P-47M T-Bolt Crash 3-45

[Jack Cook]

P-47M s/n 44-21115 HV-Q ''Joy Boy'' 61st FS 56th FG Lt. Luther P Hines Jr killed in crash after mid air on 3-31-1945

[Oscar Duck]

tell me about that colour scheme...

[Mgawa]

Extreme dark color over it- any more info?

[Jack Cook]

gloss black oversprayed over NMF with red 56th FG ID markings standard for the 61st FS P-47Ms. The 63rd FS had light blue/med blue camo over NMF and I thoink the 62nd FS has a gray/green over NMF. Pretty gaudy stuff. This was for only the Ms in 1945.
check out Peter Randall's site
http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/gallery.php?Group=56&Style=item&origStyle=list&Item=2&Temp=684&searchString=

[Starduster77]

Most books state it is black.
Men from the squadron say black to a very dark plum color.
I guess it depended on how thick the black was painted on because thin painted a/c the natural aluminum would show through more on sunny days making it a lighter color.
Try painting sheet metal in various thickness of black/OD and stand in the sun .I was amazed when I did this how many tints there was.
I know I have to much time on my hands but building model planes I found this out by accident .
Rick

[Django]

I had no idea they were gloss black. Learn something new all the time here... Thanks Jack!

Here's another one from Little Friends...

http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/gallery. ... rchString=

[Second Air Force]

I had someone tell me that the 61st used Jet 622 for the black.

Scott

[Jack Cook]

one of the 61st FG Ms pilots Russ Kyler is still prettty active I can ask him to pop in a answer some questions if ya'll want to to??

[Chicoartist]

FWIW, I have been commissioned to do a P-47M painting for a collector (Russ Kyler's Lorene), and though I won't get to it for a while, I have done some preliminary research on the 'net and whenever I run across a tidbit, I cut and paste the blurb or link into my files.

Here's some stuff I've run across - some of the cites may disagree with one another, but the goal is to get a good cross section of opinions/facts to use when nailing down how *I* will depict the subject(s):


http://www.largescaleplanes.com/article ... P-47M.html


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Ah ha just found it .....YES ! here is the official colours of the squads now of the 56th fg. pretty weird.

D's and M's finished in some pretty guady colour schemes as I said, striped waves, etc.

61st : midnight blue uppers
62nd: shadow-shaded uppers in Dark green/Medium sea grey.
63rd: Dark French Blue and Azure blue, undersides in natural metal.

this was applied starting in February of 1945. It was stated that the camouflage colours added another 40/50 pounds of weight and a loss of 7-10mph to the overall speed.

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http://www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/ ... c3247m.htm

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56th_Fighter_Group

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http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quart ... P-47M.html

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http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_P-47M.html

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http://www.hsgalleries.com/gallery04/p47mgw_1.htm

[Second Air Force]

Good research, Wade.

Scott

[Django]

Thanks Wade!!

I have a question... why does that last model of the 63rd have a red cowling instead of blue?

Why was there last mission 21 April? Nothing left to do by then?

[Chad Veich]

A good friend, Dave Gianakos, built a fantastic radio control scale model of Kyler's "Lorene" a few years back and Russ confirmed the black used on the model. I was a guest at Dave's house in 2005 when Russ and his wife visited to check out the model and watch it fly. He entertained us for several hours with flying stories and is truly one of the most humble and friendly gentlemen I have had the pleasure of meeting. A true hero in my book. Pics of the model can be seen at the links below for those interested. This model is now in a museum somewhere.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/revi ... 00/243.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/revi ... 00/218.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/revi ... 00/219.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/revi ... 00/217.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/revi ... 00/120.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/revi ... 00/127.jpg

[Django]

Lorene could have been Betty Grable's sister! Lucky guy!

[Starduster77]

The 56th FG color was red so the nose was in the group color and the rudder was in the squadron color.
Rudder colors for 56 FG were
Blue for 63rd FS
yellow for 62nd FS
red for 61st FS.
The 8th Air Force used that format in 1944 to the end,with nose a group marking and tail/rudder were the squadron marking.

I don't know why the last mission was in April 1945 but from what I read they had problems with the P-47M engine but some one else will maybe come up with the answer before I can look it up.

Rick Peck

Last edited by Starduster77 on Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Chicoartist]

Beautiful model!

... I recognize the venue (Denver's Warbirds Over the Rockies), as Brian O'Meara is a client of mine. Russ Kyler was a guest at the one I attended in 2006, and I found it fascinating to hear the 'rest of the story': Russ flew helicopters in Vietnam! He promised and followed through giving me some good info on the 56th. Another client of mine was also there and met Russ, so that's how we came to pick his plane for our project.

In answer to the question posed above if I understand your question correctly the red nose on the scale model - the last link in my post above - is 56th FG red. All three 56th FG squadrons would have carried that.

Wade