1:48 US National Insignia 1942-1943

The year the American star lost its center

In May 1942 the American command issued an instruction that markedly simplified the look of the national insignia: the red dot in the middle of the star stopped being painted. The reason was purely practical — at a distance and in poor visibility the red dot was confused with the Japanese marking, and a mistake in identification cost lives in the first months of the fighting. The insignia thus stayed in two colors only, white and blue, and in this form lasted thirteen months.

A number of famous operations fall precisely into this stretch. It was carried by machines fighting over the Solomon Islands, by aircraft supporting the landings in North Africa and by the first American formations operating from British bases. For a modeler it is a much sought-after period, because the machines then still wore pronounced colored camouflage.

The range of sizes

The insignia is printed on the sheet in nine steps. The smallest has in reality a diameter of twenty inches, the largest reaches five feet, so the set will serve small carrier fighters as well as heavy four-engine machines.

American practice placed the insignia on both sides of the fuselage and further on one upper and one lower wing surface, not on all four. Anyone who overlooks that during the build will use up two insignia needlessly.

A note on the coloring

The shade of blue differed quite a bit on machines of the day according to the maker of the paint as well as the wear. Anyone building an aircraft with a markedly faded surface can go lightly over the insignia once dry with a heavily thinned covering shade and play the difference down.