I do not usually do commission modeling or any contract projects as a “professional modeler,” mainly because a fun hobby then becomes onerous work for me. It is also hard to figure out an affordable fee based on the hours you normally have to fit in, etc.  But when a maxillofacial/oral surgeon friend, the distinguished Dr. Crayton Walker, happened to stop by my office, he was fascinated by my collection of aircraft models. He then admitted that he is a historic aviation buff and tuned me on to a great book written by Stephen E. Ambrose, “The Wild Blue,” about George McGovern and a USAAF B-24 he flew called “Yo-Yo.”

"Yo-Yo" in flight

​Dr. Walker also mentioned that a friend of his had a father who was a navigator in this same airplane.  He then asked me if I ever did commission work, because this same friend had a large die-cast B-24 model that was in British markings, and wondered if I could re-paint it and turn it into “Yo-Yo.”  Not one to turn down a most interesting challenge, I told to have his friend bring the big model to my office with him and let me take a look.

Just before the 2016 IPMS Nationals, Dr. Walker came to my office and I was introduced to Larry Gilson, whose father, Vervin R. “Gil” Gilson was a navigator in a B-24J-200, airplane number 44-41199 which was called “Yo-Yo.” The aircraft had a classic bit of nose art featuring a Bugs-Bunny like character skillfully manipulating a white yo-yo. 

Gil flew in the 741st Squadron, 455th Bomb Group, in 1944-1945 which was part of the 304th Bomb Wing.  This group was based in Italy at San Giovanni Field near the town of Cerignola. 
 
It so happened that Senator George McGovern also flew this same B-24 in the same Bomb Group.  Even though the plane bore the same Yo-Yo bunny rabbit logo and title, when McGovern flew it, he called it the “Dakota Queen" in honor of his wife, Eleanor.  Even though McGovern actually flew in Yo-Yo, it was the name, "Dakota Queen" that he designated on the flight reports.  This is why there was some questioning as to whether or not he actually flew the plane--he did!

I had started reading The Wild Blue and learned more about B-24 Liberators and their crews based in Italy in 1944.  The book turned out to be fascinating to read and had a huge amount of helpful information, some of which played into my research on “Yo-Yo.”

1.  The 455th Bomb Group’s tail marking had a black diamond shape on the upper half of both vertical stabilizers and yellow-painted lower stabilizers and port upper rudder.  

2. The 741st squadron had a black four-leaf clover on the upper rudders.

3.  The B-24s had their numbers painted on both sides of the rear fuselage to ensure that each plane joined its proper group during formation rendezvous following take-off.

Vervin R. “Gil” Gilson with his crew.  Gil is on back row, far left, by the bunny) 

4.  By this point of the war, camouflage was not deemed necessary so the B-24s of the 455th Bomb Group were adorned with an aluminum finish.

​5.   In August 1944 Lt. Col. William L. Snowden became the 455th Bomb Group’s commander and was well liked by his men.  He often led the missions.

Gil recollected that he was crew on a brand new B-24 in Kansas that got shipped over or flown over to Europe while Gil and crew went across the Atlantic via ship.  Then, they went into action.  He thought that same brand new airplane became “Yo-Yo.”  When Gil and crew were finished with “Yo-Yo,” George McGovern became the chief pilot.

Four generations of Gilsons involved (L to R):  Alex (great grandson), Gil, Jim (son), and Mario at a restaurant in Italy.  Brad Gilson (grandson) took the photo.

Apparently during his 25th mission, which happened to be a bombing run aimed at the Ploesti Oil Fields, Gil Gilson was the navigator for Lt. Col. Snowden.   The B-24 they were flying was hit by flak and they knew they'd have to bail out as the plane's hydraulic systems were failing.  But Col. Snowden was able to nurse the aircraft long enough to get it back over friendly territory.  Before he bailed out, Col. Snowden returned to the cockpit to retrieve his new hat.  However, he reached the ground before Gil because his parachute was damaged by flak.  They were assisted by a 14-year old boy, Mario, who became their laundry boy once they were back on base.  When Gil returned home from Italy, he brought the used parachute with him, which his wife cut up to make clothes!  Over sixty years later, Gil with his son, grandson and great-grandson returned to Italy and met up with Mario after all this time!

