I worked with only 4 colors, which was quite the challenge.

By far the most renowned of all Curtiss fighters were the 100 dispatched to China for use by the American Volunteer Group (AVG) or «Flying Tigers». They got the idea for their famous shark mouth markings.
Flying their first combat mission on December 20, 1941, the Flying Tigers operated under extremely difficult conditions at the end of the world’s longest supply line — and with the war’s lowest supply priority. Nevertheless, by the time the group disbanded six months later, its pilots had shot down 286 Japanese aircraft. During a period in the war when everybody else in the Far East was being soundly defeated by the Japanese, their achievements were truly phenomenal.

Colonel Claire Lee Chennault, a former USAAC fighter pilot had carefully observed Japanese aircraft over China and understood the strengths and weaknesses of both the Japanese and American fighters. Using that knowledge, he established an advance warning system, which involved Chinese observers relaying information to AVG air bases, giving his pilots prior intelligence on what Japanese forces were coming and when they would arrive. He also drilled three fundamental rules into his pilots. First, never ever try to turn with a Japanese fighter in a dogfight, instead use the P-40’s superior diving speed to escape, then climb and re-engage. Second, Chennault advocated head-on passes, because the Curtiss could outgun its Japanese army counterparts. The third rule was to harass the Japanese planes after they retired — since they lacked self-sealing fuel tanks, a few holes in their tanks would probably cause them to run out of fuel before they reached their home bases.

Text-Source: historynet.com