Capt. Richard Ira Bong - P-38J “Marge” (993/557) - 49th FG, 9th FS

[Vraciu]

seeing these portraits on these aircraft take me back to my A-10 days. We would take the doors downtown Song Tong and get portraits painted on them. That was before the "cry baby" airforce took over.

I remember those.   

[lyric1]

This is the P-38J-15-LO s/n 42-103993 flown by Medal of Honor recipient and top scoring American fighter pilot (40 victories), Richard Ira Bong.  Named "Marge" after his future wife Marge Vattendahl it was flown by Bong while a Captain assigned to the 49th FG, 9th FS and is depicted on 3 April 1944 when his tally stood at 25.

After the war (Major) Bong was killed in the crash of a P-80 jet fighter at the age of 24.

Originally skinned by Kev367th it has been updated for AH3.  I kept a modified version of the original nose art photo of Marge as a tribute to his work.   I’m still working my way through the metal effect to improve it.  The stretching of the diffuse onto the 3D shape presents some challenges in that regard.   

Thumbnails are to offsite uncompressed versions of the photos posted below.




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New update by Vraciu.

"I updated Marge with better anti-glare lines. "

[lyric1]

A test.

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/skinadmin/stream.php?floc=4&sfile=fullsizeimg.jpg&stype=1&pindex=p38j_5

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/skinadmin/stream.php?floc=4&sfile=fullsizeimg.jpg&stype=1&pindex=p38j_5[/img]

[FTJR]

Looking good Mr V.

[DaddyAce]

Very nice Vraicu!   

[Vraciu]

Very nice Vraicu!   

Thank you, DA.   

Check out CURLY SIX and HELEN as well.  I think you might like them.

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,399545.0.html

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,399511.0.html