Of course Gil and Lt. Col. Snowden both survived their bail-out adventure and returned to service, but it was unclear in the account whether that aircraft was “Yo-Yo” or another B-24.  Unless another airplane was renamed, the doomed B-24 was not “Yo-Yo” as will be made clear at the end of this account.  Gil flew another 10 missions after this incident of being shot down!

Larry’s picture of Gil’s fellow crew (in front of “Yo-Yo” above) revealed a standard bare aluminum colored B-24J which meant that the paint scheme would not be hard to accomplish on the model.

However, what Larry brought me was an eight-pound, 1/48 scale die cast B-24J in white, gray and dark green British markings. Larry explained that he bought the model from Franklin Mint for his father before he passed away at age 91 in December 2015. ​

I later looked up the model on the Franklin Mint website and noted that a current B-24J went for $499.00!  So I thought to myself, “If I take on this project, I had better not screw up this model!”  But Dr. Walker assured Larry (and me) that I was up to the task and would be able to turn a British B-24J into a USAAF B-24J-200 known as Yo-Yo.  I warned them that I was a slow builder, and would not even be able to think about starting the project until the 2016 IPMS Nationals and a local contest I was running were both over.  Larry was happy to be patient.   

Dick starts his project with the right aircraft, a B-24J.  No major conversion work was needed, just paint and markings and a pair of small scratchbuilt antennae.  However, putting a silver finish over that camouflage is not a simple endeavor.

I did immediately start doing some research and found that because Senator McGovern had flown the plane, there was quite a bit of information on the internet, including some photos.  I also contacted my friend Jack Morris who has a business called JDMC Aviation Graphics and makes custom decals so I thought that it would be helpful for him to make some professional grade transfers in lieu of efforts on my part to do-it-myself.  Nevertheless, I did experiment with some home-made decals as will be described later.
 
I checked with the vendors at the 2016 IPMS Nationals in Columbia, SC and one of them had a set of 1/48 scale USAAF decals for a B-24J, so at least I now had the basic insignia markings as a start.  I had previously checked with other decal manufacturers via e-mail and none of them had any markings for “Yo-Yo,” which surprised me a bit.  I figured that the story would have been different in more ways than one had Senator McGovern beaten Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election.  In that scenario, there could have been plenty of “Yo-Yo” markings out there.  But that premise is one for another time-space continuum, I guess!
 

Another view of Franklin Mint's B-24J in British markings prior to any customization work

The rubber wheels needed to be masked as well as the bottoms of the wings and front fuselage as the first item of business was to paint the landing gear wells green zinc chromate.  

One of the best masking mediums for covering unusually shaped parts and areas where your paint may be fragile is Parafilm Laboratory Film.  This product was originally designed as a temporary cap for laboratory containers.  When stretched, a light adhesive is activated, which provides a nice, low-tack paint masking material.  It can be wrapped around irregularly shaped parts and won’t let any paint through.  

Parafilm is a low-tack masking medium.  A piece smaller than is needed is cut from the roll, then stretched to activate the adhesive.  Further stretching will allow the Parafilm to conform to complex-curved surfaces.

Rust-Oleum fast-dry silver paint was the primary finish--right out of the can!

To paint landing gear bays and doors, I used Testors Model Master zinc chromate-green paint.  I didn’t think I’d need to prime these areas, and the chromate paint didn’t adhere to the original white paint very well.   I had to be very careful with future masking after this.  Some experiments also showed that regular Model Master Metalizer paint would not adhere well either.  So I opted for some Rustoleum Krylon paint that I knew from prior experience would stick reasonably well to the metal model.

After the gear doors were painted, Dick finished off the masking he would need to accomplish before the silver paint went on.

​Dick used Parafilm on the props with wadded tissue in the engine orifices.  Tamiya yellow masking tape covered windows and turret plexiglass and landing gear wells.

Another unlikely product that works well for masking temperamental paint is Post-it Note adhesive paper.  It has enough tack to stay on your surface but not enough to pull up your paint!  You can simply cut off the piece you need with the adhesive at the edge of the area you wish to mask.  Finally, I used yellow Tamiya tape on the de-icer boots and canopy areas.  This part of the project was tedious but necessary.  

