506th Fighter Group 458th 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 458th Squadron was assigned aircraft numbers from 550-599. Initially, the planes had stripes painted on the tails (except for control surfaces), but even though this time-consuming procedure was quickly dropped in favor of a solid-colored tail in the other 2 squadrons, the 458th kept using it for some time. Later on, some aircraft were painted with solid tails. 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
Madam Wham Dam		472607	550	H Shipman / H Scandrett
Delta Queen		472579	551	JB Baker / R Tatro
Mrs. Beak		463902	552	Ed Mikes / J Schuls
The Boll Weevil /
 A Neat Package		472558	556	B Commer / Seegers
Irresistable		463909	557	Feld / Tatro
Lady Diane		472553	564	Robert Harvey / R.W. Barnes
Puddin			472393	567	McCabe / Leake
Little One / 
 The Fetter Moichant 	472612	576	Ruble / Pilecki
Shirley III		472890	580	M Starin	
582			472672	582	Andy Anderstrom	
Little Que		472606	590	Q Lee	
Cherokee Rose		472620	594	Phillips / Lambert
Anything Goes		472870	599	Pete Nowick / Ed Conner


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

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