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Rikkubeauty In reply to Alan-the-leopard [2017-02-16 14:07:43 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, lots of people don't like this new paint scheme. Unfortunately we don't have our word on this... 

I wish we had this: www.deviantart.com/art/P-40-73…

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Alan-the-leopard In reply to Rikkubeauty [2017-02-16 18:27:24 +0000 UTC]

I however consider that there are way too many P-40s in USAF and Chinese markings. I long for something different, for the sake of a change. For instance restoring a P-40D or E in 112nd RAF desert colors (my personal favorite scheme ever for a P-40), imitating the aircraft flown by Lt. Clive "killer" Caldwell, or Neville Duke´s...

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Rikkubeauty In reply to Alan-the-leopard [2017-02-16 20:19:23 +0000 UTC]

You have a point. On another side, if you gather a full squad with the same plane, like the Mustangs in the US and the Spitfires in the UK, it could be awsome if they had all the same scheme and markings, like back in time when they were in active service in the same wings. 

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Alan-the-leopard In reply to Rikkubeauty [2017-02-16 21:58:45 +0000 UTC]

Probably, but definitely there are not as many P-40s surviving today as there are Spits and Mustangs, so considering this more limited number, I consider it better to cover a wider range of schemes. And not forget about Russian P-40s either. I think that it´s a matter of showing people some of the most relevant schemes that this bird had, rather than repeating the same pattern over and over again.
Why do they repeat the same scheme so often in Spits and Mustangs? No idea. Maybe just this fondness for repetition, but at least they could do something a bit different and repaint some Mk.IX Spits in post-war Israeli and Arab markings. That would be really interesting to my view.

But back to the P-40, in addition to what I said before, the aggressive-looking shark mouth motifs on a number of surviving P-40s seem taken out of the same mould (quite probably inspired by the one that the 15,000th Curtiss fighter wore- that P-40N wearing the national insignias of countries that used Curtiss aircraft), and I personally consider it absurdly repetitive, unoriginal and boring, while back in the war no two shark mouth motifs were similar in the same squadron, like that 112nd RAF squadron I mentioned.

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Rikkubeauty In reply to Alan-the-leopard [2017-02-17 19:50:47 +0000 UTC]

I see you'r very accurate on the subject. I don't have that knowledge but I see your point and kinda agree with it. As an amateur photographer I'd love to see different things trough my camera even though it's the same aircraft, like the T-6 we have here in france, wich none of them has the same paint scheme.

While looking for an explanation to the actual paint jobs, I'd say that there are mainly two streams:
- Choose the better-looking classic paint, that people can easily recognize
- Go for a personal choice (as the plane owner) whatever it looks like.

Considering the probably high cost of changing the paint on a warbird, I understand why they don't change it so often.

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