Hi Guys,

I just found out that during WW2 the USAAF painted several B-17 and B-24 in weird paint schemes. What I mean by weird is black/white, orange/yellow pock-o-dots and such. I was told they were used as a visual guide to form large formations for major bombing mission. I did a search on the net and came empty.

Anyone here have any information on this subject? Know of good book with photos? Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Mike

They were called assembly ships. They were older bombers that were not capable for bombing missions so they were converted to assembly ships. They were painted bright colors, had their weapons removed and took off ahead of the bomb group. They would circle the air field as the bombers took off. When the entire squadren was in the air the assembly ship would take them to a rondaview point to meet with the other BGs. They would then return to base. Some crews called them "Judas Goats"

There were two B-17s that I know of, the Spotted Cow (you can find a great WIP by Nigal on this site) and the Birmingham Blitzkrieg.

Check out this site to get an idea of what they looked like.
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/45410763/m/5491014307

If you look around you can find B-24 assembly ships such as:

Lucky Gordon
Ball of Fire
You Cawn't Miss It

I build the B-24 Big Ass Ape as a kid in 1/48 and am now building the B-17 Spotted Cow in 1/72

Hi Mike.
The best book by a long way is this one.

It has colour profiles and photographs of every 8th USAAF assembly ship.There are also profiles and photographs of the P-47's used as formation monitors by various bomb groups.
I did a B-17 a couple of years ago, and I have plans to do a B-24 at some point as well.

Anybody near Norwich in the UK will find a visit to the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library worth while, as they have a collection of assembly ship models on display.
Nige

Hello Dirk, I would love to see photos of your B-24 Big Ass Ape. It just sounds like an interesting subject. BTW, thank you for the information on the Assembly Ships and for the link to the computer graphics of these ships. At least I know what they are called.

Hello Nigel, Thank you for stopping in. Your B-17 is awesome. I would love to build something like that. Can you please tell me if all those blue spots were painted on and for making did you use any decal sheet? Also, thank you so much for the information on the book. I will have to see if I can find it in the States.

Thank you so much for all your help guys!

Mike

Hi Nige, I tried to locate your build B-17 on this forum but no luck. Man, there is so much on this site. It will take me days to view all of this. Could you post a link of your Spotted cow? TIA.

Mike

Mike

I wish I had the pictures of that old plane, but I did it for a 7th grade history project. I'm now 42 so that stuff is all long gone now. I can't remember where but some were on one of these modeling forums someone had a reissue of the B-24 and inside was a picture of the model I had done. Back then I had copied the box art. It was the crew of the plane removing the weapons and painting it. I even had one guy knocking over a bucket of red paint. LOL

Hi Mike.
Here are the links.
BUILD BLOG
ON DISPLAY

The only decals are the individual numbers I used to make up the serial numbers. Everything else is painted on.
Nige

Hi Nige,

Thanks for the link of your build. You did a wonderful job on it. I'm hoping to build few of these Assembly Ships to my collection. Thank you all for the kind help.

Mike

FYI the isbn of the book is 978-83-924914-1-5.

I'm planning a build of Birmingham Blitzkreig in the near future.

Andy