Ridge Runner III

[jcblom]

Here's a paint of Maj. McKennon's Ridge Runner III:








link to paint: http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/fil ... unner-iii/

[Lewis - A2A]

Good job, is the cockpit art image free drawn?

welcome back Jankees!

cheers,
Lewis

[jcblom]

Cockpit art? That's just text with the name of the pilot etc.. and yes, the spelling error was there in the real aircraft too.
The noseart of the ridge runner was indeed drawn, but in photoshop.

[AerialShorts]

Another beautiful paint! Thank you for doing all these and making them available.

[cflord]

Wow! That's a great looking paint scheme. Thanks for the link; it's a must have!

Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer & Mechanic

[Lewis - A2A]

Yes sorry I meant nose art but for some reason the word was hiding from my brain

[stephan.cote.1]

This might be a stupid question but what is the purpose of those black stripe on the leading edge of the wings??

[Bomber_12th]

They are dive-angle stripes for firing rockets. Their purpose is for the pilot to be able to sight the angle of the aircraft in a diving ground attack by lining up the desired angle stripe with the horizon, thus achieving the predetermined best angle for attack on a target, depending on some particulars, including, for instance, the altitude at which the attack is to be initiated. These stripes didn't come on the scene until quite late in the war, since the P-51D didn't have the capability of firing rockets, stock from the factory, until the late variants that began arriving in Theatre in the spring/summer of 1945 (and, as far as I know, there has only ever been one case of photographic evidence to show a single P-51D that was a late-enough variant (a P-51D-25-NA) that it had the factory-supplied rocket stubs fitted under the wings, in the European Theatre, around or just after VE-Day). Because of the timing for when those late-model P-51D's/stripes came on the scene, it is extremely rare to see them applied to any European Theatre Mustangs, unless in operation during the final weeks/days of the war in Europe, but rather the stripes were prevalent, for instance, on the P-51D-25-NA's sent to/based at Iwo Jima in the spring/summer of '45. I don't believe those stripes were ever applied to the original "Ridge Runner III", which was quite an early model "D" (no capability of firing rockets - unless modified in the field with a factory-supplied kit, for which I don't think was available before VE-Day), but could possibly have been applied to "Ridge Runner IV", which was a later variant "D" (though none of the photos I've ever seen of any of the "Ridge Runners" have those stripes).

[stephan.cote.1]

Awesome! Thank you for the very detail info!


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

[jcblom]

I'll be re-uploading this one soon.

[Lewis - A2A]

without the dents