506th Fighter Group 457th Fighter Squadron Skinpack

This skinpack contains 13 skins representing planes from the 506th Fighter Group, which served on Iwo Jima in the waning months of the war. They 506th joined two other P-51 groups on Iwo (the 15th and 21st groups) in providing very long-range escort to B-29s flying from the Marianas. Initially, they also made a number of ground attack missions on Chichi Jima and other islands in the Bonins. The Iwo Mustang groups also flew many fighter sweeps over Japan. None of these missions were easy. With approximately 1500-mile round trips to Japan, nearly all over open ocean, they were each a severe test of endurance. Often, pilots returning from missions had to be helped from the cockpit. Because of the extreme pilot fatigue, most planes were assigned to more than one pilot.

The 457th Squadron was assigned aircraft numbers from 500-549. At first, the planes had stripes painted on the tails (except for control surfaces), but this time-consuming procedure was quickly dropped in favor of a solid-colored tail. Also, all aircraft had black stripes painted on the upper leading edges of the wings as an aid to dive-bombing. Depending on speed and altitude, the pilot would start his attack when the target was lined up with the appropriate mark.

Name			Serial	Plane	Pilots
500			472615	500	Watters	
502			472599	502	
Gang Bang		472552	515	L Grennan
525			472555	525	
HEL-ETER/LITTLE TODDIE	472557	527	Winnen / Alston
The Enchantress		472871	528	William Saks	
Nip 'Nocker		463291	531	Wes Murphey	
538			463983	538	Jatczak / Benbow
Lil Ole Meanie II	473379	539	Hetland	/ Hinkle
KWITCHERBITCHIN		472854	540	W Lawrence / Kinvig
541			472856	541	G Hetland / Miller
Fighting Lady		472570	542	Gardner / Jatczak


Also included are two blanks: an early striped tail and the more common solid tail.

These skins were made using Jesters-Ink's Template with a partial FBS's internals layer and my own Bare Metal layer and weathering layers.
Feel free to use or modify these skins, just leave the credits intact, please!
Jarink

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For more information on the 506th FG, please visit their website!
www.506thfightergroup.org