O-46 in the Philippines 12/8/41 - colors

[Harold K]

I've read that two Douglas O-46s were at Clark Field at the time of the Japanese attack. Does anyone have any information on the colors and markings they (or any others in the Philippines) wore at that time?

[JohnMacG6]

Only pic I have shows one about mid-1941.
It's overall natural metal, with a dark (blue?) coloured motor cowl. Red-centred stars in four wing positions, plus pre-war US Army rudder stripes. 'U.S. ARMY' carried underwing and 2nd Observation Squadron badge on the rear fuselage. Codes are in black on the fin - '135' over '4M theta' (theta = an O with a horizontal bar through it). The '1354Mtheta' code is repeated under the port wing, above the 'ARMY' part of the 'U.S.ARMY' marking (and possibly above wing too, although the pics don't show this).
HTH.

[Harold K]

Rather like the lower one in the box art, John?

http://www.pavlamodels.cz/images/air...72050_krab.htm

Problem is, I want to build one in wartime marks, which I suspect might have been OD over gray. Of course, "suspect" isn't good enough.

[JohnMacG6]

That's the one, Harold

Never seen ANY pics of one of these a/c in camo (in the Philippines at least). I suspect that IF they were camouflaged they would probably have been done in the same way the Philippine P-35As were camo'd - i.e. a quick coat of OD over the upper surfaces, without priming the surface first, which lead to much peeling of the paint, while the undersurfaces remained in natural metal and the tail codes were retained in either black, yellow or white.
Pure speculation tho', and there are pics of B-17s captured by the Japanese forces in the Islands still in overall natural metal finish so..........if the B-17s never got camo paint, it would seem quite reasonable that the O-46s maybe didn't either.