The engines were finished sufficiently in their original state, not need any more adjustments or detailing.  I used wadded tissue in each of them to cover the engine inside its cowling.  I left the landing gear struts uncovered as they were also going to be painted aluminum.  So, with masking done, I was ready to paint.
 
I expected that putting a silver finish over the original camouflage pattern would leave visible ridges where the colors met.  To gauge the extent, I decided to shoot some Rust-Oleum silver paint over it, and sure enough, the existing camouflage edge was prominent enough to require sanding and smoothing to eliminate it.

An initial coat of Rustoleum silver revealed ridges from previous layers of camouflage paint.  Silver paint is unforgiving when it comes to revealing defects.  As a primer, this was a good thing!

Sanding is required to remove the ridges from the previous camouflage finish.

I used varying grits of wet sanding and wrapped up with 2500 grit to get an edge smooth to normal vision and magnification. The next coat of Rust-Oleum went on well as primer and showed me that I had effectively eliminated the camouflage-edge.  I made sure I had not missed any spots before I went on from that point.

Rather than decanting the paint from the spray can to run through my airbrush, I decided to revert back to my method of painting automotive models straight from the can.  This worked well in my younger days in the late 1960’s so I was ready to tackle the big project.  Due to the model’s size, I used a card table and painted outside so I would not have to deal with any spray-dust, etc.  I had one winter day of reasonable weather and two coats with time to dry in between did the trick.

The model after spraying the final coat of silver paint.

Careful masking reduces the chance of overspray.

I gave the paint several days to dry and focused on my research as the British version had some antennae and wing scoops that my B-24J-200 did not have.  So, after looking through several references and a couple of photos of “Yo-Yo,” I had confirmed that there were no nose antennae.
 
At this point, Jack Morris had finished the decal set and sent them right over to me and I could tell immediately they were beautiful.  They were nice and thin and went on perfectly.

Larger antennae were  not used for Yo-Yo even though Dick painted them nicely.  The smaller antennae were scratchbuilt.

Evolution of the clover graphic.  Dick found that using circles from a hole punch was best for getting even circles.  He could have printed the image on decal paper, but in the end, Jack Morris created them along with the bunny decal.

The custom-made bunny decal went on beautifully, according to Dick.

I sealed the decals with a glossy clear coat first and then used a semi-gloss finish to blend them in with the aluminum paint.  I generally do not like to coat the entire metal surface with the decal coating if I can help it as the natural metal finish generally looks better without anything over it.  I also made a few minor fixes as far as the holes visible where the nose antennae went and where some aluminum touch-up was needed.

Bottoms of the vertical stabilizers are yellow, as noted above.  Only the upper surface of the portside horizontal stabilizer is yellow.

Before:  Franklin Mint B-24J in British markings

After:  Yo-Yo as painted and decaled by Dick

Photos of Yo-Yo showed the plane with no de-icer boots on wing and tail leading edges and I debated their depiction on the model.  But I also had drawings and marking indicators that had them.  I  decided to leave them be since they were on the original die-cast model and I thought the model looked cooler with them.  I did not want to do a lot of modification on the die-cast model itself and I thought it would take too much effort to try to sand or trim the fronts of the  wings and tail section of the die cast model that surrounded the boots.  

Additional views of the finished model

I did a little research and found out that in the European Theatre, they often removed de-icer boots from B-17s, B-24s, B-25s, etc. because they caused excessive drag when they were torn up by flak, etc.  Temperatures and atmospheric conditions during flight near Mediterranean latitudes also played a role in boots on vs. boots off.  I noticed in my pictures of the Strawberry Bitch B-24D at the Air Force Museum in Dayton that there are not boots on that aircraft.  However, the Revell instructions, etc. for that scheme had boots marked to paint in black.   I also read that de-icer boots were used less and less later in the war. Oh, well.  Live and learn!

Dick noted that he forgot to remove the masking on the lower nose plexiglass.

We'll post updated photos with all masking tape off!  A B-24 has plenty of glass panels to mask and it is easy to overlook removing tape from one or two!

