P-47D-10-RE, Lt. Col. Leslie C. Smith, 61st F.S., 56th F.G.
P-47D-10-RE Serial Number 42-75121 61st F.S., 56th F.G. Assigned to Lt. Col. Leslie C. Smith (ace with seven victories.) Also flown by Lt. Frank Klibbe on nine missions between January 24th and February 8th 1944. Profile notes: Photos are not clear as to if this...
SBD-3 Stanley Swede Vejtasa VS-5
SBD-3 BuNo 4690, Lt. (j.g.) Stanley W. 'Swede' Vejtasa and Chief Radioman 3rd Class Frank B. Wood, Scouting Five, USS Yorktown (CV5), May 8, 1942. During the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7, 1942, Swede and several other SBD pilots sank the Japanese aircraft carrier...
SBD-3 Lt. Richard H. ‘Dick’ Best VB-6
SBD-3 BuNo 4687, Lt. Richard H. 'Dick' Best and Chief Radioman James F. Murray, Bombing Six, USS Enterprise (CV6), June 4, 1942. Dick Best was the commanding officer of VB-6, USS Enterprise, during the Battle of Midway. Best flew B1 on two missions on June 4th, and...
Pearl Harbor attack 80th anniversary
Curtiss P-40B, 2nd Lt. George Welch, 47th PS, 15th PG, USAAC, Haleiwa Air Base, Hawaii. Lt. Welch was one of only a handful of USAAF pilots who managed to get their planes off the ground and engage the Japanese on the morning of December 7th, 1941 during the Japanese...
Pearl Harbor survivor audio – Philip Rasmussen
Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Rasmussen was one of only 14 U.S. pilots who managed to get airborne that morning.
SBD-3 Dauntless progress
Making slow progress on the SBD-3 profile. I'm still trying to locate dimension and detail information for the DF antenna inside the cockpit so that will likely be one of the last items added. So far markings research has been completed for the following pilots: Dusty...
SBD-3 Dauntless scale drawing
After a year and a half of research, my SBD-3 scale drawing is finally finished. Once I have my initial color template completed, I intend on doing 3-4 aircraft from the Battle of Midway between now and the 80th anniversary of that battle next June. The first profiles...
P-51B-15-NA, Lt. Joe Blackburn, 5th Fighter Squadron
P-51B-15-NA "Little Joe" 43-24818, 5th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group, Lt. Joe Blackburn, Madna, Italy, June 1944. Click the gallery thumbnail below for a larger view of this aircraft.
Natural metal experiments
Finally getting some free time to get back to work on a natural metal P-51 profile I've been experimenting with. So far this has 629 layers in Photoshop, still some work to do on surface detailing, skin stress ripples, etc. I'm pleased with how this is turning out,...
Fighters of the Iron Cross released
Eagle Editions has just released Fighters of the Iron Cross, featuring quite a few of my Luftwaffe profile illustrations in it. This is Jerry Crandall's magnum opus on Luftwaffe fighters, if you are a fan of WWII aviation this is a must have for your library. You can...