The V-Plot Thickens, And Some Clarified Zippers

Mystery in Glossy Sea Blue

Mark Nankivil started it all a blog or so ago when he sent in some really tasty photos of St Louis Navy Reserve Hellcats and Corsairs, a couple of which had their Bureau Numbers prefixed by the letter "V".  I'll be the first to admit that my archives could be more complete than they presently are, but there's a lot of stuff there and I had nothing, not one scrap of information, on the practice of placing that letter in front of the BuNo on anything the Navy flew during the 1940s. Nothing. Zip. Nada. That led in turn to a call for help to Rick Morgan and Tommy Thomason, both regulars around here and both People Who Would Know, except this time they didn't know either. The mystery deepened. Somewhere in there I forgot to ask Jim Sullivan about it, but he was kind enough to provide some insight that clears things up a little bit. Then Mark Nankivil, the guy who started this whole thing, provided further information. It was a Group Effort to be sure, and we finally began to Get Somewhere.

That was when I started looking at some of my older enthusiast's publications, mostly because I'd looked everyplace else and come up with a dead end each and every time. First up was Bill Kilgrain's 1973-vintage monograph, Color Schemes and Markings; U.S. Navy Aircraft 1911-1950, IPMS Canada. There, sitting on the cover and thumbing its nose at me was a photograph of a St Louis FG-1D with a V-prefixed bureau number! Unfortunately, there was no textual comment regarding same, although there was an annotation that the Reserves sometimes placed the letter "N" in front of the aircraft's type designation (see that NF6F-5 photo) to designate a training role, which was corraborated by Rick, Tommy, and Jim. The corollary mystery of the "N" prefix was thereby solved, but that still left the "V" with no explanation.

Another reference that seemed to be of use was an old Squadron/Signal publication entitled Navy Air Colors Vol.2, 1945-1985 by Tom Doll, Berkley Jackson, and Bill Riley. That series of books, often overlooked by "serious" aerospace historians, cites regulations and specifications and is a largely ignored treasure. It doesn't clear up that "V" business either, but it does define the orange-yellow stripes, numbers, and "US NAVY" under the horizontal stabs. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place regarding those photos. We were getting somewhere!

That brings us up to Right Now, and here's what I think we know:

1. The "N" prefix means trainer, and was used by the Naval Reserves immediately postwar to define aircraft with a training mission , which in many respects seemed to be the Reserve's role 1945 to 1947.
2. The orange-yellow stripes and markings weren't really an anomaly but rather a defined practice cited in regulations.
3. The Mystery "V" has yet to be satisfactorily explained and will remain that way, at least to me, until we can find a document that authorizes it. If any of you have that document please scan it and e-mail it to me at replicainscale@yahoo.com . Please!

Meanwhile, here's some of the ongoing correspondence I've been priviledged to receive on the subject:

From Tommy Thomason:

Short answer - I don't know. I have read (United States Navy Serials 1941 to 1976) that the purpose for this marking was not known but that the practice had died out by 1950. Remember that, post war, the services had more airplanes than they knew what to do with or could afford to operate.

It probably has something to do with the retention plan for that particular aircraft and was associated with the immediate post war practice of adding an A- or N- ahead of the aircraft designation painted on aircraft, as in A-F6F-5. No prefix meant a first line aircraft capable of unlimited combat operations. A- meant a second line (obsolescent?) aircraft. N- meant suitable only for training.

The V prefix presumably meant something like it was not to be put into overhaul but stricken at the end of the current service tour. The only two examples I've seen are an A-F6F-5 with the BuNo preceded by V and an N-SB2C-5 with no V. It may be that all N aircraft were to be stricken at the end of the current service tour and this particular F6F-5 was on its second service tour so it was headed for the bone yard as well, whereas an A-F6F-5 on its first tour would not have a V and go to overhaul so it could do a second tour, but it would come out of that first overhaul with a V ahead of the BuNo.

