Small Scale Military Headquarters

most references show the rudder stripes on Dragon and His Tail as red, but some show blue. Why the mix up?

That's strange. Both the Corgi and the Franklin Mint have the red striped tail.
You would think that a blue and white tail would be Chinese Nationalist, like their other aircraft, and the red and white for a US plane, which was brought back on some aircraft like "Ms. Bonnie" P-51D too.

Then again it's got a dragon on it, which could be Chinese themed. Maybe there-in lies the confusion.

Is that answer about as clear as mud Aferg?

Don't really know for sure, where'd you see a blue tail?

I just got a Corgi "Sleepy Time Gal" B-24J myself.

the Altaya model has blue stripes and there's this picture:

http://acepilots.com/planes/b24_dragon.jpg

which looks like it's from a Squadron Signal book to me.

However, most of the sources show them as red, as does the modern day resoration of it. I have a feeling the correct colour is not known, with most believing they were red. The only thing with red is, it would be a lot like pre-war/early war rudder markings.

Altaya does get it wrong a few times from what I've read. I have a few IXO's, same company i do believe.
I bought an IXO P-40N a while back because it's the only diecast 1:72 N Warhawk available. I know it has the wrong markings on it with Flying Tiger shark mouth and Chinese Nat'l insignia, and the blue striped tail. The P-40N didn't come out till 1943 - 1944, long after the AVG disbanded. I think they copied an airshow example, rather than do the research. I bought it for a possible repaint to a Banshee's squadron with the skull on the nose.

The pre-war red and white stripes were brought back after air superiority was achieved on a few planes I've seen. Mostly in the Pacific of all places.

Is Dragon and his Tail a Pacific theatre plane?

yes it is.

So why did squadron signal have them blue?

Don't know (the link doesn't work)

Was doing a search of other B-24's and they show the 43rd bomb group (same as Dragon and his Tail) as having
the red and white.
Though that plane maybe an exception?

i had some time so i did some digging and found references to the fact that period colour photos of Dragon and His Tail have shown that the rudder stripes were indeed blue, not red AND that the dragon itself was not green!

The Minicraft 1/72 kit, which i assume is a recent release, or at least the most recent release of a B-24 with these markings, reflects the new colours as it has blue rudder stripes and the dragon is a greyish yellow colour.

I haven't been able to find the period photos of DAHT online.

I see what you mean, that is interesting. Wonder why so many got it wrong possibly?

http://modelingmadness.com/scott/axis/l ... review.htm

probably because black and white photos are so hard to interpret and assumptions were made that were never challenged. The red stripes would have easily been assumed as a throwback to pre-war markings. The dragon being green is sort of an obvious assumption....why wouldn't it be green?

...yeah they did put a green dragon on the 21stC "The Huff" F-86 Sabre.

Interesting post.

So that would mean that the Corgi 1/72, and Franklin Mint 1/48 versions are both wrong.

Easy mistake to make, given that the reference pictures are almost always black and white, and unless you can actually talk to someone who either flew, or worked on the aircraft, perfectly understandable.