I am about to start the Academy P-40B and want to finish it as Boyington's AVG aircraft. Who makes the decals and is there a paint mask available for the Flying Tigers scheme?

Hi Roger,

AVG P-40s were drawn from RAF stock with the RAF fighter pattern. Find a mask for it. It was used for Spitfires, Hurricanes, P-51s, Typhoons, every RAF single-engine fighter IIRC. I have a book with photos of Curtiss applying giant pre-cut rubber masks for the pattern. I think RAF used them, too.

As for decals, I don't recall if Boyington had a specific P-40 assigned to him; regardless, attrition meant that you flew whatever was airworthy. I recall that Boyington wrote that for the famous portrait of him in "Lulabelle" on Vella La Vella or Torikina, they just grabbed a random F4U and decorated it up as "his". He wrote something along the lines that even at the front they [War Dept.] were running a scam.

Heres a fun thread from 10 years ago about RAF camo:
Camo, hard or soft edge?

What Fredrick said about personal aircraft, usually only to the most senior pilot in the squadron.

I pulled together a list of P-40 decals a couple of years ago for a P-40 group build.. FWIW, Tally-Ho Decals 72-019 has a set for a Flying tiger in the 2nd squadron "Panda Bears" Don't know if that helps.

Well, I did find the thread, at one time it had live links from the data to webpages for the decals. Hope it helps.