But I'm really making things up, other than the A- and N- practice, which is from Elliott Volume 2. In that Elliott, he also says that the V is "an accounting code not intended for aircraft display."

From Mark Nankivil:

Thanks to Mark Aldrich, we now have an answer to the question!

"As far as the "V" prefix goes, it was reasonably common on reserve birds in the 1945-46 time period and was meant to indicate heavier-than-air. This coincided with the brief usage of the "N" prefix for the type designation for reserve aircraft as shown on the FG-1 and F6F images you scanned. Those are great examples of a seldom seen marking that was fully endorsed by BuAer."

From Rick Morgan:

Guys: The more I look at this , the more I suspect the “V-Buno” is not for “heavier than air”. While I can’t find the ‘smoking gun’ quite yet, a lot of period documentation talks about the V-6 program, which apparently was the post WWII reserve program, which is also referred to repeatedly as the “Voluntary Reserves”, which is what we later called Selected Reserves, or SelRes. Right now, and it’s just a guess, I tend to believe the Reserves were assigned a distinct group of aircraft and that the V-buno was one way they were distinguished from the Active Duty force. This appears to have lasted from 1946 to Korea, when the war, with its call-ups and mass movement of airframes, made the whole thing irrelevant. Of course you could ask why they didn’t use “R”, to which I have no answer.

Two things that might help (other than finding the instruction that would clear it all up!): A shot of a Lakehurst Reserve blimp and its Buno- is it a “V” or “Z”?

Another thing would be a shot of an active duty aircraft with a “V-buno”…. Although I haven’t seen one yet.

Ain’t this fun?

And finally, from Jim Sullivan:

Just read your latest article from Replica In Scale. I believe that the 'V' prefix was briefly used to designate a Reserve aircraft. I wouldn't want to state that as a fact, but that is the way I understood it. After the close of WWII, the Reserves had some funky ideas about markings as seen on their planes. One of those was the use of the 'N' before the aircraft type, i.e, NFG-1D or NF6F-5. Another was the deletion of the fuselage insignia and the use of international orange numbers and letters. That lasted only a short time as the transition to more standard markings soon returned. Reserve aircraft then carried forward the use of the international orange fuselage band and maintained that for many years. I have attached several shots of Corsairs in the early Reserve markings. Two are from NRAB Minneapolis, MN and the other is from NAS New York. The two Minneapolis birds were shot by the late Bob Stucky and the New York Corsair is in my collection but I am unsure of the identity of the original photographer.

So we're no closer now than we were before, but we've definitely got some Heavy Hitters working the problem! Stay tuned, folks; I doubt we've seen the end of this one! Meanwhile, how about a couple of photos from the collection of Jim Sullivan to sweeten the pot a little bit?

BuNo 88231, an FG-1D out of Minneapolis showing the early orange-yellow bands and numbers. The aircraft type is prefixed by an "N" but the BuNo is given simply as 88231. Note that this aircraft exhibits the typical rocket stub launchers common to late-War Navy and Marine aircraft, while the St Louis-based FG-1s and F6Fs shown in our last installment were fitted with rails. So much for standardization! Bob Stucky via Jim Sullivan

Another Minneapolis bird; an FG-1D that's displaying its orange-yellow wing markings to advantage. Note that the tailhook is in place. The antenna treatment (not a topic of discussion in this missive but interesting nontheless) is shown to advantage. The BuNo is 88395 and is sans "V", but the "N" is in front of the type designator.  Bob Stucky via Jim Sullivan

And finally, here's 92215 flying out of New York. Once again we have the early treatment, but this time the legend "NAS NEW YORK" appears in orange-yellow under the cockpit. There's no "V" anywhere in sight but the "N" is there in front of the designator again.  Sullivan Collection

One final thing to consider: Rick Morgan pointed out that the single-charecter unit letter on the fins of the St Louis birds actually superceded the two-letter designation system ("U" for St Louis and "F" for Fighter, then simply "U" for St Louis). The St Louis birds with the later International Orange fuselage band all seem to have that "V" in front of their BuNos, as does the earlier shot of the Hellcat. All of the aircraft we've seen with the early orange-yellow treatment have the "N" prefix to the aircraft type designator, but only those from St Louis have the "V". Finally, the air-to-air shot on the cover of Kilgrain's book (which I'm not showing because of that copyright thing) has the International Orange reserve stripe with a "V" in front of the BuNo.

