Blue P38 ???

WOW ! That was a great reply from all of you.

Thanks for the related websites and I am looking forward to building one once I finished the 20 odd boxes of unfinished models.

Once again MANY THANKS .....

Blackwolf, The blue P38 I saw was a two seater. From memory, the caption read that a
'droop snoot' two seater had been 'borrowed' and found to be of use. Another, the blue one' had been a single seater but was converted at, I think, Burtonwood, into a two seat glazed nose version, then painted in the blue scheme. It was used over Europe with bombers, I think. I really must find that magazine.
Pete

Hi all,

Just to muddy the waters a bit. The blue P-38 could have been an F-4 or an F-5. And the paint could be the "haze" scheme, or the "synthetic haze" scheme.

Here's a Revell 1/72 F-4a in the "haze" scheme:
http://www.modelingmadness.com/scotts/allies/us/f4a.htm

And here's an Academy 1/48 F-5E in the "synthetic haze" scheme:
http://www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/us/kolf5e.htm

There's good information in both articles about the special paint jobs.

Regards,

http://34thprs.org

This is my other job...been working on it for about ten years. I was able to uncover a gob of color transparencies, many of which were the PRU blue scheme, which turns out to be much lighter than the blue in the image posted by Blackwolf. All of the color images are located in the 'Aircraft' section.

The blue paint was notorious for not wearing very well. Most of the planes with PRU or Synthetic haze were way beyond filthy, with massively chipped paint oil and exhaust stains, dirt, crud...you get the idea. As a modeler who enjoys weathering planes, these are a great subject.

Sadly, the 34th PRS CO, Col. W. Donn Hayes, passed away yesterday.

Well, I guess I don't have to scan that page after all!


Fade to Black...

Here's additional info from Dana Bell's Air Force Colors Vol.II
"Synthetic Haze Paint - Sky Blue with a light shadow of shading of Flight Blue.

There are no records of the number of aircraft camouflaged in Synthetic Haze Paint, but it is certain that there were many anomalies. Several of the OD/Neutral Gray F-5As produced between October'42 and March '43 were repainted in England. Recent recovery of the wreck of one of these shows a top coat of the RAF color P.R.U. blue. Lockheed also changed its production methods, sending completed P-38s to modification centers for photo-recon conversions, rather than start-to-finish production. The camouflage added by these modifications is not known. And once all camouflage was officially abandoned, many F-5s were given sky camouflage in theatre. Photos show a one-color scheme of F-5Es in England, probably using P>R>U> blue or Azure blue. Records of the Ninth Air Force only add to the confusion. A February 1945 report vaguely stated that 10th Photo Recon Group F-5s were painted 'sky blue'. Without positive proof, it apears that Synthetic Haze Paint was not used after mid-1944, after which time, any F-5s which were painted at all used RAF stocks".

Hmmm, a Brit F-5? I know the French used them toward the end of the war, but this one sounds really interesting!

Anyhoo, I went through my url's and found this site about the 34th PRS.

Any questions that one may have about Haze Paint schemes will be answered here. Click on the navigation menu up top, then on 'AIRCRAFT'. The page that comes up will have a navigation menu in the center of the screen, click on that and select 'HAZE PAINT - by Dana Bell'.

There's also alotta cool stuff on the rest of the site, lotsa photos, albeit small ones. Grrrr....


Fade to Black...

On the subject of Blue P38's, I saw one the other day, I think it was in an old Flypast mag. PR blue with RAF roundels & US serial numbers. It had been 'borrowed' by a senior officer & was used on a number of raids over Europe. I'll see if I can find it, it would be something different, wouldn't it?
Pete

I believe Wings and Airpower had a good article about the special paint jobs on the the P-38s that were "blue". They were supposed to match the color of the sky, but they weathered pretty badly. I think Academy put out a Photo Recon of the P-38 depicting that scheme.

Well, I was in the middle of writing this up when the previous three posts were made, but here goes anyway...


What you saw was probably an F-5, which was the recce variant of the P-38. In all probability, this is the photo you saw:



The aircraft in this photo carries what's known as the Synthetic Haze scheme. It's been incorrectly labeled as being PRU Blue or Azure Blue, and the color reproduction seems to be slightly funky but it is the Synthetic Haze scheme. Usually I'd type out a whole explanation here, but I'm tired tonight! And not a bit lazy...

So if you're interested, I'll scan some stuff for you; info on the Haze and Synthetic Haze schemes, including some photos.


BTW, here's a link to a couple of pages on the Little Friends website which deal with the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group, the PRG for the 8th AF during WWII. The first page is a listing of the aircraft which were carried on strength, but if you click on 'Gallery' there's some shots of the various birds the unit used, albeit mostly b/w photos.

There were other units that used F-5's in the blue schemes, but I'm not sure off the top of my head which they were.

Again, if you want more info, just give a shout...


Fade to Black...

Ooops found this site also it has all Sq info for the F-5B recon version of the P38.

Hope it helps.

http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/7thprg.jsp

There was one. If you need info here is one of the best P38 sites I have found

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/p38.htm

Good luck with your build

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/images/p38-3.jpg
There is the pic of the blue one

All I know about the blue P38 is, the high altitude photo recon aircraft were painted that way. As far as what group I have no clue.