Info on P-38J from 367thFG, "Little Buckaroo", flown by Maj. Robert C Rogers

[oboe]

Can anyone verify or corroborate the asymmetric spinner paint pattern shown on the plastic scale model?   I haven't been able to find any other evidence of it.

[Devil 505]

Does the builder mention which decal sheet he used? There may be a clue there as some sheets will mention references.

[perdue3]

I have this decal sheet. Just need a good kit for it in the future. I put the same decals and scheme on a Revell P-38J, but that kit gives me PTSD to think about. I would never guess that one spinner is yellow. There are no pictures of the right boom that I can find or have found.

[Drano]

Tamiya has come out with an F/G and a limited run H. I have both. Looks like it's laid out so they could easily make a J or L. I stopped building a long time ago but never really stopped collecting kits. But the videos and reviews on these new Tamiya kits all say easily best P-38 kits ever. Looking forward to building one of mine someday.

I have several of the Hasegawa and Academy kits, about every add on made for them and a ton of decals.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[Devil 505]

Here's a good pic from a plane in the same squadron. Bare metal spinners on both sides.

[Vraciu]

A split model with markings from different squadrons on each side?

[oboe]

Wasn't it a common practice for Group or Squadron Leaders to paint their planes for extra recognition in the air?   That's what I'm wondering if this might be an example of...

[lyric1]

Can anyone verify or corroborate the asymmetric spinner paint pattern shown on the plastic scale model?   I haven't been able to find any other evidence of it.

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

My photographic evidence says no at the point this photo was taken.



Not relevant just a colour image.

[Guppy35]

Keep in mind this is a continent based, 9th AF bird.  Unlike the 8th AF Groups based on permanent bases in England, the resources to keep the paint jobs up to date was much less.  Also in the ground attack role, these birds took a lot of hits, and had a lot of turnover so replacement parts may at the time of one photo not have been painted to match.  Most likely the left spinner was a replacement and hadn't been painted.  The 38s in particular bounced around too.  As the 8th units transitioned to 51s, the 38s went to the 367th, 370th and 474th or even transferred to 15th AF 38 Groups.  In the ETO the 474th was the only 38 Group until the end of the war, so they got hand me downs from the 367th and 370th.  More often than not, the nose art wasn't removed or changed. 

So you'd see 474th 38s flying with 367th or 370th unit markings.  Again, they attrition was great in the ground attack role.  They had to keep up the ground support as well, so having time to  get the planes painted was way down the list.

[Greebo]

I think Lyric1's photo proves it had NMF spinners on both the left and right and most likely together at some point in its life so that's the safe option to skin. Personally I wouldn't do the yellow/black spinner without an original photo to back it up.

[oboe]

Thanks guys, amazing you're amazing resources.   Another head scratcher, the photo is dated Aug 1944, but the aircraft isn't being shown with D-Day recognition stripes, even the half stripes that were on many airplanes.

I thought they general time line was, full stripes in June-July 1944, a move to half stripes from late summer through the end of '44 to early '45, and then no stripes for planes in late Winter/early Spring 1945.

Could this plane have been a new-issue that didn't see service during the summer of '44, and so never had any stripes applied?

[Spikes]

Keep in mind this is a continent based, 9th AF bird.  Unlike the 8th AF Groups based on permanent bases in England, the resources to keep the paint jobs up to date was much less.  Also in the ground attack role, these birds took a lot of hits, and had a lot of turnover so replacement parts may at the time of one photo not have been painted to match.  Most likely the left spinner was a replacement and hadn't been painted.  The 38s in particular bounced around too.  As the 8th units transitioned to 51s, the 38s went to the 367th, 370th and 474th or even transferred to 15th AF 38 Groups.  In the ETO the 474th was the only 38 Group until the end of the war, so they got hand me downs from the 367th and 370th.  More often than not, the nose art wasn't removed or changed. 

So you'd see 474th 38s flying with 367th or 370th unit markings.  Again, they attrition was great in the ground attack role.  They had to keep up the ground support as well, so having time to  get the planes painted was way down the list.

My thought too was a spare part ordeal. Took a hit and had to have a replacement and that was all that was available for a short time. I assume if it was any sort of longer term solution, it would've been documented in a diary or by photograph at some point.

[Guppy35]

Scanned from the 367th FG History.  This might explain the one spinner and the lack of D-Day stripes. 

Note the bottom photo of the nose art states the image was taken at St. Quentin of Rogers and his new plane.  They moved to St. Quentin on September 12, 1944.  Combine it's his replacement plane for the wrecked bird seen in the other photos that happened at LeMans airfield, that they were at prior to St. Quentin for a very short time.  The wrecked 38 has the half stripes.  I doubt they took time to add them in September since the 38 was easily identifiable due to it's shape.

Now look at the wrecked spinner in the photo in the middle.  It seems to suggest some sort of paint scheme similar to what the the model builder used, although I believe it's just the shadow of the bent propeller blade.  Could be he misread the history in some way and thought it was of the same bird as the lower replacement 38 for the CO.  Also note that the look on the same photo published in the book as was posted by Lyric1, that appeared in the history book, looks just a bit different in the tone on the right spinner back half.  Also might suggest the model builder was playing guess your best

[Spikes]

For giggles I ran it through a colorizer, which may be what they did too.


By no means proof, but might play a role in why the kit chose yellow. Busted up spinner shows yellow, while the bottom picture shows the proper NMF.

[oboe]

Thanks guys.  Whatta great group you are!

Also, has this skin been in AH previously?  I can’t recall for sure.