As the conversion process continued, I kept in touch with Larry, who described to me an amazing reunion in November 2007 just a few years before Gil died in in 2015.    Gil, his son Jim, a grandson Brad, and a great-grandson Alex returned to Italy to tour Cerignola, where he was based. 
 
They made arrangements to meet with Mario, who, as a 14 year old boy, found Gil after he bailed out of the ill-fated B-24 after the hydraulic cables had been damaged by flak over the Ploesti Oil Fields. 
 
Mario came by the barracks each week thereafter to pick up uniforms that needed to be laundered.  They had a wonderful reunion with Mario, and spent two days visiting many of the sites Gil had spent time at while serving in Italy.  Pictures of the airplanes still adorned the walls of the restaurant where they got together and are reproduced throughout this article.

Pictures adorning the walls of the restaurant in Italy where Gil and Mario enjoyed a happy reunion.  A Ju-88 that had been shot down.

Captured German aircraft, in this case, a Messerschmitt bf-109

The saddest part about the Yo-Yo story comes in George McGovern’s own words from the Ambrose book previously mentioned, The Wild Blue.  After the war, McGovern was back in college and, taking a break from his studies, he took his wife Eleanor to a movie at the Paramount Theater.  Back then, they would typically show a black and white newsreel before the main feature and he recalled that the announcer was saying, “American bombers that were flying a few short weeks or months ago in England, Italy and the Pacific are now being collected in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and other western states to be salvaged.”  The newsreel showed bulldozers working away and moving remains of hundreds of B-24s into a heap.  The cameraman zoomed in on one aircraft in particular so viewers could see the name on the nose.  It happened to be “Yo-Yo.

A B-24 whose pilot hit the brakes too soon.

A closeup of a colorful B-24J, "Witchcraft." 

McGovern could not believe it.  According to the account in the book, he exclaimed, “I felt like just getting right up out of my seat.  We nursed those bombers back as carefully as we could, conserved the gas, protected the oil and watched the oil pressure and other gauges.  We tried to land them as well as we could, and we brought back the precious airplane.  Now it was being turned into junk.  I couldn’t believe it!  I reacted almost violently!  I wanted to get up and tell the audience that what we had just seen was sheer waste and extravagance.  Made no sense at all!  It really stirred my Scotch-Irish soul to see it taking place.”

Senator McGovern signed Gil's copy of Wild Blue.  McGovern passed away in 2012.

Mission briefings were held in this potato bunker.

​In 2007 Gil was actually able to meet George McGovern in San Antonio, Texas at an annual convention of surviving B-24 personnel.  Sen. McGovern signed Gil’s copy of Wild Blue for him.

It would have been interesting to record their conversations about flights and adventures in their four-engine behemoth so ignominiously destroyed all those years ago.  But, at least one replica of Yo-Yo was in existence now and about to be presented to Gil’s son.
 
Finally the big day came to unveil “Yo-Yo” to Larry and his son Brad, along with Dr. Walker and a pilot friend, Ron Bird, who came along for the event.  For effect, I shrouded Yo Yo with a tablecloth and unveiled it for all to see when everyone was there.

Dick covered the model prior to its official unveiling for Gil's family

Yo-Yo unveiled!

Larry and friends were very happy to see Yo Yo as their father and grandfather served in it over 70 years ago.  Larry’s only lament was that his ​father was not able to see the model in person.  

The unveiling L-R:  Dr. Crayton Walker, Larry Gilson, and Larry’s son Brad.  Seated: pilot friend Ron Bird, Dick Engar

​Of course, Yo-Yo was only one of virtually all but a handful of B-24s that met the same fate of the scrap heap.  Out of over 18,000 built, only a relatively few are displayed in museums and only two are still flying today.  But, of course, we modelers can keep the memory of the Davis Wing and the B-24 alive, which made my repainting project so worthwhile.  And it was great to present Larry with a keepsake that was a nice memorial to his father.

Check out our kit review for the Atlantis B-24J.  It's a re-release of an old Revell box-scale (1/92) kit that hasn't seen the light of day in decades.  It's worth a look!
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