P-51 cockpit

[Tony O]

First two coats of an Alclad II mix of shade A and polished aluminium. These were applied over some acryic auto primer mid grey. The primer wasn't polished or glossy and this has left the Alclad with a slightly rough surface. I've polished this away with just a bit of houshold tissue to give it a nice alloy ( although you can't see it here) sheen. Next up is to mix some homebrew shades of Alclad and mask off a couple of panels to give it a bit of life. I 'm quite pleased that the primer has left the first coats of Alclad with a dull aluminium colour and not the dreaded polished look. Pics of Preddys machines show that his a/c were'nt polished hot rods.

BTW

use a good respirator with this stuff, my usuall mask was silver on the inside...I bet chrome plated lungs would get medical science scratching their heads...

[Tony O]

the sharp eyed might have spotted my deliberate mistake, Preddy's -413321 had no dorsal fillet....

just checking to see who was paying attention...doh

Tony

[ChrisS]

Well then...you know what you have to do right?

 

Choppeth thine fillet outeth!

[Mark P]

Tony:

 

Better yet. Why not finish the P-51D as Preddy's final aircraft, Cripes A' Mighty. If you need any further details on how the aircraft looked, I have plenty of material. Mike Grant has markings for that aircraft in 1/32nd scale.

 

I have tried to convince Jerry Rutman of the need for a resin 1/32nd scale P-51D tail without the fillet, ala Ultracast and their 1/48th scale unit for the Tamiya kit. Unfortunately, I have gone down in flames on this one.

 

Contact me if I can be of any help.

 

Mark Proulx

[Tony O]

ahhh well....

its a mite too late for that one...unless of course I scratch build the fillet..

the idea was to do Preddy's a/c as it looked around june 44 . I prefer the cripes a mighty nose art with the serif script rather than the later and gaudier ( IMO) last a/c.

I did know about the lack of fillet but in my haste and with a few other things on the go at the same time ( a web site for the museum I'm involved in...) I forgot to hack off the fillet..still its sorted now well almost .

thanks for the offer of info though, it is very much appreciated.

I did wonder about the metal flying surfaces though. Would Preddy's a/c carrying the earlier unfilleted tail still have fabric surfaces? it must have been an early production airframe and it seems logical that if it had the metal surfaces done, it would also have had a fin fillet added ?

here's a pic of the devastation...

mikes decals are first class by the BTW!! as is the info sheet that goes with them.

cheers

Tony

[ChrisS]

That's better!

 

I like the "battle damage effect" you're going for there too #> (kidding)

 

I have always liked the non fillited Mustang (and Thunderbolt) myself. While they may have lacked some lateral stability WE don't have to worry about that, and they look cleaner to me.

 

Looking great so far!

 

Cheers~

[Tony O]

stopping milliput from falling through the resulting hole is proving to be the undoing of my already slim grasp of sanity...packing with damp tissue would have worked but the milliput is just forcing it out of the tailwheel opening ( ok I know I should have built a wheel bay in the tradition of Rodney Williams...

its a good job I gave up the bushido code some while back...

I could of course hack the tail off at the transport joint, fill the whole thing with expanding foam and then top off with filler..that lovely Alclad is going to look more as if its been polished with an angle grinder...still these things were never pristine and besides I've some close ups of the BBMF Hurricane MkII and the Spit PRXIX and believe me they are covered in dents and knocks!

battle damage eh, what you can't see from the pic so far is the totally knackered starboard breather grille.

i ended up covering this with a plate and then sanding back to get it to the right thin-ness....and the exhaust stubs..oh lordy! a good idea to replace the Has stumpy ones with drilled out and inserted merlin stubs from tube stock..oh no, try getting the dremel to drill holes on a curved surface...suddenly its not such a good idea after all.

[Mark P]

Tony:

 

I have discussed the elevator issue with Sam Sox Jr at length while researching this aircraft. After the decals were printed by Mike, we came to the conclusion that Preddy's aircraft carried fabric elevators. In fact, all Eighth Air Force P-51's did. Metal elevators were fitted on very late war aircraft destined for the Pacific campaign.

 

If you have any other questions I would be more than happy to assist.

 

HTH

 

Mark Proulx

 

PS: Are you planning on doing the scheme with full wrap around invasion stripes on the fuselage?

[Mark P]

Tony:

 

While you are removing items from your P-51, don't forget that Preddy's aircraft had a solid cover breather plate on the nose. The plate will need to be sanded off and rescribbed.

