Tail markings for B-29s

[Dave Williams]

According to the book, "Enola Gay Mission to Hiroshima", the "Circle R" markings was only painted on the port side of the tail, while the starboard side of the tail retained the "arrowhead" markings, it an attempt to confuse the enemy. It's hard to prove or disprove this by the photos in the book as the photos only show the aircraft's tail from the left side when it had the "Circle R" marking. However, this photo shows the Circle R on the right side as well.

http://cletrac.org/media/pictures/pope/eno...ading_abomb.jpg

Also, the photos in the book, and the one above, show that the red fin tip paint was removed for the mission.

Edited June 15, 2005 by Dave Williams

[jrallman]

Steve, yeah, I have to shape the 377 tail down some, but thats a whole lot easier than trying to build up the kit tail! My initial idea to use the 377 tail was from some article i read about the creation of the 377 and how they just used the wings, gear, tail, engines and a bunch of other stuff from the b-29. of course, that turned out to be all prototype stuff, but better than nothin right?

Dave, looks to me like that pic pretty well proves that the circle R was on both sides for the mission. The only wartime photos of the EG with the circle R are from the atomic mission. Since that photo is wartime and not modern, seems, at least to me, that I should put the circle R on both sides. The restored EG has it on both sides, and well, yes, I know, resto birds aren't always the best source, so far the EG resto seems to be pretty accurate to the mission. As far as the red tail band, the photos I have seen have also shown it absent for the mission and added afterwards, despite many of the decal sets assertion to the contrary.

Despite the shortcomings of the minicraft kit, the decals appear to be pretty good, at least in marking accuracy. both the EG and Bockscar come with markings for the mission and post mission planes. While the instrucitons as to which markings should be used for which aren't really that accurate, the markings themselves appear to be good. Nice not to have to make any of my own in 1/144. Instead I can ruin my eyes by scratch building an interior.