One final question and we'll leave this subject for tonight: Was the "V" in front of the bureau number unique to St Louis? You've now seen all the photos of this topic that I've been privy to. Anybody out there know the answer?

A Zipper With a Can

Several installments ago we ran some photos of two-seat F-104s, one of which was fitted with an enormous "can" behind the afterburner, presumably to reduce the Zip's considerable IR signature. All I had at the time was speculation, but now there's more, this time from Hubert Petzmeier, a fellow who runs a must-visit F-104 site at http://www.916-starfighter.de/   .

The aircraft was flying out of China Lake during June of 1963 and was in fact performing trials involving the attempted masking the F-104's IR plume. F-104D 57-1315 was the testbed. The mod obviously never made it to production!  USAF

And a SLAR Zipper That Wasn't

Also from Hubert, and with considerable clarification of that Chinese F-104 with the funny nose:

- It was not SLAR equiped, it was LOROP (Long Range Oblique Photography) in the extended nose
- there was NO F-104 equipped 4 TRS, it was the 12th TRS.

Hubert also supplied a really neat shot of one of the birds, but I can't get it to download to this blog so you're going to have to visit his site to view it. Here's the link to the specific picture: http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Stars/wR400L.htm  . Check it out, and spend some time on Hubert's site. It's well worth your visit. Thanks, Hubert, for explaining that photo for us! 

And a Fond See You Soon

That's it for tonight, ya'll. Be good to your neighbor, and we'll see you again next week!
phil

Something Unexpected, A Little More On Old Shakey, and a Dark Blue Cat

It's a Hormone Thing

Did you ever have one of those days when you just couldn't find something you wanted but found something else that was actually better instead? I had one of those days yesterday. The original object of my search was a battered manila folder entitled "Models". It was something I put together back in the late '80s and it has some pretty neat stuff in it that I wanted to share with you today, but it wasn't where it was supposed to be (in the Dogs & Cats Miscellaneous File). There was another folder that caught my eye, though, and some of its contents are the subject of today's photo essay.

Any of you who ever flew for the military during the Cold War, or are familiar with folks who did, know that there were (and undoubtedly still are) a whole lot of cameras out there in Aviation Land. A great many of them are personal property, although more than a few are provided by the parent organization (USAF, USN, etc) to facilitate the documentation of things that might be a little bit out of the ordinary. What follows would seem to fall into that Little Bit Out of the Ordinary category. All were officially released for publication back in the early '80s but I can't recall seeing them published before now. Enjoy!

Smile for the camera, please! A Soviet aircrewman prepares to do a little photography from the cabin of this Kamov Ka-25 "Hormone" in March of 1972. The photo was taken in the Med and shows what a compact aircraft the Kamov is. I'd love to see a good 1/48th scale kit of this aircraft!  USN K-93750

The bird farm. Here's a view of the fantail of the Kiev shot in 1978  and showing a deckload of Kamovs and Yaks. Note the way the rotors fold for storage on the helos.  USN 1173146

Kiev initiates air ops off the Philippines in 1979. It's not quite the deck full of aircraft that we're used to seeing on American carriers but the ship and her air wing were viable assets for the Soviet navy during that time period. USN 1175141

You never know who you're going to find hanging around the boat. A "Hormone" hovers off the port side of the John F. Kennedy on 17 September, 1972 during her deployment to the Med. Comparison between the Ka-25 and the HC-2 SH-2D being preflighted on the angle provides an excellent size comparison between the two aircraft. The Kamov is being observed from the deck but nobody's particularly concerned about the visitor. This sort of thing was fairly common during the Cold War.  USN 17559

Let's have a little fun! An SH-3A from HS-6 shadows a "Hormone" somewhere over the pacific in May of 1972. This image was taken with a long lens and causes the two aircraft to appear to be similar in size(and very close together!) when in fact the Kamov is considerably the smaller of the two helos. This shot holds our Most Dramatic Photograph of the Day title!  USN  1151607

Me, I Like the C-124

Which is why we're taking another look at it today, but not with photographs. These images are from T.O. 1C-124A-1 and show various details that may be of interest.

