Hi,

While I was looking for info on whether the Eduard painting instructions on Vraciu's Hellcat (BuNo 40467) are correct for pointing out the whole prop hub to be painted intermediate blue (are they?), I looked at Kagero's book on the Grumman Hellcat.
The side profile drawings in the book seem to show the prop hub as black, but the the same drawings also depict the plane having a completely different number, 99 instead of 19 in the Eduard instructions. I find this quite puzzling since both sources state the plane as BuNo 40467, VF-6, USS Intrepid, February 1944.
Which one is correct? Or both? Could the planes have been renumbered just around that time?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure if it will help but look up the fighter collection at Duxford. The real plane is there (i've seen it display a few times), not sure if it is painted 100% correctly but it might be worth a look.
thanks
Mike

You can check out the markings at [www.wingspalette.com] which are well researched. I don't know if it shows the prop hub very clearly. They are the only color profile I could find online. All the resources I saw show his aircraft as 19. Some list the call sign as "white 19".

Looks like wings palette have moved to http://wp.scn.ru/. There were a couple of profiles of Vraciu's Hellcat, but they seem to conflict each other. Probably best take with a grain of salt I guess as those drawings might be from old sources.

Mike, thanks for mentioning the Duxford aviation museum! I remember seeing pictures of a restored plane looking like Vraciu's, but I couldn't remember where it was and couldn't find it anymore.
With the magic word Duxford I found a good bunch of photos of the restored plane on Jetphotos.net. (Here if anyone's interested) The info on the photos say it's just the #40467. Nice.

I think I'll go with the majority, white 19 it is. I'll have to check on to the prop hub issue some more.




Edit:
I should have paid more attention to the pictures... Well, obviously the windscreen is not an F6F-3 item. After searching some more, this time with the serial number included, I ran into this little article claiming that the plane in Duxford is actually #80141, only painted as Vraciu's mount from early 1944.
This is getting complicated. Perhaps I should just paint it according to the instructions and blame the folks at Eduard who did the research for the paint schemes.

Well it looks like there is a few conflicting sources here, so I guess you should paint it in whichever you think as people are unlikely to prove you wrong! That article has the wrong no of kills for Vraciu, it says 10 but he finished WW2 with 19 - so maybe they have other things wrong? I read that the plane at Duxford, was actually one of Vraciu's planes but there you go!
It seems to me that a well respected aircraft restoration and operating company, such as the fighter collection, would most likely have it right. That said in Ospreys 'aces' series, their Hellcat book has it with an intermeadiate blue spinner. Flip a coin to see what you paint it maybe?
thanks
Mike
PS if you love planes google more about Duxford and see what other goodies they have their! It's well worth it and if you get the chance - go there!