Author Topic: Guppy: B-24 Skin Info (Read 938 times)

United · « **on:** November 03, 2004, 07:14:01 PM »

You wouldn't happen to have more info and/or pictures of this bird, would you?

I think I may give it a shot.

Guppy35 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2004, 08:38:33 PM »

That all gray Pathfinder was a B24L 44-41006 #30 assigned to the 737th BS, 454th BG, 15th AF, Cerignola, Italy January 1945.

"My crew", that is the one I've researched off and on the last 10 years, flew that bird when they became a Pathfinder crew.

When I found the family of one of the MIA crewmen, there was a photo in his stuff that they had that showed this plane, labeled "our ship".

It was to be named "Terrible Terry", in honor of the two year old nephew of the Pilot, Captain Richard Fry. The surviving crew don't recall nose art ever going on though as they were shot down in another 24 not too long afterwards in February of 45.

They flew this bird on 5 missions if I remember right.

The serial was matched to the #30 on the fuselage from mission 'flimsies' in the group history showing formation set ups that also matched the plane to pilot.

The image is the one mentioned from the family of waist gunner Earle Kulhanek, who was killed in the crash of the crew's B24 on 2/14/45

Dan/Slack

United · « **Reply #2 on:** November 03, 2004, 09:06:28 PM »

Excellent! Do you know if this bird was actually aircraft gray or was it bare metal? In the picture there I believe it looks gray though.

Also, do you have any info on "your crew"s other birds? I would love to skin one or two for you.

Guppy35 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 03, 2004, 10:28:43 PM »

For some reason, no one has yet to reasonably explain to me, all pathfinder B24s and 17s in the 15th AF were overall gray.

The 8th AF didn't do that nor did any other US Air Forces operating in WW2 in the Pac.

I imagine it was for easy ID purposes but no one seems to know for sure.

I have photos of other birds the crew flew. They initially were with the 737th BS but then went to the 736th shortly after becoming pathfinder qualified.

Here are a couple of the B24s they flew. San Antonio Rose 42-95009 #43 went down after close to 100 missions. The Fry crew flew it on three missions. On one of them the Top Turret Gunner Bob Haws came down from the flight deck on the way home and was headed for the waist to stretch his legs. He didn't make it as the catwalk through the bomb bay had been blown out by a flak shell that had gone through the B24 without exploding.

The natural metal bird is "The Joker" 41-28993 #44 although there is clearly no nose art on it. This one Dick Fry managed to scrape across the beach and crashland out of fuel. Reps from Consolidated came out to this one as he'd brought it in with no engines running. The censors took out the tail markings on this photo. I have another one of the same image from a different crewman that was also rubbed out by censors.

Thanks for the offer to do skins of some of their planes. I have nose art photos of a couple others too

Dan/Slack

United · « **Reply #4 on:** November 04, 2004, 07:39:38 PM »

Got some work to do, but I have the basic layout of it finished.

What do you think?

That font doesn't look right to me, but it is USAAF stencil. I'll look around and see if I can find some more realistic looking one.

Its actually darker than it looks, but the 24 has some sort of built in shine to it that makes the sun reflect like crazy. So, it looks rather awkward with the large sun reflection.

Shane · « **Reply #5 on:** November 04, 2004, 08:41:03 PM »

ya ya do the san antonio rose!

Guppy35 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:37:23 PM »

Might want to try one of the RAF fonts. That's what I used on the profile.

I sure hope they figure out the shine. I can't believe they'd work that hard on the 24 and then not allow for all kinds of OD/Gray or other camo schemes because it's shiny.

I can't tell from the image on how the gray looks. Obviously it still has the anti glare panal in front of the cockpit as well, when the all gray birds didn't have it.

Here's another image I got from a guy who was on the crew of one of the 24s in the formation the day the Fry crew went down. This is from later when the 454th added the red cowls. I know it looks light, but I think it's the film type as the red fire extinguisher rectangle looks the same.

But it's an all gray pathfinder.

Dan/Slack

United · « **Reply #7 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:49:57 PM »

Im not so sure about the anti-glare panel. I have it covered in gray in the skin, yet it shows up as some sort of masked black. Ill go back and have a look and see what's causing the problem.

I have some RAF fonts so Ill mess around with those as well and see what I can come up with.

That picture you have above shows that it was a dark gray, much darker than I used. But, if you look at my "missing B-24J" thread you'll see what happens when I used the darker looking gray.

SELECTOR · « **Reply #8 on:** November 05, 2004, 02:33:37 PM »

it was called blue gray..

United · « **Reply #9 on:** November 06, 2004, 02:54:37 PM »

I've decided to postpone working on this one until we are able to adjust the shine. It just doesnt look right with it on.