This illustration shows the flight deck and various crew ladders, but that's not why we're looking at it. Take a gander at the wing roots, then note the crawlways leading out to the engine nacelles, and the on-board maintenance platforms built into those nacelles. Yep! You could perform minor maintenance operations while in flight on Old Shakey. Those were the days!

You have to get in it before you can fly it. This page from the flight manual shows how the crew (as opposed to passengers, troops, etc) gained entry to the aircraft.

How to Tell When You're Having a Bad Day, Part I.  Those old radials were neat engines, but sometimes they didn't work quite as planned. This page from the flight manual tells the crew how to figure out the cause and relative severity of an in-flight engine fire.

How to Tell When You're Having a Bad Day, Part II. It only goes downhill from there. Note that on this page there are a couple of conditons that call for use of the terms "explosion", "...engine may fall off its mounts.", "abandon aircraft", and "bail out". And you thought that sort of stuff only happened on TV!

Old Shakey wasn't particularly sophisticated, but she did carry a lot of com gear. This illustration shows the variety of antennae present to support her various radios and navigation systems. You don't normally notice that stuff in photographs because the airplane's so darned big!

And finally, this diagram shows what the Globemaster's all about. Besides the ramp that's evident up front, there's a loading platform that drops down from the belly aft of the wing. The auxiliary floor allowed for the transport of both troops and cargo at the same time. This was a huge airplane for its day, and an extremely capable one. In many respects it typifies the Air Force of the 1950s.

In Theory It's a Modeling Pub, So Here's a Model

Hasegawa released a pair of 1/48th scale F6F Hellcat kits back in the mid-90s. Both suffered from soft detail and an undersized cowling, but both were, and to a great extent still are, good representations of the real thing. Eduard issued a superb rendition of the F6F a couple of years ago which immediately became the Gold Standard for models of that aircraft and pushed the Hase offerings into a distant second place. You can still get a pretty fair model out of either of the Hasegawa kits, however, and they're worth building if you have them. Here are a couple of shots to illustrate that point.

Here's a 3/4 nose shot of the port side of the Hasegawa F6F-5. Eduard makes a detail set for the Hasegawa kits that is an essential for building an accurate model; it includes cockpit components, details for the wheel wells, and the aileron hinges that Hasegawa represents with small blobs of plastic on the kit. The cowling on this model is from the now-defunct Cutting Edge and improves things considerably. Obscuro also has a replacement cowl that's supposed to be quite good; either one will enable you to build a far better Hellcat!

And the other side. The national insignia were painted on the model by using stencils made by Eduard. I'm pretty sure those stencils have been discontinued, which is a shame considering how much better the painted markings look than decals. (Montex probably has the same sort of mask for doing the same thing, but I'm not sure about that...) Some folks had a field day trashing this kit back when it was the only game in town. Then they had another one when Eduard released their F6F kits. The offerings of either manufacturer will produce an outstanding model of the Hellcat; it all comes down to what you want to put into it.

