Warbird Information Exchange

This image is one a put together for a t-shirt for my gift shop. It is supposed to be a Lightning of the 434th Fighter Squadron (not to be confused with the P-38 of the same name in the 27th). Let me know if I missed any squadron specific markings.

If anyone knows where to find a good unit history of this squadron, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

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What is red, furry and on your six?

Just a couple of comments relating to more general issues.

44-23169 was a P-38J; you have drawn an earlier version, probably a P-38H.

The U.S. insignia appear to be constructed incorrectly. For the proper proportions of the bars, see Fig. A-1 of:

www.ov-10bronco.net/Technical/USAF_Tech ... _1-1-4.pdf

But of course omit the red stripes.

August

I don't have the best Lightning reference here, although the lightnign in the art was drawn using a photo of Glacier Girl for reference, which I bewlieve is a J model. What looks wrong to you?

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What is red, furry and on your six?

The most visible difference is that the J had the "beard" style intake in the nose. Also, the size and shape of the radiator housings in the booms was different. And the J had a landing light in the wing leading edge. At this level of detail, those corrections would be enough to make it look right.

August

Ah, just looked it up and Glacier Girl was an old F model. That explains a lot.

Arrghh, my kingdom for a Squadron Signal walkaround library...

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What is red, furry and on your six?

You also need to be careful of Lockheed's copyright on "P-38 Lightning". Lockheed has stopped several model manufacturing companies from producing P-38 models because of copyright infringement. I can't remember if their concern was specifically towards "P-38" and "Lightning" together, or if "Lockheed" in the name was part of the issue.

THe 479th FG didn't disply the aircraft's serial number on the tail.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Looks like the props are turning the wrong direction. Hope this helps: )

Well that certainly clears things up

My x-ray vision must be malfunctioning.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Lockheed has a trademark on their company name, so I can't use that, but I think that the USAAF named the plane, so it's fair game. Anyway, I've never heard of anyone getting any grief over it, at least not for a t-shirt. I think t-shirt vendors are too small to make it onto their radar.

In any event, my attitude about the latest moves by aircraft manufacturers to restrict the use of their aircraft likenesses in models, games, etc, (like Grumman blocking Ubisoft from adding the TBM to the game Pacific Fighters) is that it needs to be fought, not run from. Otherwise we all might as well brand a big bar code on our butts and bend over for our new corporate overlords.

Anyway, here's the updated art. Thanks for the eagle eyes...I fixed the radiators as best I could, and enlarged the roundels. I've seen 434th aircraft with and without serials, so I left them in unless I see a photo of the plane itself that shows otherwise. Still no landing light, and I also need to add some markings for the outboard fuel tanks, but they seemed trivial enough that I skipped them for now. I'll get them next time I end up tweaking the art.

Thanks for the feedback!

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What is red, furry and on your six?

Great looking artwork, Fritz! That's a beautiful looking P-38!

Just a note of the name lightning. it was given to the plane by the British.

I believe the Congress just passed a law stating that the specific companies did not own the rights to the aircraft that tax dollars paid to build.