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I thought I was over doing homework some time ago - seems not!

My eldest daughter is doing a RSL project on people who have influenced our country. I guess because I have a bit of info on Sqn Ldr John Jackson, I suggested she do a project on him and she agreed. Whilst not well known, Jackson has a airport named after him (Port Moresby International) and he is still very well known and looked up to in the RAAF 75 Sqn community and had his name painted on a 75 Sqn Hornet three years ago for the 70th Anniversary of the squadron. I admittedly am fascinated with his story and think it a good one for kids to learn about - sometimes it's just not all about greed, the 24 hour news cycle, self-serving bullshit artist celeb's, etc - there are people who have given their all for our freedoms such as Jackson.

Easy job for me - stick down my P-40E onto a diorama my daughter put together with some guidance and a little (promise - not a lot!) assistance by me. I printed out the background pic's which she glued down. I gave her some hobby "grass" to stick down onto the foam/plaster base and she applied glue for the actual dirt to stick to. Big expense was using some "Mr. Surfacer" on the outside of the diorama to make to box look less crappy!

Don't tell the teacher, but I think I stuffed up the paint scheme for Jackson's P-40E - D'oop! (built this a few years ago now) This is more representative of the later Milne Bay P-40's, not the original ex-USAAF P-40E's given to 75 Sqn that appear to have been Khaki green upper and grey underneath. This is what happens when you believe info sent by "experts" - GRRR! I'll do a proper Jackson P-40E in 1/32 one day, or repaint this one.

Anyhoo, this is what we came up with. It reminds me when a primary school mate and I conned our parents out of some money for a school library project. I think we did the Battle of Britain and we built a few Airfix models c/w cotton wool streaming from behind the German aeroplanes and had them suspended from the ceiling of the library for a few weeks - before we took them home and blew them up in the dam!

That's excellent Adam. Your daughter should get top marks for her project. She would if I had anything to do with it.

Regards,
RHB.

Cool work mate. Considering I'm venturing up there soon I was thinking of doing Jackson's P-40. Where did you get the decals from?

Thanks Ross! It was a pretty fun project and I did make an effort not to take over completely so she has ownership of it. She would not let me carry it into her classroom either - that would have been very uncool Dad! I had that same feeling I get approaching Expo - must get this finished on time! At least I didn't have the flu which is what stuffed me for Expo this year!
On my last trip to PNG earlier this year, I got to visit Jackson's grave at Bomana War Cemetery near Port Moresby Airport. This was a adventure in itself! I've posted elsewhere about that adventure, but here's the photo of his grave once again.



I just have to hope now my P-40E comes back in mostly one piece! I've asked my daughter that should some parts break, at least bring them back so I can glue 'em on again. Fingers crossed!

hrtpaul wrote:Cool work mate. Considering I'm venturing up there soon I was thinking of doing Jackson's P-40. Where did you get the decals from?

These were a combination of masks (for the "H") and Red Roo "Milne Bay Defenders" decals. There is some debate as to whether the coding of Jackson's aeroplane was "I" or "H". I also believe it was in the original upper USAAF Khaki with grey undersides, as there was just no time to repaint them. The upper colour is whatever the standard USAAF colour is for that time - olive drab/khaki colour. This is supposed to be a photo of 75 Sqn in March 42 on it's way up to Port Moresby - in Townsville maybe. It appears that the yellow surrounding the fuselage roundel was painted over with the upper olive drab/khaki colour. The thinking is that the red mini-meatballs remained at that stage, only to be removed later. Only one P-40E was flyable at the end of that 44 days in March/April 1942 after Jackson's death. His younger brother Les took over the squadron - he was apparently quite a wild man!







I got some conflicting advice on how to paint Jackson's aeroplane and it stuffed me up completely! I'll get it right someday.

Always hard to tell from B & W pics though in the top pic it does look like a uniform colour and probably olive drab as you suggest. This project is a long way down the list but thanks for the info mate. I'll do some digging

I think Adam is right about it being 2 tone you can clearly see half way down the rudder, and below and behind the rear of the exhausts, also on the fuselage near the roundel if you look carefully

If you really want to stir up some controversy, get into a discussion with a P-40 "expert" about the colour under the canopy covering the turtledeck (area just behind the cockpit) - should it be chromate or camo colour? When I was posting images during the build some years ago, all sorts of "experts popped out of the woodwork advising I was wrong - possibly I am of course and just followed the mistakes of others.
I guess the lesson I've learnt is that one shouldn't get too wrapped up in deciphering old B/W pic's and trusting so called "experts" - I'm bound to screw it up in someone else's opinion regardless! I guess that's why I've not been in too big a hurry to fix my P-40. If it's wrong and Ol' John is out there in the ether somewhere, maybe it gave him a bit of a laugh!

Apparently my daughter's teacher likes her diorama - maybe we'll get a good mark! Her talk about it is tomorrow, so briefing will be at 0800! No pressure kid!