And that's what I know. Until then, be good to your neighbor.
phil

Every Dog Has Its Day and a Battered Cat

The Tale (Not Tail) of the Iron Dog in 1/48th Scale

You gotta love the internet. There's lots of information out there to be had for nothing more than a little effort, although you have to be careful because a whole lot of that information is either re-hashed stuff that was wrong in the first place or, worse than that, somebody's opinion and not fact at all. Today's main topic, the Bell P-39 Airacobra in 1/48th scale, is a good case in point, having suffered from internetitis more than most kit subjects. It seems as though every Instant Expert on the planet has landed squarely on the three available kits of the airplane and figured out that this one or that one is the only Good One. I personally don't agree with that, not at all, and am going to borrow the next few minutes of your lives to explain why. (If you're an Instant Gratification sort of person you can skip what follows, because I think you can get a really good P-39 from any of the kits we're going to discuss. See, I just saved you all that reading! You're grateful, right?)

Honkin' With An Oldie

Let's go back to those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear which, for the purpose of this ramble, would be 1969 or so. There was a lot going on back then, including Monogram's release of a ground-breaking P-39 kit. That particular Airacobra has stood the test of time better than you could ever imagine, and has been released in several guises (including one in the late, lamented Monogram's "ProModeller" line). It was The First One, for many years The Only One, and is still a Darned Good One. Let's talk about that kit and a couple of others for a minute, taking great pains to remember that this isn't a review, or even a P-39 shootout. OK? OK.

The folks who have complained about the admittedly-ancient Monogram kit have landed squarely on two "issues"; the raised panel lines and the lack of detail. Both complaints are relative. Those panel lines are finely-drawn and look just great under a coat of paint, and you can get around the Loss-of-Detail-When-You-Sand tragedy by carefully sanding the panel lines that will be erased until you get to a panel line you want to keep, thus preserving the appearance of complete panels. At the end of the day I'll bet you're the only one who'll ever notice you did that, too. If your personal Holy Grail includes having every single panel line that ever was or could have ever been on your model, then you can sand those horrid raised lines entirely off and scribe everything in place instead. This is the part where somebody gets to chime in with a resounding "Some Modeling Skills Required". It ain't nothin' but a thang, ya'll!

Mommy, Mommy, look at the dinosaur! Actually it ain't all that bad a kit, and definitely captures the shape and sit of the real thing. This is Monogram's 1969 offering of the Airacobra, complete with hand-made personal markings---there was no aftermarket available when this was built. Note the cloudy canopy, which is the major thing that shows how old this model really is. It was completed in 1983.

As for the detail, this kit represented a benchmark in that department when it was first released, although time and technology have since passed it by. There's adequate, albeit minimal, detail in the wheel wells, and either Eduard or True Details (I think TD has a set, anyway) can help out that cockpit more than you might think.

Here's a shot showing a little bit of the canopy and the poorly-fitted (because it's removeable) gun panel on the nose. You can also make out some of the interior detail in this shot. It's definitely not up to contemporary standards, but that's why Eduard makes those nifty photo-etch sets. It doesn't take all that much work to make this kit a real contender if you happen to be so inclined.

The model is basically accurate too, with some minor issues on the lower center section of the wing (as found on the real airplane), probably due to molding limitations at the time the kit was produced. Monogram used to love to open up panels and in the P-39 you can display the gun bay in the nose and part of the starboard engine compartment and no; the covers for those areas don't fit very good. The starboard door is also provided as an open item, which is a nice touch, while the roll-up windows in the doors are separate clear parts which means you can display the thing with a window "rolled down" if you'd like. And, in keeping with the way The Big M used to do things, the kit includes enough pieces to allow you to build any Airacobra variant from the P-400 through the P-39Q. Hasegawa and Eduard could both take a lesson from that one!

Those Czechs Make Pretty Good Model Airplanes

Eduard started out in the kit business by making limited-run stuff, then graduated to The Big League after a short time in the saddle. Their P-39 was one of the first really good Eduard kits and still holds up well. It's also dimensionally close enough and is, even in its "standard" version (as opposed to the ProfiPack range of kits they also market), a pretty good representation of the real thing, albeit with a couple of minor caveats. It's also an excellent value for the money in its "Weekend Edition" incarnation. Let's talk about those caveats, though.

