P-63 PinBall

[nebeltex]

I'd forgotten how rare the "Pinball" was...



CAF P-63F King Cobra Flies Again

[murphyaa]

My Pinball is more orange than yellow, at least when I look at it (which doesn't say much).

[John Dell]

Actually Murph your color looks pretty close. The paint is officially 47 Orange Yellow.

This is a handy link.

https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/urbans-color-reference-charts-part-i/

[murphyaa]

I compared both colors in Photoshop, and mine is in the same color group, just a touch paler, like it's been sun-faded.

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Aaron:
When I get a new job soon I hope I will send you $3.00 for your PinBall Plane. Now going to look if anyone has made the PeaShooter
Thanks
Miles

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Friends:
The more I look at the photo of PeaShooter and PinBall, Don is right that is the Diorama, With Aarons PinBall I note that I have squirreled away the Fiddlers Green B-17 that could be recolored into the PeaShooter. Now anyone have a clue about what is in the Equipment pile in the photo on the other side of the PeaShooter? Does any one know who Designed the Fiddlers Green B-17?
Thanks
Miles

[murphyaa]

Talk to John Dell. I don't know if he did the original FG B-17, but he's played with it enough to make it his own.

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Aaron:
That was in the back of my mind as I know both of you have done models for Chip. now collecting scale info Yours is in 1/38 scale. AirDaves equipment is in 1/50 scale ??? have to look at the B-17 pages to find a scale. I am tempted to go for 1/48 scale make the runway grass area about 18" by 24" or so use the grass from model railroads and print concrete runway.
Thanks all for the input,
Miles

[John Dell]

I’ve been planning to do some YB-40 kits. Especially one of “PeaShooter”. Unfortunately, detailed information on the YB-40 can be rather sketchy. In particular, the YB-40s used in a training roll had several interesting and curious modifications. For example, in the attached photo the areas I have circled are a mystery. Are these large windows cut into the right side of the fuselage? If so it doesn’t look like there is any Plexiglas in them. In the photo of “PeaShooter” you can see a reflection on the Plexiglas in the waist gun window but not in the “opening” under the rear top turret. And, what was their purpose? I have not seen these in photos of combat YB-40s. I posted this image on the AeroVintage forum and got no answers. I’ll try again. B-17 author Steve Birdsall posts there, perhaps I will try to reach out to him directly.

The YB-40s started out as Boeing built B-17Fs which were then converted into gunships by Lockheed-Vega. There was an employee at Vega named George McCraw who would paint cartoons on the fuselages of some of the aircraft produced. If you have my B-17F kit of “Tinker Toy” you will see one of these cartoons on the left side of the fuselage just aft of the radio room. Several YB-40s also received these cartoons. The second photo below shows the one he painted on the XB-40 prototype. And if you look closely at the photo of “PeaShooter”, you can see one of his cartoons just behind the questionable opening under the rear top turret. Unfortunately I cannot make out the details of the cartoon.

These are some of the questions that have been holding me up with these kits. If there is a big interest in YB-40s I can plunge ahead with them. The XB-40 (both configurations) is rather well documented. I would start with those. I could actually use a challenging change of pace.

My kits are in 1/48 scale.

[Butelczynski]

I think those are openings made for installed cameras.If you look at training films from 1944 on they show fighters attacking bomber from different quarters and explain best way to approach target. Yb-40 was likely used for those shots with proper big cameras requiring larger openings in fuselage walls and reinforced mounts for them . Some smaller glassed windows are for directors as upper turret was not very useful