Armee de l'Air A-24B – 1/48 Accurate Miniatures SBD-5 kit
An SBD with invasion stripes. Actually an A-24B, used by the Armee de l'Air during the battles for the French channel ports in 1944-45. Decals came from a European release of the kit, large tail wheel from the spares box.
Hi Tom, Was looking for pictures of N747JR that I used to get rides in and saw yours on iModeler.com. It was owned by a group of pilots who stored it at Executive Airport in the North Hangers facing the end of Runway 20. The pilot who took me up was a man named "Jack Birch", a really great guy who loved flying and Chili-Cheese dogs from A&W across from the airport. Back in 1978/79 we would work on Jacks Piper Comanche installing wingtip tanks or doing minor maintenance on the Stearman, Jack would say "looks like good flying weather lets go up". He really had a blast with that call sign. He was a legend in Sacramento Flying circles. I remember there was a Superior Court Judge in the Group who flew in WWII, Rothwell B. Mason. Can't remember who crash landed the Stearman on top of the Fish and Game Hanger, but that was the end of it. I saw the remaining parts are being sold for a project down in Navato. Have fun, Paul Di Loreto
Judge Mason is flying the Stearman in the pix I took. He used to take any opportunity to get up in that airplane. Too bad about the crash, that must have been after I left Sacramento.
UPDATE 2024 - doing some research, I discovered that 747JR was sold to France, where it was given a R-485 and now flies as an aerobatic show plane in European airshows. So she didn't get parted out and she continues to fly!
Great A-24.
Very cool! I never knew the French used those.
They were actually originally given the French as dive bomber trainers for units that would later equip with the P-47. When that was delayed, they sent the unit into action against Lorient. About 40 missions were flown before the transition to P-47s happened. A little-known bit of history (courtesy one of my French modeler friends).
One learns something new every day. I didn't realize that the French flew a/c in their own markings and invasion stripes on. Judged from your description, wasn't it a bit late to carry full D-Day stripes at that time? Or were they operational even earlier?
Interestingly, the French used invasion stripes on everything except their P-47s, since the air force was a motley collection of types most other Allied pilots would be unfamiliar with, and they wanted to avoid being shot down by their friends.
Never saw this plane in this color - looks very interesting.
Very striking, Tom. Marvelous scheme- excellent work on the stripes! Clean and consistent. That's one plane that looks as good in green & grey as it does in it's native US Navy colors.
Nice to see this iconic aircraft in different markings, great build!