[Hamsterman]

Hi all,
I was wondering if I could get some opinions about the camo scheme(s) depicted on these F4F-4s from VF-4 aboard USS Ranger in the fall of 1943, just prior to Operation Leader. At the time of Operation Leader, VF-4 (as well as VT-4 and VB-4) aircraft should have been painted in the 3 (or 4) tone camo scheme but it appears that at least a couple of the F4Fs in these pictures may still be painted in the blue/gray scheme. If Kyrre Ingebrethsen is on this forum, he might have an opinion on this subject as he pointed out on a different forum about 14 years ago that some of VB-4s SBDs were still painted in the two-tone blue/gray scheme.

In the first photo, Wildcat #2 appears to be painted with the 3/4 tone scheme and has the smaller star-n-bars with red surround on the fuselage. The Wildcat to the right (I can't determine the tail number - thoughts?) looks like it's painted in the two-tone blue/gray scheme. Notice the painted over star-n-circle insignia on the starboard wing. Also notice the larger fuselage insignia with bars and red surround. The second picture is a larger version of the Wildcat on the right.

The third photo shows a larger portion of the Ranger air wing. Most of the planes appear to be painted in the 3/4 tone scheme but there are a few that look like they have the two-tone blue/gray scheme. On a few of these (especially the SBDs) the national insignia on the bottom of the port wing is painted out in a color that is lighter than the bottom surface of the wing. I'm assuming the wing color is gray and the color used to paint over the insignia is white. I think I see a similar feature on the bottom of the port wing of F4F #10 in the fourth picture.

On top of all of those observations, I'm still trying to figure out the size of the national insignia on the wings of those potential blue/gray F4Fs. Were they repainted the correct size or were bars and a red surround just added to the existing star-n-circle insignia.

Thanks for any and all thoughts you all might have.
Cheers!
Chris