Silver Dollar Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 I'm in the middle of building the Tamiya Mustang kit and I want to give it a natural metal finish that will be done in aluminum foil. My question is and I've read this somewhere but I have to confirm this, were the wings always painted silver on NMF Mustangs or do some have natural metal wings? I'm still trying the figure out what paint scheme I want but I'm leaning toward the aircraft of the 2nd Air Commandos which had metal finishes along with black lightning bolts. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhorina Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 I'm in the middle of building the Tamiya Mustang kit and I want to give it a natural metal finish that will be done in aluminum foil. My question is and I've read this somewhere but I have to confirm this, were the wings always painted silver on NMF Mustangs or do some have natural metal wings? I'm still trying the figure out what paint scheme I want but I'm leaning toward the aircraft of the 2nd Air Commandos which had metal finishes along with black lightning bolts. Thanks in advance. Hi Silver Dollar, All P-51s delivered to military services had painted wings either camo or aluminum/silver paint. Mike Horina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Having said that, once they were delivered and used, the paint finish deteriorated unless festidiously cared for by the ground crew. Sometimes the finish was stripped off and the metal polished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Dollar Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 Thanks guys. That tells me what I needed. The unfortunate thing is I have no idea what the ground crews did at the 2nd Air Commandos at Cox's Bazaar so I'm going to paint the wings silver and foil the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrh Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Having said that, once they were delivered and used, the paint finish deteriorated unless festidiously cared for by the ground crew. Sometimes the finish was stripped off and the metal polished. That's the supposition by modelers. I've looked at literally hundreds (if not thousands) of wartime P-51 pics, and I really don't see the evidence for that. Yes, the wings got dirty, grimy, and grubby looking. But the paint doesn't seem to have been particularly fragile, any more so than any other paint of the time. I've never seen even a single image of a WWII era P-51 with stripped and polished wings. If you know of such a photo, I'd love to know where to find it. It's also an article of faith in the model community that the putty used to smooth the wings before painting flew out in great chunks at the slightest provocation or the first encounter with a bump in the air. Again, I just don't see the evidence of that in wartime photos. Many a/c in post-war service (after major overhaul) did seem to have the putty missing. As to whether it was removed or came out on its own over the aircraft's service life, I don't know. Many pics of combat a/c in Korea it's nigh impossible to tell much of anything one way or the other about the wings. There *are* pics of Korea era birds that clearly still have smoothed, painted wings just like they did when they left the factory (which in most cases was only about five years before). I'll be filling in all those rivets on my Tamiya kit, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Brooks Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 That's the supposition by modelers. No, it isn't; when Danny Morris was travelling across the States, interviewing pilots and groundcrew for his "Aces & Wingmen" series, crews told him that they got so fed-up with trying to keep the finish pristine, they stripped it off a sample airframe, found that it made no difference to the handling, so did them all. Unfortunately, he never said which squadron (or squadrons?) this applied to. Edgar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrentE Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) No, it isn't; when Danny Morris was travelling across the States, interviewing pilots and groundcrew for his "Aces & Wingmen" series, crews told him that they got so fed-up with trying to keep the finish pristine, they stripped it off a sample airframe, found that it made no difference to the handling, so did them all. Unfortunately, he never said which squadron (or squadrons?) this applied to. Edgar If this was more than a rare occurrence then there should be ample evidence. Yet, in thousands and thousands of photos available of VIII Fighter Command mustangs, none conclusively demonstrate stripped wings. Brent Edited November 23, 2011 by BrentE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 If this was more than a rare occurrence then there should be ample evidence. Yet, in thousands and thousands of photos available of VIII Fighter Command mustangs, none conclusively demonstrate stripped wings. Maybe they dreamt it in a dream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) "> Olmstead, Merle.(2004). To War With The Yoxford Boys, The Complete Story of the 357th Fighter Group. Eagle Editions Ltd. Hamilton, MT. USA (p.234) I spy with my little eye.....panel lines and rivets on the above wing. ] Edited November 24, 2011 by TimC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didiumus Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 "> Olmsteat, Merle.(2004). To War With The Yoxford Boys, The Complete Story of the 357th Fighter Group. Eagle Editions Ltd. Hamilton, MT. USA (p.234) I spy with my little eye.....panel lines on the above wing. ] BURN! It is very very dangerous to use terms like "always", "never", etc... when discussing these issues. Of course it happened, as you have documented... Thanks for the photo... Scott Gentry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrentE Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 "> Olmsteat, Merle.(2004). To War With The Yoxford Boys, The Complete Story of the 357th Fighter Group. Eagle Editions Ltd. Hamilton, MT. USA (p.234) I spy with my little eye.....panel lines and rivets on the above wing. ] I have the book as well, but that is not definitive in any way. Obviously, Nooky Booky is in an extremely degraded state there yet it still appears that this is just normal wear and tear on the standard wing finish. Panel lines and even rivets are frequently partly visible even on relatively new airframes, especially around the gun bays and fuel filler. Even if this wing has been stripped, it is still an outlier relative to what the record indicates. Was wing stripping done? Certainly. Was it common? Certainly not. Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrentE Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 You know, there are times when I think that research is a complete and utter waste of time. Why? The vast majority of the primary source research on this subject indicates that puttied and sanded wings were the normal state for WWII Mustangs. Typically we rely on the hard research to counter anecdotal evidence, not the reverse. Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Dollar Posted November 23, 2011 Author Share Posted November 23, 2011 More thanks for the new info. In Cox's Bazaar, I'm sure they really didn't care whether or not the wings were painted or polished. It was in a pretty austere area which leads me to believe that they really didn't have the resources or the desire to strip paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 My beef is not with the debate/argument; it's the offensive nature of the reply that gets my hackles raised. Edgar, I fail to see any issue here with anyone's reply. Which reply, exactly, is offensive in nature? Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrentE Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 My beef is not with the debate/argument; it's the offensive nature of the reply that gets my hackles raised. Hi Edgar I think Mike's pithy reply was directed at my response, not yours. Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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