Been getting humbled doing a 1/48 AMT P-40N - kit’s excellent, but some driver error and some really poor aftermarket decals have me repainting a good portion of it. I have a lot of P-40 material - in California. I’m in Minnesota. Both the AMT instructions and the aftermarket decals call for medium green scallops applied on the upper surfaces over olive drab. My sole resource here does mention that 5th AF gave it’s P-40 squadrons a distinctive white tail with an olive drab stripe for ID numbers, but says nothing about medium green. According to AMT the P40N came with the medium green scallops from the factory. I recall that Robert Archer pretty much says "face the music - unless they flew in the desert all USAAF combat planes were olive drab and neutral gray. (Interestingly none of my sources calls for a white leading edge on the wing which I’ve seen on some color plates. Perhaps that was a 1944 directive or artistic license. There are enough 49th FG photos online to lead me to believe they weren’t there in 1943 when the P-40s were still doing the heavy lifting.
Anyway, I have no interest in adding a major embellishment for art’s sake, but if there should be medium green scallops over olive drab on the wings I’ll apply them. Advice welcome.
I know the medium green spots are very hard to spot sometimes on b&w photos. So I can see how many manufacturer’s miss it or get it wrong. I don’t know enough to tell you yes or no though…
The tail seems to have a white leading edge on these, but no white on the leading edge of the wings. Not to say there were none (they were common on the P-47s in the theater).
Yes, the medium Green 42 over Olive Drab 41 was the AAF standard camo pattern in 1942 as ordered. Certain famous aircraft like Flak Bait and Memphis Belle both wore it.
Well, guess I should check my reference material! [:)] Maybe these images from Osprey Aircam Aviation # 7 - “Curtiss P-40 D-N Warhawk in USAAF - French and Foreign Service” will help you out a bit.
Those give a pretty good indication of the “scallops” on wings and tail section. Hope these will help.
If you’re looking for a specific scheme, let me know and I’ll see if there’s anything in there.
Many thanks, Gary, for posting those photos. I could remember having seen them years ago in Joe Christy and Jeff Ethells’ P-40 Hawks At War, but since I don’t have a copy I wasn’t sure where to look.
As Stikpusher indicated, the splotches appeared widely on bombers (including B-17s, B-24s, B-25s, B-26s and A-20 Havocs). Though approved for fighters as well, the only usage there seemed limited to some early P-47s, and most mid-to-late production (-K, -M and -N) P-40s, many of which were earmarked for lend-lease distribution to non-USAAF operators, though some did indeed end up with US units.
Appreciate the info. Almost brought my Archer mega book but thought it was too big to lug around. The answer would have been in that thing - 400 pages of color regs. After looking at a few more zillion photos and a book on the 49th FG by the fine aviation author Robert Hess it’s pretty clear that the whatever passed for “standard” in New Guinea was loosely defined. I do appreciate the photos that clearly show those green scallops - it also indicates that some of the medium green is on the fuselage. But it does show that you could see it - at least if you have enough photos. And I haven’t seen it. (Heaven knows every plane in New Guinea was washed out, so never say never.) I found several plates that show 49thFG was using desert camo on P-40Ks as late as mid-43, although that was more common in late 42 when supporting Buna from Port Moresby. (One color plate from late 42 shows a OD/Green scheme without tan, but the green coverage must have been 30%: a neat scheme, but it won’t work for me because it’s at least nine months too early.) Officers were working to create 5th AF out of nothing then (Kenney was given command in July 42 as I recall - but had only a few dozen planes). I’m sure they were getting aircraft originally intended for Lend Lease. According to a color chart from IPMS - which I have bookmarked and simply forgot to check - medium green was part of the OD/Gray scheme “until 1942.” I’m modeling the plane flown by Robert DeHaven, 7th FS top scorer, and he came in theater in mid-43 and only flew the P40N - a class of 43 aircraft. So no medium green. (DeHaven was quite specific about shooting with six mgs - that rules out the earliest rendition of the P-40N which had four. His squadron did a lot of ground attack also, so they weren’t interested in the early “hot rods” that were designed to be as light as possible.) The white leading edge is a problem though. A number of 49th FG aircraft (especially the P-47s) clearly carried white leading edge stripes covering both top and bottom of the wing. Others clearly didn’t. DeHaven’s plane is in several color plates but none show his plane with white. Except, that is, for a painting by the splendid aviation artist Jack Fellows (Escape from Cape Moem) which is the cover art for the paperback version of a book I wrote. Jack put a lot of work into his paintings - I’ve got “Cape Moem” over my modeling bench in CA - and perhaps DeHaven’s plane was so painted in mid-44. As it stands that’s the only evidence I have that any of DeHaven’s planes had a white edge. Methinks we’re looking at OD/neutral gray.
Interesting stuff though. Early war US aircraft fans could dodge the “olive drab blues” by using desert camo or medium green/OD. I also stumbled on a splendid print showing a NMS P-40N flown by the 5th AF HQ Squadron uber-ace Gerald Johnson in late 1944.
