The Wildest Paint Job Ever On A Warbird!!!

[T J Johansen]

What about this scheme, or should I say schemes!



T J

[Eureka181]

That is one of those good Reno schemes!

Eric

[Randy Haskin]

That scheme was reportedly dreamed up over (several) bottles of good scotch!

Bernstein supposedly loved elements of many different fighter group markings and decided to incorporate them all!

[snj-5]

Just goes to show, you should never drink booze while
painting (or planning to paint) an airplane!

Bela P. Havasreti

[Eureka181]

I think that scheme is pretty good. It makes a good story to tell people how you came up with the paint job. Not exactly accurate, but it reminds me of the time when warbirds were painted in a civilian color scheme.

Eric

[Forgotten Field]

...Whose J2F is that in the background?

[Jack Cook]

...Whose J2F is that in the background?

Looks like John Siedels!!??

[SaxMan]

Eureke, I hate to break it to you but the FAA never had a Martlet scheme that even RESEMBLED that horror. I was joking by posting it - by far the worst paint job on a restored warbird I can ever recall - an embarrassment for the CAF.

Did the FAA use the same kind of camoflauge on the Martlet as they did the Swordfish? The white fuselage with camoflauged wing and tail surfaces is one of my favorite camoflauge patterns. If so, the CAF could have used that pattern and had an airplane that was historically accurate and extremely eye-catching.

[Dave Homewood]

What were the actual colours on that Brewster Buffalo? It's an interesting pattern, but I think it would only blend in camouflage-wise in a 1960's nightclub!

That Mustang colour scheme is vomit-endusing, which must reflect the morning after the drinking where they came up with it.

From what I understand the problem with the Martlet is the shades of the colours are all wrong. But then Charles Church's Spitfire was all the wrong shades too and looked equally as yuck, and as for that pink P40 that was flyying in the USA, oh dear.

There is the age old argument that it is up to the owner to paint a plane how he or she likes, which is true. But I think in the case of the CAF where they profess to be an organisation that commemorates the WWII air forces, they of all people should do the research and get the colours right. After all, they are supposed to be teaching people about what the veterans did, and presenting it in an inaccurate way is not good. If modelmakers can do the research and get it right, why can't the millionaire owners? All they needed to do was contact the Fleet Air Arm museum, they have one in the correct colours here
http://www.fleetairarm.com/images/exhib ... nes/64.jpg

Or there's this one at Duxford too
http://www.rob.clubkawasaki.com/rsh96.jpg

http://www.electric-image.co.uk/ukairsh ... at-002.jpg

Spot the difference in colours?

This drawing is probably the closest to the CAF colours, and even it doesn't look right
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/other_craf ... artlet.gif


FYI there are some nice early Martlet shots here
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/martlettipe_1.htm

Hi Dave!

I think I'd like to take issue with you on a couple of Martlet points

All they needed to do was contact the Fleet Air Arm museum, they have one in the correct colours here
http://www.fleetairarm.com/images/exhib ... nes/64.jpg

Correct and accurate for where and when? I think this scheme is a mid-60s brush-up job like that applied to their now-beautifully restored FG-1D - allegedly the FAA Museum hope to strip the Martlet back to its original paint too. (FlyPast report I think) I am sure that it was camouflaged at Cranfield which only adds to the confusion

Or there's this one at Duxford too
http://www.rob.clubkawasaki.com/rsh96.jpg

And the fin flash is which way round??

http://www.electric-image.co.uk/ukairsh ... at-002.jpg
Spot the difference in colours?

Lovely - Slate Grey, Dark Sea Grey and Sky?

This drawing is probably the closest to the CAF colours, and even it doesn't look right http://www.bismarck-class.dk/other_craf ... artlet.gif

And there we have it.

Heaven alone knows what all that salt water did to paint finishes - there would have been some major fading/discoloration, but like you say **if** someone is saying "this is what it looked like originally" then it behoves them to get it right. If they just want to paint their warbird their way - heck, it's their money and they can do it. I thought NH904/G-FIRE looked wonderful in red with the white stripes.

Rob / Kansan

[marine air]

If that mustang represents several unit markings that the owner liked, does anyone know where the markings came from? Ie, are the shark teeth supposed to be 14th Air Force flying Tigers?

[Broken-Wrench]

Speaking of the 14th Air Force, In Chinese this paint job is called
"Fu King Ugg Lee"

[Steve T]

This is a fun thread...even the controversial stuff gets the "light" treatment. I wondered how long it would take (not very, as it turned out) for Ken Burnstine's semistock P-51 racer "Miss Suzy Q" to receive a nomination as wildest scheme. Yeowch. Korean War sharkmouth...Pacific theatre TacR group lightning stripes...325FG Med theatre checker tail in the wrong colours. What a fashion statement. BTW Burnstine took all the marbles at Reno one year ('75 iirc) in this Mustang...but was also killed in N69QF not long afterward.

That Nieuport 11 (16? 17?) is one of at least two spectacularly-painted Nieuport scouts (the other one had "feathers" instead of "scales") which belonged to a training unit late in WWI. Many advanced trainers toward the end of WWI had credulity-straining paintjobs...

The "dazzle" camo was quite something too. BTW at least one Allison Mustang also carried a wild-looking splinter livery similar to that F2A.

Besides the deliberately-garish B-24 formation ships mentioned, there was another heavy--also a Lib (iirc)--which had surely the strangest atitude-deception livery ever cooked up. Basically it was painted as an "infinity mirror" series of images of B-24s, one atop another, so that the effect is that of hallucinating one Lib splitting into about ten. I saw this eccentric arrangement pictured in a mag ages ago. Anyone else recall it? Someone must have ingested something seriously toxic to have advanced that for tactical use!

In modern times, for wild and whimsical paintjobs I'll nominate the sunburst Hawker Hunter and maybe the Red Bull Sea Vixen; I'll second the nomination of Mr Burnstine's Mustang N69QF; and of course who could omit the famous ex-RCN street rod Fury, "Miss Merced" (certainly not I!). The other still-flying RCN Fury ("September Fury") is pretty wildly-attired too. Re the CAF FM-2...I'll just roll my eyes slightly. Re Sue Parish's P-40, well, OK, the eyelashes and lipstick on the shark face were a bit much, but USAAF desert tan really DID go a bit "sunburned" after a while...and besides, I really miss seeing that Kittyhawk on the circuit. So...I'll leave that one alone, risking the sidelong glances of other WIXers by admitting that, heck, I kinda like it.

Cheers

S.

[Jack Cook]

If that mustang represents several unit markings that the owner liked, does anyone know where the markings came from? Ie, are the shark teeth supposed to be 14th Air Force flying Tigers?

Actually the fuselage stripes and the checkboard tail are accurate the very late war 1st Air Commando Group markings.

[bdk]