 

Also note that the stenciling is changed, depending on the time line you wish to capture. With full wrap around stripes there are no crew names under the nose art. Additionallly, the prominent data stencil is still intact. Later in its life this data stencil is modified.

 

HTH

 

Mark Proulx

[Mark P]

Tony:

 

If this works, a photo for reference.

 

Mark Proulx

[Tony O]

Hi Mark,

thanks very much for the info, I've always thought that the fabric controls were confined mostly to late production examples and would probably have seen limited use in the ETO. Thanks.

I am doing the wrap around ( mad eh?) and noticed that the wing wrap arounds actually dont meet up on the leading edge. I've a close up which shows a 'step' where obviously the black has been applied in two stages possibly by two diferent painters?

I've since solved the milliput saga, the answer was to build it up in stages and allow it to go off before narrowing the gap with the next application. Its now ready for profiling and then primering.

Preddy's A/C looks pretty scruffy and not the pristine glossy BNBB machine that is often portrayed.

On a weathering note, I remember seeing an article about using salt applied to a model to absorb areas of paint, it is then rubbed off to leave the bare metal undercoat, but I can't for the life of me remeber where it was posted. Any ideas?

cheers for now, and I'll try and post some new images soon.

Tony

[Mark P]

Tony:

 

George Preddy's aircraft is a fascinating study. Thankfully it was extensively photographed, no doubt due to his Ace status.

 

While you are finishing your model, and if you are striving for 100% accuracy, also take note of the spinner overspray on the base of the propellor blades. An often overlooked item on his aircraft. I am also aware of the mismatched d-day stripes on the wings. Perhaps we are comparing the same photo. I will see if I can find out some tidbits about the invasion stripes. Stand by on that.

 

I can't say that I remember the weathering article to which you refer. Sounds interesting though.

 

Mark Proulx

[Mark P]

Tony:

 

I just got off the phone with Mr A. Giesting. He was the man responsible for applying the stripes to George Preddy's aircraft.

 

The order came down late in the day to apply the stripes to the aircraft of the 352nd. No doubt, a rush job ensued. The stripes were first measured and marked off with chalk. Then, white and black paints were applied directly to aluminim finish using a brush. This was a two man job. Thinners or fuel was used to remove the stripes at a later date.

 

As an interesting side note, stencils were used to apply the squadron codes to the fuselage. The spaces left by using the stencil matts were then filled in with black paint.

 

HTH

 

Mark Proulx

[Tony O]

Hi Mark,

I've never been one for %100, but to get it near enough looking like a mustang and Preddy's at that is good enough for me. I'm a great believer in artistic licence and representation. However it is often points which stand out in peoples idea of what something looks like that go further to producing a good replica rather than slavishly trying to a: reproduce a machine to the nth degree on a certain date in history and b: trying to build to other peoples expectations in the hope of seeking approval.

I rekon we are looking at a couple of the more well known images of preddys early stang, and I did spot the overspray on the cuffs thanks.

I'm surprised that the stripes were brushed on when expediency might have suggested lining up the squadrons a/c for a quick trip through a field paint shop. Anyway its little snippets such as this which help to give a feel to it.

Thanks very much for going to the trouble of finding out about the stripes, as always these things raise more questions than answers! and at some point I'll have to call it a day and finish the beast rather than constantly digging for info. I've already covered the port breather intake, but my references didn't show the stbd one covered so i left it as the kit grille. I think its now too late to redo this little area as i really must move it on. At least I know about it! which is marginally less annoying than finding out about it after the event. I'm also really pleased that the a/c doesnt have the canopy aerial lead to the fin...these give me nightmares and in the past have contributed to my daughters favourite Barbie's sudden and unexplained hair loss problem.....

anyway I got the fillet filled and primered to inspect for finish, it still needs a little profiling ( I did'nt realise just how difficult it was to reprofile this area using only drawings) close ups of unfilleted tails are hard to come by.

cheers again for all your help and say a big thanks to all the people who've volunteered their knowledge.

Tony

[Denie]

Hi Tony

 

Good work on your model.

What colour blue are you going to use, as I "seem to" being the operative word, remember two blue's for cowling top.

1) Lightish medium blue, possible make, most likely insignia blue with white added.

2) Darkish blue most likely insignia blue.

 

Its all rather exciting chooseing paint colours and the like, more so when the model is on the downward leg.

 

Mark's friend Mr A. Giesting will know more about this than I certainly do!

 

Regards

Denie