When in doubt about Luftwaffe camouflage and markings - and even when you're not: Listen to the (serious) modelers!
As an historical aviation artist that tries my best to 'get it right' in a visual sense (markings, wear on the aircraft, etc.), I can tell you that much of my research material is based on the work done by and for the serious scale modeling community. I have collected a fair amount of primary source material over the years, but I'd say of my entire reference collection 80% of the secondary material likely had modelers in mind when the item was published - thank goodness for the modelers! Think of all the great rare photos and document cites we'd never see otherwise. From there, take a visit to Hyperscale.com and see what is being done. I dare say that if you have any historical markings question you'll find an answer - a good answer - with documentation. SOMEBODY - usually a serious modeler - will have spent years researching the topic in question and if they don't have an immediate answer they will know where to find it. When I did two paintings of Oblt. Georg Schott's Fw 190 A-6 "Weiss 11" of 1./JG 1 I leaned heavily on photos in books produced for modelers, decal sheets produced by Jerry Crandall - one of the world's leading researchers on Luftwaffe paint and markings, JG 1 models built by experts, discussions about the subject all over the web on sites frequented by modelers, etc. That being said, the secondary - and sometimes the primary - reference cites can disagree, so you have to gather up as much as you can and then sift through and eventually arrive at a "conclusion", which in my case ends up on canvas. I hope the FHC has done the same here with this paint job. It's "bright", but as one person pointed out, use it like as it was originally and in short order you'll have the look some are after. I have an extensive collection of photos of Don Gentile's famous P-51B "Shangri-La". Right before she was pranged photos show that she was worn, dirty, panels repainted, and chipped to the nines ... and the airframe had been on active service less than two months!
It's always the details - Steve Atkin saw my JG 1 paintings here on WIX a while back and asked me if he could show the images to Jerry as a possible markings scheme for his 190. Jerry liked the paintings ("Most Dangerous Game" and "Deelen Wolves"), and once the decision was made I was able to work with Steve to aid the accuracy of the painting through my materials and my research. I spent quite a bit of time defining, for example, the exact outlay of the black and white checks on the cowling, seemingly an easy thing to get right, but IIRC Steve's crew was going to do it wrong and it was only through my own efforts to get my painted-image cowlings right that I caught them in a small but critical mistake. The gorgeous result as we have seen here in a recent WIX thread speaks for itself. All made possible through the research efforts of modelers and those who cater to them. Guys like Lynn Ritger know what the hell they are talking about - listen to them.
That's the Luftwaffe - it's often been said in
aviation art circles that US WWII subjects, and 8th Air Force in particular, have been "done to death", "overdone", "boring", "market is saturated", "nothing new to depict", blah blah blah. Shoot - even with the metric tons of 'coverage' on the subject, I'll bet I can come up with a few good questions about the markings of any famous/well-known fighter group that you can't answer with 'certainty' based on the general information out there. The markings of the WWII 8th AF is a complex and interesting subject - in addition to the thousands of stories I have left to paint (Lord, I'm gonna need a tour-extension to my originally assigned lifespan)! Individual squadrons and individual aircraft markings often varied considerably from the published regs. THAT makes such a 'done to death' subject interesting as heck to me. I feel like a detective every time I pick an 8AF plane to paint. My recent thread here on WIX concerning the black, or were they midnight blue ... no, wait - purplish black - 61st FS P-47Ms come to mind. Then ... wait for it ... were some 361st Mustangs field-painted blue?
Where's my Tylenol ... ?!
Cheers!
Wade
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