P40 Profiles.

[Wildcat1]

Would anyone happen to have an image of the 28th composite group? Stationed in the aleutians throughout the war, some flew warhawks.

My alternate idea is no. 112 squadron, raf

[lyric1]

CBI.

[lyric1]

I saw the picture but not the caption. I still think there's a difference between decorating the nose, and just slapping some paint on haphazardly. It appears to be the latter. It also appears to have been temporary and weathered/worn away very quickly, because the aircraft in question was fully painted over not long after this point, and none of it would show up then. The photos that do show it run the gamut from semi-fresh to almost-gone. I suspect water-based paint or some such, not meant for airframe use.

At this point in time I would tend to agree with you.

 Still have documentation on the way to me. Will wait & see what is there.

[lyric1]

At this point in time I would tend to agree with you.

 Still have documentation on the way to me. Will wait & see what is there.

Some facts that have come to light about this skin.

1. The last two P40's were flown by pilots of two different squadrons from the same fighter group.

2. They both did see combat in this scheme although only for a very short period of time.

3. Yes I did say both? Because they painted the last two P40's with the same scheme to look like a sharks head.
 
This explains a lot of discrepancy's pointed out By Krusty about the uneven looking paint job from photo to photo.
Simply put we are looking at photos of two captured planes with almost the same paint job to look like a sharks head.

So where to go from here? Well the flame blazed P40 profile is out no question unless a flame coloured shark can be found.
The solid yellow profile is out because that uneven looking paint is done by design to look like a sharks skin?



The Japanese pilot  Lt. Yasushi Ushijima of the 84Th dokoritsu chutai. Is referenced a few times about these plane's & I think he may have some written descriptions based off a few links that mention him? Exploring this option at present as well.

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-40/capture.html

http://www.j-aircraft.com/captured/capturedby/p40warhawk/captured_p40.htm
In other words all new ground here

If cactusKooler still wants to do this skin pick a shark that best looks like what you think the skin looks like & go at it.

Unless a Colour photo shows up I would say any thing you paint on will have to be right so long as you make it look like a shark.

Here is the info from the book.

[ink]

Some facts that have come to light about this skin.

1. The last two P40's were flown by pilots of two different squadrons from the same fighter group.

2. They both did see combat in this scheme although only for a very short period of time.

3. Yes I did say both? Because they painted the last two P40's with the same scheme to look like a sharks head.
 
This explains a lot of discrepancy's pointed out By Krusty about the uneven looking paint job from photo to photo.
Simply put we are looking at photos of two captured planes with almost the same paint job to look like a sharks head.

So where to go from here? Well the flame blazed P40 profile is out no question unless a flame coloured shark can be found.
The solid yellow profile is out because that uneven looking paint is done by design to look like a sharks skin?



The Japanese pilot  Lt. Yasushi Ushijima of the 84Th dokoritsu chutai. Is referenced a few times about these plane's & I think he may have some written descriptions based off a few links that mention him? Exploring this option at present as well.

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-40/capture.html

http://www.j-aircraft.com/captured/capturedby/p40warhawk/captured_p40.htm
In other words all new ground here

If cactusKooler still wants to do this skin pick a shark that best looks like what you think the skin looks like & go at it.

Unless a Colour photo shows up I would say any thing you paint on will have to be right so long as you make it look like a shark.

Here is the info from the book.

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wow good read

[Wildcat1]

Did some digging about No. 250 squadron leader Mike Judd, found this neat story:

Later in May we hit the jackpot. Our long-range Kitties, which could fly for over three hours, took off across the Mediterranean to intercept a flight of twelve German troop-carrying planes flying from Crete to North Africa. This had been discovered by what was known as the Y intercept which were a bunch of young ladies in Middle East headquarters listening in on German radio transmissions. Our first attempt failed. We went to the supposed point of interception, found nothing and came back again. The second time we had been flying for about an hour and a quarter, and suddenly, there on the horizon like a flock of partridges, were these twelve great big lumbering three-engined German transports. I said, "Tally ho!" and we went in and there was a great slaughter. They were, of course, slow and relatively unarmed. I knocked down two of them, and on the second one I made an approach from the side and I noticed that the paratroopers inside the plane had knocked the windows out and were firing at me with tommy guns. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but just as I was turning away my engine stopped cold. I was about 200 feet above the water, and I thought, "Oh, my God!" and suddenly realized I had forgotten to change over from my long range tank to the regular tanks, so I had run it dry. The propeller was still windmilling, I switched the tanks, turned on the fuel booster pump and after about two seconds the engine picked up again, with my heart, which had practically stopped. This interception was reported in all the English newspapers and my father said, "Well, that must have been Michael because nobody else would have described twelve German airplanes as looking like a flock of partridges." This brought my score up to four and I needed only one more to be an ace. When I landed I found the front part of my plane riddled with bullets from tommy guns. They hit everything except my radiator -one bullet in that and I would have been down in the Med, a hundred miles from shore. My first lucky escape. One of the things which was annoying was that the P-40's we were flying were not only unsuitable for the desert because they were too susceptible to the dust, but also they had a low ceiling and were relatively slow. The only good think about them was they had six 50 caliber machine guns which did quite a lot of damage as long as they kept firing, which they didn't all the time. I was so tired of being bounced by 109's from above that one day I said, "You know, I believe that we could flog these things up to about 22,000 feet and we might catch some 109's unawares looking down. So I got the squadron up to 22,000 feet where we were just about hanging on and as we flew, coming in the opposite direction, were three 109's about a thousand feet below us and obviously looking down rather than up. We turned down on them and I got about 200 yards behind the lead aircraft when my reflector sight went out. I therefore waited until I was practically on his tail before opening fire and he practically disintegrated. This was my fifth victory and made me an ace. My second narrow escape occurred when I was returning alone after straffing some motor transport. I wasn't watching my tail and I suddenly saw tracer bullets pass my left wing-tip. I immediately took violent evasive action and lost my attacker. If he had been an experienced pilot, I would have been dead. I learned something from that. One amusing interlude occurred some time in mid-summer, when I was given a week's leave and told that I might fly my airplane up to Beirut to visit my brother. George was on the staff of General Wilson in Beirut. Beirut was some 500 miles away and would require one refueling stop on the way, which would be Lidda. However, this was just after we had been pushed all the way back to the delta by the Germans, and General whoever-it-was had announced that all maps east of Suez would be destroyed, so there was no chance of our retreating. You can't retreat without a map Therefore when I went to air headquarters to get a map in order to fly to Beirut, which is about halfway up the coast between Turkey and Egypt, I was told there were no maps. I didn't know how to find my way there without one. I was sitting in my tent one evening disconsolately, when I saw a little cloud of dust on the horizon and up came the interdenominational padre, a charming Irish Catholic who administered to whatever religion anybody had. He also had a remarkable nose for when the squadron had a supply of beer. He came into my tent and I had a brilliant idea. I said, "Padre, have you got your Bible with you?" Well, he had a great big Bible, so I looked at it and there, of course, in the fly leaf was a pasted map of the Middle East. I said, "May I borrow this, because I need to fly up to Beirut and that's the only map there is." "Certainly, me boy," he said, "certainly," and we eased it out of his Bible and in God's truth I used it to fly up to Beirut. When I got there George was already having a splendid time with the local nobility and we lived in great luxury, being ferried around up and down the mountain by various rich ladies and their daughters in Mercedes-Benz cars. However, this was too good to last and after a week I had to fly back again