First, there's the wing. It's a little too thick pretty much anyplace a wing can be a little too thick although, in all fairness, virtually nobody will ever notice it even though it got a fair amount of internet exposure a few years ago. It's not a deal-breaker sort of problem, although I personally wish they'd represented the wash-out at the tips a little more convincingly.

The Big Gripe, and it's one with some merit, is the way the cockpit doors mount to the airframe. They're molded in clear, which is a really nice thing, and they look great when they're posed in the open position. They don't fit very well when they're closed, though, and that's caused quite a bit of tooth-gnashing with the folks who've tried to do that. Once again, we're simply going back to Modeling 101 to fix the problem. Those doors can be closed if you want. Repeat after me: "Some Modeling Skills Required". Say it again. And again. Now we can move on to another problem in the same area of the kit. The cockpit sills are a little bit wider than the clear parts that fit to them, which results in a tiny step where they join. It's not a particularly big step, but it's there. I didn't fix it on the one Eduard "Dog" that I've built, but the simple substitution of a vacuum-formed canopy would make the whole problem go away.

The Eduard kit complete with extensive photo-etch, most of which you can't really see. One thing you can see is that step between the canopy and the fuselage. It's not a Deal Breaker but you'll need to address the problem if you want the model to be accurate. Eduard definitely nailed that Airacobra "sit".

You'll also need to clean up a few minor details, and you'd be best served by picking up one of the seemingly endless range of ProfiPack releases of the kit., but no matter which iteration you chose, you'll be happy with what you end up with once it's all been said and done. Note also that all the Eudard P-39s contain all the parts you'd need to build anything from a P-400 to a P-39Q already included in the box, including the 4-bladed prop for the P-39Q-25 variant, but Eduard doesn't tell you that going in. The major difference between their various kits is the selection of decals, the inclusion (or not) of masks and photo-etched details, and the picture on the box.

And Then Came The Big H

Which would, of course, be Hasegawa. In my opinion (never humble, as you've been reminded so many times before) it's the best of the lot, although it's got a couple of problem areas that, quite frankly, make no sense at all. On the other hand, it's extremely accurate in shape and dimensions and is well detailed right out of the box. It's one you can just build if you're so inclined, but you really ought to know about a couple of things (and they're neat things because they're so exceedingly minor, and because they had some folks out there in Internet Land hopping up and down about them when the kit was first released!).

First, there are the fuel caps on the upper surfaces of the wings. Somebody at Hasegawa must have been going through their very own bas relief phase when they were working on the molds, because those caps stand well proud of the wings and don't look like anything ever found on a real airplane as a result. There's a Quick Fix for the problem, though. There's a highly technical term for the necessary operation; it's called "Sand Them Flush With The Wing". That will take you all of 5 minutes to do, which will allow you to move on to the other problem with this kit; the rudder.

And the Hasegawa kit. I didn't fix those fuel caps because I wanted to see just how bad they really looked, and because I had a major case of The Lazies the day I did the wings on this one. I don't like the way they look but it probably bothers me more than it does anybody else. Still, if I had it to do over again (and I will, because there are a lot of P-39s I intend on building) I'd sand them flush with the wings. There isn't a step between the fus and the canopy, but this shot hints that there might be. It just ain't so...

Once again we aren't facing anything major. The molds were cut by that same bas relief guy that we met in the paragraph just before this one, except that this time he provided the detail in an overly-recessed manner instead of making it stand proud from the adjoining surfaces. It will, for all intents and purposes, go away when you paint the model, particularly if you like to squirt floor wax all over everything and then coat it with a flattening agent after you've applied the decals. You could also do a very minor bit of filling (maybe with something like Mr. Surfacer 500 or similar) and sanding if you wanted to. Either way the problem's pretty much a non-player.

And a nose view. This kit is well-detailed and honestly doesn't require the use of aftermarket, although there's a boat-load of Eduard in that cockpit! This is the one to buy in terms of fine detail, and is easier to work with than the other two. It's also far more expensive, for whatever that might be worth.

