what i mean by this is this
when a model co puts out models of CERTAIN aircraft i thing that there is SOME misrepresentation going on
if the aircraft was on an aircraft carrier it is true you had your own plane but if you happened tbe stationed on one of the islands ( land) you flew what ever plane you reached first
i got this from 3 different guys stationed at places like midway
they grabbed anything that would fly
even the famous pappy boyington said it the photos on the net and in some ref books of him standing next to a plane with all the japanese flags on it was staged as a publicity shot he said he and his guys flew a diff palne every mission
Not sure I fully understand your question, but virtually no kit or decal sheet will be 100% accurate in every respect.
Regards, Rick
Durr,
There is a good discussion on this. Look under Group builds Baa Baa Black Sheep.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?page=11&TOPIC_ID=32295
Depends on what your choice of subject is, as I biult this 48 Beaufighter based on wartime photo’s. I converted the Mk VIf kit into a Mk IVf
My ref pix and the finished model.
rick i will rephrase
as example the black sheep sqrdn they just ran to the nearest plane to them they did not have their own actual airplane
as i have been told by 3 different marines this luxury was only on carriers and in europe so when x company make a model of capt crunch’s plane with a name on it and the aircrafts serial #'s based in the solomon islands the only thing aaccurate about it is it’s base location it serial # and the fact that capt crunch flew a plane LIKE it but thos eplanes where flown by anyone and everyone that could
Durr,
I think it depends. If you want to model a certain plane, it’s pretty easy to do so. For example, I’m sure you could model the Wildcat that Butch O’Hare flew when he downed five Japanese bombers. It wasn’t “his” plane, but it was the plane he flew when he made history.
Regards,
Alot depends on the sqaudron and the time period. Yes early in the war pilots flew what was available because there was more pilots than a/c like at midway. After reading Tom Blackburns book on VF-17 I can tell you his a/c was asigned to him and so were many of the other senior pilots such as Ira Kepford. Some of the newer pilots may have flown what ever was available.
My grandfather was stationed on Guam and Tinian as a B-29 bomberdier. He has stated to me that he and his crew were asigned an aircraft but that when fighter pilots flew, (especialy when called to alert of incomming enemy) they often were likely to jump into and take of in the nearest plane, however , when a mission was asigned each pilot might have a particular favorite on the feild. therefor I beleive it would be a correct staement to say that when a model manufactuor states that a particular fighter pilot flew a specifc aircraft with a specific serial # it may not be completely accuret. For example, the P-38 “MARGE” flown by Major Richard Bong who is credited for 40 enemy kills my have been his most preferd and most frequently flown aircraft but from what I have been told by veterens he may not have scored all of his kills in this plane.
Durr,
I understand the premise of your question…fly what is available, i.e. in service. Be careful of the “luxury” statement about the ETO. Thanks to Black Wolf (you are still the man for this[tup]) he helped to clarify something about Chuck Yeager. He pointed out that the bird he waxed five in a day with was burned in a few days later by another pilot.
I believe that once man took to the air to fight the “luxury” of an assigned aircraft has been for an exclusive few…Richtofen, Galland, Bader, Anderson…in fact the top scoring ace of all time, Erich Hartmann, used different crates.
Rick is right, consider any model, expecially the decal/markings option as a very breif moment in time…Good point though…