Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: oboe on July 30, 2008, 11:20:19 AM

Title: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: oboe on July 30, 2008, 11:20:19 AM

Anybody have access to planview images of a P-38 wearing invasion stripes?   There seems to be alot of variation - example look at SCAT II here -

(http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s199/guppy35/Scat2.jpg)

Looks like her invasion stripes on the left wing extended from the base of the out wing panel all the way to the US insignia and past it.

thanks!

Title: Re: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: Jester on July 30, 2008, 11:47:17 AM

Check you e-mail Oboe, they are on the way.   :aok

Title: Re: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: Saxman on July 30, 2008, 03:58:07 PM

They really oughta stop Guppy from taking those birds out for a ride.  :D

Title: Re: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: Guppy35 on July 30, 2008, 11:47:50 PM

Hey, I walked away from it ok.  Any landing you can walk away from....

A 428th FS, 474th P38J being worked on.  Crew Cheif leaning on the leading edge tank.  Seems to give a pretty good indication of where they painted the stripes and where it bumped into the star and bar.

(http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s199/guppy35/Stripes.jpg)

Title: Re: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: Guppy35 on July 31, 2008, 01:41:53 AM

Came across this image too.  Not very even on those stripes :)

(http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s199/guppy35/38Stripes.jpg)

Title: Re: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: oboe on July 31, 2008, 07:13:33 AM

All those images helped alot guys!    My invasion stripes will definitely extend into the star and bar insignia.     

Re: the disassembled 474th bird - wow I wouldn't have thought they could tear one that far apart to work on in the field....

Title: Re: P-38 invasion stripe images needed
Post by: JHerne on July 31, 2008, 10:02:03 AM

Invasion stripes were almost all hand painted. Depending on who painted it, how much time they had to paint the stripes, etc., depended on how nicely they were done. There were directives handed out as to how to paint the stripes, but they were temporary, so you'll find that no two aircraft are alike in positioning or quality.

I've seen C-47s with stripes that looked like a 4-year-old did them with a mop.

Remember, too, that most aircraft painted those stripes out, or stripped them altogether, by August/Sept. of 1944. Very few aircraft carried them into 1945.

This was a critical time in the USAAF. Aircraft were going from Olive Drab to Natural Metal in an effort to improve performance. Stripping the paint off an aircraft and polishing it could increase the speed by several mph in some cases. By mid-1944, especially over France and the low Countries, the Allies had air superiority, so camouflage wasn't a necessity. On the long range escorts, camouflage at 30K is pointless, and again, if they could reduce the weight of the aircraft by a few pounds, that's extra range, speed, fuel, or ammo that they could carry.