Hasegawa loves to market kits in different versions and, unlike either Monogram or Eduard, they don't give you everything you'll need in order to build almost every variant of the P-39. There's some commonality ("parts not for use") but it's not comprehensive. The model will also benefit from a little bit of good old fashioned Eduard Zoom, but it's not necessary should you choose to pass. This is a pretty good kit right out of the box.

Now we're to the part where I remind you that this is neither a kit review nor a "shootout". All three of these kits are good enough to grace anybody's shelf, although you'll end up putting a little bit more effort into the Monogram Oldie than you will the others. That said, my personal First Choice would be the Hasegawa kit, but if all I could find was an Eduard or Monogram offering I'd build it and feel very well-served. Each kit has its own peculiar problems, and in each case those problems are minor and easy to correct.

So what are you waiting for, Amigo? Go build yourself a 'Cobra!

Here's a shot showing you the three different kits (L to R: Monogram, Hasegawa, Eduard) plus a bonus glimpse of one of my desk drawers down there in the corner. These kits are basically produced to three different levels of molding technology but all will produce an excellent P-39 model if you do your part. The Monogram kit was built in the early 80s but holds its age well, while the Eduard was finished about 3 years ago. The Hasegawa kit was done shortly after it was released.  Oh yeah, and that white spot on the wing root of the Eduard kit is a white spot of Mystery Something-or-Other. I noticed it after I took this photo. Such is life...

And a comparative view of the undersides. This is one place where Hasegawa wins hand's down. It's far better detailed down there than the others, and has the proper washout on the wingtips. Note that Monogram provided a raised circle to represent the landing light (and provides not even a hint of that wing-tip washout we mentioned), while both Eduard and Hasegawa offer that part as a separate clear piece. What do you think of the hi-tech model stands those 'Cobras are resting on? I worked a really long time to do that...

Iron Dogs on The 'Canal

These shots were provided to me several years ago by Bruce Smith during his tenure as Superintendent of the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas; he had the name of the original photographer but, unfortunately, that name didn't make it to the backs of the photos. They're a pretty neat way to end the day, though.

A P-400 of the 67th FS/347th FG at Henderson Field in early 1943. This airplane is in RAF-contract camouflage although it isn't that evident here; the only place you can really see the demarcation line is on the rudder. Note also the natural metal prop blades, the 250-lb GP bomb on the centerline, and the way the Insignia Blue background of the fuselage corcarde appears to blend into the OD of the fuselage.  It actually doesn't do that!  Nimitz Museum via Bruce Smith

A shark-mouthed P-400 of the 67th all bombed-up and ready to go. Of particular interest is the manner of exhaust staining and the prop blades, which are black with yellow tips---stencilling is evident at the base of the blades. In the original photograph the number 22 can be made out on the fin. The Bell fighter's shape makes the sharkmouth design particularly aggressive looking, although the AAF never enjoyed the same level of success that the Soviets had with the type.  I've seen better reproductions of this particular photograph but this is what we've got so it'll have to do! Nimitz Museum via Bruce Smith

A 'Cobra in the raw. "Pair a Dice", arguably the most famous 67th FS P-400, has definitely seen better days; note the missing windscreen quarter-panel and the opened access panels. The gun panel exhibits the remains of a sharkmouth, while the 20mm cannon is notable for its length and is well-depicted here.  The aircraft may be undergoing maintenance, but her general condition makes one wonder if she hasn't been recently consigned to the scrap heap instead.  Nimitz Museum via Bruce Smith

A Salvaged Cat

Oh heck, let's do another couple of photos of something that isn't an Airacobra before we go. The F6F-3 you see below is a recent salvage and was shot by John Kerr, presumably at NAS Pensacola. (John?) I don't really follow the warbird scene and know next-to-nothing about the stuff that's being recovered and salvaged these days so there aren't any captions other than the credit lines for these shots. Apologies!

Be good to your neighbor. We'll see you again real soon.
phil