After an afternoon spent talking with a ball turret gunner, and some research online-- intelligence has gathered the following images and information:
Idiots’ Delight (42-30301 XM * J) belonged to the 94th Bomb Group, 332nd Bomb Squadron and was the first in that group to survive 50 missions. She flew her first mission on July 14, 1943 to Le Bourget and her fiftieth mission on March 22, 1944 to Berlin. Camouflage is standard Olive Drab over Neutral Gray with Neutral Gray (instead of white) stars in the national insignia.
Enemy Activity: Intel shows a clever, all knowing wife who is closely monitoring money [;)]
Now for the mission objectives:
Find someone who can create the decals needed for this one-- especially the nose art and the gray starred insignia.
Find a way to purchase the Revellogram Memphis Belle kit so I can build this up for Mr. Murphy. I tried all the online shops (Grat Models has been “taking preorders” for months…but it could be months before it acuially is available there. I tried ebay-- but the 3-4 that were there were heading into the $40 neighborhood…and that was before shipping!!
cant help with the kit, but if you can somehow pull the image of the nose art off the pics you can take it to a local printshop and they will do a customized decal sheet for you. i know, youve probably thought of this. that first image has a pretty clear shot. if you print that onto picture paper you may be able to get the printer to lift the image.
Are you looking to do it in 1/48? That picture looks like a great dirorama subject. Good luck on the mission and hope it’ll be a milk run. Be advised to recieve light to moderate flack from wife if forced to take the secondary ebay target.
What you need is a couple of tiny men to paint the nose art on for you lik they are in the picture. [(-D][(-D] Idiots delight was a pretty famous aircraft so you’d think that a decal manufacturer would do a set of decals for it.
Some FSM participants have recommend this guy for custom decal printing - www.sparetimehobbies.com I have not used him.
I recommend Mike Grant - http://mikegrantdesign.com/decals/ But, his website says he’s temporaily out of the cusotm decal business. You might try sending him an e-mail. He does excellent work and his prices are very reasonable.
New Intel just in… Advise a nightime run or cohersion (sp) against all enemy forces (one wife = one full battalion). Advice from the high command would be to send all enemy forces to get their hair done or a manicure before commencing with the previously outlined mission. If the initial diversion are unsuccessful use all special forces available to you, by means of second adress, car trunk and a night time insertion of said mission into your workroom while all enemy forces are either asleep or occupied with the television show “Suprised by Design” or other similiar show that all enemy forces deem more important to watch then their borders.
Good luck Soldier and god speed… end message.
[;)]-Jeff
Joe-- I had thought of that…but it is a little off kilter in the pic…plus some of it is cut off.
Scott-- yup-- 1/48.
pingtang-- you’d think- but I guess that would be too easy [;)]
Jim- I had heard about Mike Grant before and even received some of his decals. His work is top notch…but I also notd his hiatus. I will shoot the other guy an email in hopes that he can help.
