the stripes and in some cases the individual code letters moved to the nose.
Your best best for this one is to go with the lower wing stripes and lower fuselage stripes and the HO codes showing.
Found some images to illustrate the problem. This is from an old book on Mustang schemes. Note the picture 2nd from the bottom. No doubt the one that the profile is based on.
Also note in the 4 photos the pattern of invasion stripe painting. The full stripes with letter moved forward and the group codes partially oversprayed.
Then the half stripes with the codes re-applied, rather crudely in this case.
Then look at the one the skin is based on. You can see the worn invasion stripes on the leading edge of the wings. And if you look close you can see the oversprayed fuselage stripes as well.
So I'd almost bet the photo was taken during the process of overspraying the stripes on both the wings and fuselage but caught it mid spray.
On the bottom image everything has been oversprayed with silver.
Now that I've got you completely confused. I'd still go with the half stripes on underwings and fuselage. But that's just me
Dan/Slack
