I'm building an F6F-3 Hellcat to display at an ace's seminar. It will be in the markings of Robert Duncan, VF-5. I've found an illustration online that preports to be from Feb 1944:
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One detail shown in the illustation gives me pause. The national insignia on the fuselage apprear to show the red outline hastily overpainted with medium blue.
Unfortunatley, I have not yet found a photo to support this illustration. The photos I have seen of overpainted red outlines appear to show that the fresh blue was darker that the original insignia blue - which had presumably faded.
One can easily concoct a plausible story of improvisation to explain how the overpainting might have been done with a lighter shade, but does anyone have an actual photo that shows this?
Thanks,
Greg Reynolds, IPMS