Skyray

Key word here is REFERENCE. Pick your bird and build it based on the references you have available. If you haven't got a picture of a specific part of your subject, make a guess based on other examples.

The most important thing to remember is that you have to build for yourself.

It all depends on which time frame you are modeling. All Navy Acft had the star-n-bar on straight wing acft perpendicular to the fuselage. When they got swept wing acft they kept them the same way. The delta wing of the "Ford" was also perpendicular to the fuselage, in its early years. In 1955 the Navy said all wing markings would run parallel with the leading edge of the wing, resulting in the angled markings. So pick your time period and don't worry if it isn't correct because the Navy didn't change them all over night.

My Dad always got irritated with people who insisted models had to be precis colors... or paterns... or everything painted "just so". In WW2 he said crews used whatever paint they had handy... and repainted planes as quickly and easily as they could. Pilots customized their planes too.

Things ended up in a wide variety of shades of the colors they were "supposed" to be. I'm sure it's been much the same ever since........

If you have photos of the insignia in both positions, put the decals in the position you like best. If someone criticizes, you can slap them with your photo.
The FORD is one of my favorite birds, too.
Ray

This is one of my FAVORITE planes of all time... I don't know why, but it is so nice!!

I do not know the answer to your question... My guess is that all of them coming out or the factory had the emblem perp. to the fuselage, but when they were repainted in the field, it was done different;y for some reason.

I think this because all the photos and drawings I have ever seen of the "original" or "factory" paint jobs have been perp.