Since there have been a few strings about various P-47 questions lately, I got curious and dug out my old copy of “P-47 at War” by William N. Hess (Doubleday, 1976), one volume of a pretty good and easy to find series on the more famous and common fighters of the war. First, there is a chapter on foreign T-bolts, showing a great deal of them in RAF and ANZAC markings, and more than I knew in French service during WW II (and used later by Armee de l’Air against Algerians). And, there is a full-page photo of a Brazilian Thuderbolt being bombed up. Colorful nose art, too, though the photo is B&W, blast it. But, I was not aware that Brazilians pilots did fly with us in T-Bolts, the 1 Grupo de Caca (hey, I don’t speak Portugese, I just copy what I see here) being attached to the 350th FG of the 12th AF in MTO. Great photo next to it showing the three-tube “bazooka” launcher under a Jug wing with a novel bomb shackle on the next hardpoint, with a 500 lb. and 250 lb. bomb hanging from the same rack, side by side. (Jeez I need a scanner.)
Anyway, as many Jug people more knowlegable than me are aware, P-47s were often waxed to a mirror shine to cut down on drag. That was a popular theory back then, that shiny paint gave a marked speed advantage over flat. In fact, it wasn’t that much. But the Jugs worked down in the weeds, and 1 mph could be the difference between life and death when strafing airfields. But check sources on this, because I’ve read that Gabreski was one pilot who was adament about having a shiny airplane.
I still can’t find that dark color those Jugs with the red squadron codes wore. I seem to remember they had red canopy frames, though. Rudders, too. And were glossy.
Tom
If the dark color you’re refering to is the 56th group, it has been reported as flat black, insignia blue, or plum. I don’t remember red canopy frames, but they could be. The squadron color was red rudders.
Thanks, Wayne. Y’know, you jarred my memory. I remember seeing a Jug from that group in a magazine some time ago and the modeler painted it “plum,” but I cannot remember any more except that it was an auto color used to simulate it on the model. Which modern military a/c paint shops do, I know for a fact. I once asked the head of the paint shop for a Texas ANG inerceptor unit what the FS nos. were on their colorful Texas flag fin flashes. He said that from the time they were flying F-102s up to the present F-16s, they had been using DuPont automotive laquer for all squadron markings, and he didn’t have any idea what the FS matches would be. He said he learned to do it in the regular air force. So, maybe sometimes we moderlers are overly reliant on FS. I think they call it being “dogmatic.”
tom
I have an Aeromaster decal sheet for a P-47M in the “dark colour”. They say that it was flat black but i’ve heard elsewhere that it was a really dark midnight blue. It has a natural metal underside, wing leading edges and canopy frame, red squadron codes and light blue insignia surrounds. It also had a red rudder and cowl band.
see ya later.
Ping, I think you probably have won the bouquet on this one. Midnight blue would make more sense than some shade of purple, which would probably be hard to come by in quantity in late WW II Europe. Something very dark, but much bluer than Sea Blue, which runs to gray just a bit. And, as photographers (which I am not) well know, the state of the art in color film, even in 1945, was not that great, and colors tending to be exaggerated and differed very widely when the very same colors were shot under different light conditions. Then you have to factor in printing, in books and magazines, further changed colors from the original. So, if you don’t know the guy who ground the pigment, or saw the plane after it had been in the sun for six months, you’ll never get it exact. We do the best we can to match the color, then concentrate on making that shade look good. That’s why I pretend the majority of my models just came from the factory. It may be boring, but it’s safer that way.
Hasegawa just released a P-47M, in the scheme described, for the 56th Fighter Group. Their painting guide calls out flat black for the upper surfaces, but their Box-Art shows it as more of a semi-gloss Midnight Blue. Go figure.
Regards, Rick
The 56th went through a variety of schemes during WWII, the black/midnight blue being just one of them. I personally think it’s one of the more attractive WWII US fighter schemes. The 61st FS even used the scheme on a Heinkel 111 that was captured and used as a squadron hack aircraft.
Walker “Bud” Mahurin told me that the early razorback Thunderbolts with the dark green tops and gray bottoms came with a nice thick paint job that took well to sanding and buffing. Since the C models were a little lacking in thrust due to the narrow chord blade design of the early Curtiss Electric props, the crews were looking to increase performance where the could. The performance increase is probably anecdotal, but since the airplanes were new, and the panels well fitted the sanding and polishing of a thick finish could result in a concept used by racers known as profiling. The airfoil is smoothed and perfected by this and could reap a bit more that a few MPH. I do believe it was the fastest airplane in Europe when it first arrived and it is debatable whether any Mustang, when it came on later was faster.
By the way, Thunderbolts were designed and flown as high altitude fighters and escorts. The airplane was adapted into the roll of ground support, not designed for it, as well the first period of the airplanes activity in Europe saw it operated as a high altitude fighter. I was very young but I believe that Bob Johnson (Robert S.) told me he never flew a strafing run in a Thunderbolt. His belief was that the Mustang overshadowed the Thunderbolt because it cost half as much! But then he was the president of Republic Aircraftat one time.
Chris…
And just to add to the confusion! Scale Aviation Modeller international is probably the best British model mag available at present. Each month, an Aircraft is profiled with scale drawings & colour side views. guess what was featured in March?
P-47M-1-RE, 44-21108, HV - Z was flown by Capt Witold Lanowski of the 56th, at Boxted, early 1945. The undersides are natural metal, the rudder & nose ring are red, canopy frame silver, & the upper surfaces are quoted as ‘automotive gloss black with a purplish sheen’. The Leading edges of the wings & elevators are also in natural metal.
The artist, in this case Richard J Caruana, doesn’t always get everything right, but this gives everyone here another colour to worry about, or, a bit of artistic licence when a rivet counter tries to criticise your model!
Happy paint mixing, Pete