Yep, that was one of the sources I worked from to do the skin.
Between that painting and your photograph, it can be unclear which finger is really extended - if I didn't know better I could assume without much difficulty he was making the '#1!' gesture, with index finger pointed skyward.
I think his nephew, William has that model.
Its kindof interesting to me the Laven would think he was such a hot stick with contemporaries like Bong and McGuire - they were in the high 30s while he was still struggling to make ace. I guess he would be pretty upset about being stuck in the backwater of the Aleutians, and probably fought to get the transfer to the 49th and into thicker action.
I think the race for America's top WWII air ace would be a terrific movie - with incredible computer graphics capabilities nowadays and awesome theater sound you could have an entire movie full of action similiar to the best flight sequences from Pearl Harbor, Hart's War, and Aviator. I think I'd sit through a movie like that over and over again.
