It is widely accepted that it was our boys coming home from WWII that really put hot rodding into mainstream popularity, utilizing the skills that they had learned working on military equipment. In recognition of this I’m planning a B-17 inspired traditional hot rod. So two questions.
What Model Master enamel military color best replicates the B-17 Memphis Belle green?
What scale of aircraft model would have a pin-up girl nose art decal, that would fit the door of a 1/25 scale pick up truck? If none are quite right I’ll likely create my own decal, but I have a lot of aircraft modelers in my local IPMS club and was just wondering what scale to ask for.
I’d say 1/32nd, but if you wanted, you could use any 1/48th B-29 nose art decal… The Superfort’s artwork was huge as noseart goes… Heck, a 29’s might be TOO big, come to think of it… Might wanna “google/image” some decals like “Vargas Girls Decals” or “Nose art decals”
OK, here comes more of the great OD shade discussion. The Memphis Belle is one of the early production B-17Fs. She was finished in Olive Drab 41 (AKA Dark Olive Drab) and Medium Green 42 over Neutral Gray 43. That shade of OD browner and a bit darker than OD 319, which was not standardized until 1943, after the Belle was built. OD 319 was based on color OD. 9, which was what Army ground forces were using . DArk OD 41 started in a shade similar to Model Master 34086 Green Drab, but quickly faded/weathered to a shade resembling OD 34087. Medium Green 43 is nearly identical to FS 34092.
Dont get too hung up on the color shade thing, olive drab is olive drab! Rivet counter’s be damned.
As for the decal size question…that’s a question without a clear answer, general thinking is, the bigger the plane, the bigger the nose art, right? Well not alway’s, not art was picked and painted by the crews that flew them or who maintained them and size and quality varied with the artist holding the brush. My advice, take your piece to a hobby shop that you know sells decals and thumb through to find something like and check size against your part, have fun, good luck.
There was an OD shade manufactured and used prior to and early on in the war that I can’t find decent color pics of, (haven’t since I lost my WW2 years collection of National Geographic magazines in the flood of '93) but the OD would quickly color-shift to damn-near purple… I’ve been wanting to re-creat that shade for years and never have run across any photos of it… The photos I remember were of a B-17 and a P-40, but that’s all the info I got…