Thanks to Greebo for the inspiration with his P-38 skin build log, Lyric1 for research assistance, and Devil505 for his continuing mentorship. Apologies in advance for missing someone.
This P-38J-15-LO named "Virginia Marie" / "Margaret" was flown by 1st Lt. Carroll R. (Andy) Anderson of the 475th FG, 433rd FS out of Hollandia Strip, New Guinea, in 1944*. Anderson frequently flew combat missions with the second-leading American Ace Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. In the early 1970s, Anderson launched what is said to be the first (and possibly only) in-depth investigation into Major McGuire’s fatal final mission. His findings were presented in the January 1975 issue of Air Force Magazine under the title “McGuire’s Last Mission".
[*Some sources say Boroka Airstrip, Biak]
Anderson also wrote an article on the P-38 in the May 1988 issue of Air Power magazine where he gave a detailed overview of the P-38 that the editor described as an “authenticated body of information about this famous, but often misunderstood aircraft.”
https://airwingmedia.com/articles/2013/flying-the-fork-tailed-devil-p38-pursuit-pilot-remembers-combat-southwest-pacific/This skin was originally created by Kev367th. It has been redrawn for Aces High III. I preserved a section of the original nose art as a tribute to his work.
There were a number of challenges caused by the way the shape wraps and stretches the diffuse map to fit things in. I tried to mitigate these problems, but sometimes it was a choice between two bad options. I did my best.
The thumbnails are linked to uncompressed offsite versions of the photos uploaded here.