[Guppy35]

Suggest you gents hold off on the 40s as Pyro has asked both while the shapes are taken care of, and to get the word as to whether we can have N, or Merlin F/L skins on E models.

[Wildcat1]

Suggest you gents hold off on the 40s as Pyro has asked both while the shapes are taken care of, and to get the word as to whether we can have N, or Merlin F/L skins on E models.

Can't wait

[lyric1]

Still have a truck load of profiles to post. I guess the skinners will have plenty of time to make up there minds as to what they want.

Here is a link with a few good ones.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/54170063/Curtiss-P-40-From-1939-to-1945-Historie-Collections-Planes-Pilots

[Guppy35]

Doomed at the Start is a good read.  As for those shark mouth P40s, I wounder if they were given a bit of bright paint to ID them to Japanese gunners on their flight to the Japanese airfield.

[lyric1]

Doomed at the Start is a good read.  As for those shark mouth P40s, I wounder if they were given a bit of bright paint to ID them to Japanese gunners on their flight to the Japanese airfield.

The way I read it they had painted the shark heads earlier before surrender. I have never heard of the term sharks head before Always sharks mouth when they are talking about just teeth nose art. The distinction is very different to any thing I have heard before & is why I think they painted an entire head & not just the mouth.

[Guppy35]

The way I read it they had painted the shark heads earlier before surrender. I have never heard of the term sharks head before Always sharks mouth when they are talking about just teeth nose art. The distinction is very different to any thing I have heard before & is why I think they painted an entire head & not just the mouth.

I believe the Sharks mouth was there..  I was thinking the lighter color around it on the nose and Spinner.  That looks like a much more hurried application.

[Wmaker]

George Preddy's TARHEEL would be one I'd like to see done.

[Krusty]

Some facts that have come to light about this skin.

1. The last two P40's were flown by pilots of two different squadrons from the same fighter group.

2. They both did see combat in this scheme although only for a very short period of time.

3. Yes I did say both? Because they painted the last two P40's with the same scheme to look like a sharks head.
 
This explains a lot of discrepancy's pointed out By Krusty about the uneven looking paint job from photo to photo.
Simply put we are looking at photos of two captured planes with almost the same paint job to look like a sharks head.

So where to go from here? Well the flame blazed P40 profile is out no question unless a flame coloured shark can be found.
The solid yellow profile is out because that uneven looking paint is done by design to look like a sharks skin?

I don't think that's correct at all Lyric.

They strafed some ships in combat, painted in normal P-40E markings. After some combat they were THEN (after) ordered to a repair field for engine overhauls. At this field the ground technicians working on them painted them, and they never flew combat again after this point, being immediately captured.

Further, they were stripped of all equipment including guns and radios in an attempt to get the most range to escape the coming Japanese, so they were also not in a combat state.

Non-combat situation, temporary markings applied by repair crews during scheduled engine overhaul, while being removed of all gear to effectively combat the enemy.

Not a valid skin in any way, IMO.


P.S. 2 planes might explain a couple of things but the photos still show a thin splotchy paint (the base colors showing through easily) and it fading very quickly or just washing off (heavy moisture, jungle conditions) that was slapped on. I think far too much emphasis is being placed on those planes. They slapped some paint on the noses and it rinsed off quickly. It was not used that way.

[SmokinLoon]

I sincerely hope that someone skins the RAAF's 75th Fighter Squadron.  I believe the 75th is one of the units that escorted my grandfather's unit during his bomb runs up and down the slot.  He never had anything but RAAF P40's, and most of them were with the white tails.  I'll dig deeper into his flight records and see if I can find any more details.