After further research, I'm modifying my USMC Battle of Midway Vindicator paint scheme...
As visible in some of the stills from the John Ford footage shot just before and during the battle, Marines flying Vindicators with VMSB 241 commonly had the following characteristics:
The white "stripes" on the rear fuse are not painted, they are strips of 4-inch medical tape used to repair the frayed canvas on these obsolete, hand-me-down aircraft the Marines were stuck with to face a better equipped foe...
The demarcation line from blue to gray on the rear fuse was generally at a sharper angle than on Navy planes, running straight from the trailing edge of the main wing to the base of the horizontal stabilizer.
They had a smaller diameter Star Insignia further to the rear of the fuselage
The Red Dot inside the Star Insignia and the red and white tail stripes were hastily painted over in the field with brush and buckets, and in most cases were still visible underneath the re-painted areas...I have left slight transparencies of the original colors in those areas to reflect that...
The repainting was done partly for "tactical" reasons (on the tail) , and also to comply with a May 1942 directive to remove the Red Dots from the Star Insignia...This was supposedly to avoid "confusion" with the Japanese "meatball" but after Pearl Harbor, anything resembling a Japanese meatball was considered distasteful.
This particular plane is a composite of the above features, and is dedicated to Captain Richard E. Fleming, USMC…he suffered two minor wounds and had 179 holes shot in his plane on Day One of the battle which saw his Squadron Leader Major Henderson killed……Captain Fleming took command of VMSB 241 the next day, when he and his Rear Gunner PFC George Toms were shot down while leading an attack on the Japanese Cruiser Mikuma…
Captain Fleming was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Midway.
Semper Fi, Brothers
As visible in some of the stills from the John Ford footage shot just before and during the battle, Marines flying Vindicators with VMSB 241 commonly had the following characteristics:
The white "stripes" on the rear fuse are not painted, they are strips of 4-inch medical tape used to repair the frayed canvas on these obsolete, hand-me-down aircraft the Marines were stuck with to face a better equipped foe...
The demarcation line from blue to gray on the rear fuse was generally at a sharper angle than on Navy planes, running straight from the trailing edge of the main wing to the base of the horizontal stabilizer.
They had a smaller diameter Star Insignia further to the rear of the fuselage
The Red Dot inside the Star Insignia and the red and white tail stripes were hastily painted over in the field with brush and buckets, and in most cases were still visible underneath the re-painted areas...I have left slight transparencies of the original colors in those areas to reflect that...
The repainting was done partly for "tactical" reasons (on the tail) , and also to comply with a May 1942 directive to remove the Red Dots from the Star Insignia...This was supposedly to avoid "confusion" with the Japanese "meatball" but after Pearl Harbor, anything resembling a Japanese meatball was considered distasteful.
This particular plane is a composite of the above features, and is dedicated to Captain Richard E. Fleming, USMC…he suffered two minor wounds and had 179 holes shot in his plane on Day One of the battle which saw his Squadron Leader Major Henderson killed……Captain Fleming took command of VMSB 241 the next day, when he and his Rear Gunner PFC George Toms were shot down while leading an attack on the Japanese Cruiser Mikuma…
Captain Fleming was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Midway.
Semper Fi, Brothers
