Beech RC-45 / F-2 camera doors

[KursadA]

Does anyone have any photos showing the shapes and external details of the camera doors on the belly of RC-45 or any photo recon variant of the C-45? Were these doors the same on early F-2 as used by the US Army?

[DonSS3]

If you look up the Beech 18 on the Wikipedia site there's a shot of two F-2s with one banking away to the right. It gives a good view of the bottom of the aircraft, but I only saw it on my tablet, not sure how observable the details would be on your desktop or laptop computer. I think this photo is also in Dana Bell's Volume I Army Air Corps Book that was published by Squadron.

[Niels]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beechcraft_F-2s_in_Alaska_June_1941.png

[KursadA]

Thanks, I found the same photo soon after I posted my question and the camera setup seems fairly different from the RC-45. If only there was a color photo of these early F-2s - the yellow/green high conspicuity markings make these some very colorful birds.

[Patnab]

Hello KursadA

Not sure if it is what you are looking for but i send you a few C-45 belly photo at info@caracalmodels.com

Amitiés

Patrick

[felixdk]

The Alaskan F-2s were actually painted red and green on the upper surfaces, but the red faded to an orange color. I researched them for artwork that I was working on and found that there are not a lot of good photos, although there are some nice ones from the LIFE magazine archive. The legend painted behind the entry door is also very distinctive.

There was also a camera hatch in the upper fuselage in line with the second cabin window back.

Edited January 13, 2015 by felixdk

[KursadA]

Thanks, Felix - I really like this scheme and wanted to include it in my upcoming C-45 sheet, but did not have some of the details I needed. Over the last few days I pieced together more information - it is too late for including it in the first sheet, but I have a second C-45 sheet in the works and may find a place for it there.

[felixdk]

Thanks, Felix - I really like this scheme and wanted to include it in my upcoming C-45 sheet, but did not have some of the details I needed. Over the last few days I pieced together more information - it is too late for including it in the first sheet, but I have a second C-45 sheet in the works and may find a place for it there.

That's great. I'll be looking forward to that sheet. These first F-2s have always fascinated me as they were the first version of the 18 to enter service with the USAAC. There's very little coverage of them. I intended to try a conversion on the new ICM kit; your decals will make that much easier. Other than the camera doors and window for the drift sight, it looks like there's just the placement of the position lights on the tail to change.

[KursadA]

Do you happen to have the LIFE photos or any links to them? It would be good to see the typography of the serial numbers and the writing behind the door.

[Jennings]

But I guarantee it didn't use Arial or Helvetica in 1941, since neither of those fonts existed...

[felixdk]

Do you happen to have the LIFE photos or any links to them? It would be good to see the typography of the serial numbers and the writing behind the door.

Here's the marking from the tail of the F-2 that I painted, typical USAAC for the period. It appears that not all the planes carried these. The ones that did also seemed to have the number repeated in an unpainted circle on the nose baggage door. You can see the location of the position lights as opposed to the kit here also.

Here's a good source for pictures of the a/c flying (you'll have to scroll through as they're not all together, the whole SDASM Archive is worth browsing!)

I did the research about 7 years ago, so I'll have to do some digging. I'll see what I can find.

[felixdk]

But I guarantee it didn't use Arial or Helvetica in 1941, since neither of those fonts existed...

I've never found a photo that was taken close enough to show the lettering, so I don't have a clue as to what they used. If you can find one, that would be great.

[Jennings]

I don't know what they used, but I know for a positive, 100% fact that they didn't use Helvetica (invented in the mid-1950s) or Arial (invented in the 1980s). That I know for sure.

[felixdk]

And while we're on the subject, the landing light in the wing leading edge is wrong for an F-2 as they had a retractable light under the port wing, no round window behind the crew door (the normal latrine area could be used as a darkroom) and the navigation lights on the wings will need to be changed to teardrop lights on the upper and lower surfaces inboard of the wingtip. The black areas under the wing roots are painted around the fuel tank vents (just visible).

Edited January 13, 2015 by felixdk

[flip marchese]

I would venture that the wing tip lights followed the same change as many AAF combat types, I.e. the single tip type arriving about sometime in 4Q43 or early 44.

[flip marchese]

as one who has studied typography over 40 years, I be interested in an explaination of the difference in Helvetica and Arial from curved and block san serifs of the 40s.

[flip marchese]

I would venture that the wing tip lights followed the same change as many AAF combat types, I.e. the single tip type arriving about sometime in 4Q43 or early 44.

[nfiler]

I wonder if this isn't one of those horse and cart things. I think it is very likely that when the technology got to the point where "standardized" fonts came into existence, many were nothing more than copies of what painters had been doing by hand for a long while.

As to whether they shape of the characters is an exact match of what was painted on the side of the war time bird, of course it isn't going to be perfect match. Kinda like horseshoes, Close is good enough.

as one who has studied typography over 40 years, I be interested in an explaination of the difference in Helvetica and Arial from curved and block san serifs of the 40s.

[felixdk]

In the case of the F-2s, they were the first version of the Twin Beech to reach service and after they started arriving at squadrons, they found that the senior officers would try to appropriate them as personal transport (Shiny New Thing syndrome). The warning about appropriate use was probably added at local level, not during manufacture, so who knows what font it was painted in.