Bomber Assembly Ship Question

saw a mocel of one in the historicaviation catalog and it reminded me of a 1970's model review in I think the old Military Modeling mag. It was of a polka-dot covered B-24. Did just the B-24 get done this way? Have not found models, etc of any other bomber painted this way.

B-17's B-29's, medium bombers, British bombers? Were any other bombers painted this way?

thx - Craig

Reply to
crw59
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Craig,

There were B-17's painted in this fashion too, although, like you, I've not seen any publication of photos. I don't know about B-29's; I've never heard of any.

The British, however, didn't use them. Generally, their large formations were used in night bombing and were organized in a bomber stream rather than in a bomber formation. In other words, they took off and headed west - generally individually.

Medium bombers generally didn't use assembly aircraft either, although I've heard of a couple of garishly painted mediums. Their formations were substantially smaller than those of the B-17's and B-24's and didn't require the same degree of organization for assembly.

One last point to be remembered if you're planning to model such an aircraft. These assembly planes were invariably "junkers" - planes that couldn't/wouldn't be used on missions. So don't try to model one of these with the most up-to-date version of any particular aircraft.

Andy

Reply to
Andy

I've seen photos of brightly painted B-24s used as assembly aircraft, although I can't remember any of B-17s being painted that way. My memory is the B-24 with Polka Dots was a Shep Payne model built for Monogram. They included the pictures and a writeup sheet with the model. There was a whole series of these with Monogram kits. I don't know if the Shep Payne models represented an actual aircraft or if he just dreamed it up as a could have been. The crew is shown decorataing the aircraft with the polka dots using paint cans and brushes etc. I seem to remember thinking at the time that artistic license was taken in tasks occuring at the same time. I believe I still have copies of the sheet somewhere.

Val Kraut

Reply to
Val Kraut

Andy wrote in news:6a4d6858-3d55-4eae-a37e- snipped-for-privacy@f47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com:

Sneak up behind the Germans.

Reply to
CortxVortx

East.... West.... North.... Whatever....

You're right about their heading "west." Actually, it was the smart ones who headed west - and got interned in Ireland for the duration.

But I should apologize for the direction error; I was holding my globe upside down.

Andy

Reply to
Andy

Along with the British pilots. What was the name of that movie about the internees and their trips to town?

Reply to
willshak

This off-topic for the bomber question, but it references the above comment by Bill.

During WW II, there was a POW camp in Charlestown, Mass (not far from the Bunker Hill Monument) for Italian POWs. The North End of Boston and some of the close-in suburbs had (and still have) very large Italian populations - including the city in which I was raised.

From 1950 and beyond (when I was old enough), many of my friends' parents would tell me stories of relatives or people from the same town in Italy being in that camp. There were apparently many cases of local individuals going into Charlestown on Friday evening, picking up a POW or two, those POWs staying in people's homes over the weekends, having a couple of good Italian meals, and then returning to Charlestown on Sunday evening.

And because my home town was right on the rail line going past Charlestown into Boston, our city was apparently a hotbed of such activity. And apparently a fair number of them stayed after the end of the war.

So, Enzo the Baker from The Godfather wasn't very far-fetched at all.

Andy

Reply to
Andy

now that area is yuppie central and so everpriced to live in, you gotta be rich. monumant sq is like park ave, rent-wise.

Reply to
someone

Making Downunder Upover. ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

I can think of an historical precedent. After the Battle of Trenton in the Revolution many Hessians were sent west to this county for imprisonment. So many of the natives here were from Germany that they felt at home and many stayed on after the end of hostilities.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

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