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Collection from Italy: #2 P-38 Pilot, Tropical Environment


BlueBookGuy
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4 hours ago, P-59A said:

As Phantomfixer commented your flyers helmet should have the inset ear phones. You may also want to consider the push to talk comms.

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Hello,

my plan actually was to have a complete and faithful reproduction of a Lightning pilot as seen in a color photo    -   I seem remembering the caption read Saipan in November - December 1944 and if that's correct, going by memory the only P-38s being there out were from the same Group that had kept P-47Ds on the island since previous June.  Those P-38s eventually were in turn replaced by P-47s (model N) when pilots went to an airfield near Okinawa.

That pilot wore a helmet + radio set exactly like mine (unless his flight helmet was a more recent A-10, remember it was impossible to tell from the photo back then) so I decided I would have made an identical display; also, this way the two items didn't go wasted.  In the end it turned out really identical, including the older B-3 Life Vest (even at this late war period), two flashlight of these exact models, the same trench knife, deep yellow B-3A gloves (that I got in later years), the K-1 flight suit, hunting knife, canteen, and the dark green pouch for small emergency items.

Also a sort of bandaging was visible as put on his left forearm so I did the a similar thing on my guy.

 

As for the PTT comm gear, I had got one since many years but eventually I gave to my brother who was planning about a B-17 gunner mannequinn  -   it was much more correct for that character.

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10 hours ago, pararaftanr2 said:

Since Franco's mannequin specifically represents a P-38 pilot, the mic button would be found on the control wheel, as seen below in this image from the P-38 pilot's manual, shown as item #3.

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Thanks for the insight on P-38 comms! What did it plug into? Would it be a jackbox? Also what would the headset plug into?

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Happy to help. Typically, in US WW2 single engine fighters, the throttle controls would be on the port side of the cockpit and the radio controls on the starboard side. That's why you see the radio headset cord with plug worn on the pilot's right side. The attached image is the starboard side of the P-38 cockpit with mic and headset jacks numbered and labeled.

thumbnail (2).jpg

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6 hours ago, pararaftanr2 said:

Happy to help. Typically, in US WW2 single engine fighters, the throttle controls would be on the port side of the cockpit and the radio controls on the starboard side. That's why you see the radio headset cord with plug worn on the pilot's right side. The attached image is the starboard side of the P-38 cockpit with mic and headset jacks numbered and labeled.

thumbnail (2).jpg

 

... that's interesting. I believed the radio set was the same as found on the P-51s, the SCR-522A (that was called TR-5043 when used on British-manned US airplanes).

Good to learn new things.

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The radio in the photo was said to be the SCR-274N. They also show the SCR-695-A in the manual as an alternative. I don't know the differences in the various types.

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