Work progresses on my other projects, but as is pretty typical I get new ideas in the middle of working on them. In this case, I was inspired while working on the Green Angels to start on Black Sheep Squadron!
This time, however, instead of going with a historically accurate paint job I opted to paint the X-Wings up as the "meat heads" from the 1970s TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep (also known as Black Sheep SquadronI after syndication). I spent many, many hours watching this show on the History Channel while I was growing up; it's also perhaps unsurprising that Grandpa was a fan of the show as well.
The show presents a very fictionalized version of VMF-214. The real squadron was formed in late 1943 by USMC Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington with aviators who were unattached to any other squadrons in the South Pacific. They flew the iconic F4U Corsair and did quite well for themselves: in 84 days the Black Sheep destroyed or damaged 203 Japanese aircraft and became the stuff of legend. Major Boyington himself would end the war with 28 kills (but not before he was shot down and captured). "Pappy" was awarded the Medal of Honor and eventually released at war's end.
The ships are pretty much done barring a few more details. "Pappy" is represented with an arrow on his starboard wing, which was appropriated from a 40k Space Marine decal sheet. The rest of the squadron only bear the US insignia. To differentiate the Black Sheep from the Green Angels, I placed the hull insignia back a little bit more. The nose cap was also painted with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and given a dark grey wash. I feel it breaks up the paint job a bit and can also be seen on some of the aircraft used in the show.
Another really awesome aspect of Baa Baa Black Sheep was the fact that they used actual Corsairs in the show! Nowadays it would probably all be CGI, wouldn't it?
The rest of the painting pretty much follows what I did for the Green Angels: gloss black primer, coat of Tamiya Navy Blue spray paint, gloss coat, dark grey wash, then decal application. Then that's followed with another gloss coat, weathering, then a matte varnish.
I again used Mark I 1/144 scale decals for the insignia. This time, however, it was the version used by US aircraft between 1943-1947. They again went on extremely well (for the most part).
As what of the good old Green Angels? They're 98% done! They would've been done a few nights ago, however, until I realized that the disc magnets I got for the bases don't fit. I'll put up a post once they're completely finished though. Shouldn't be much longer now!
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