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Forgotten War Mustang


John1

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I've always been fascinated by the Korean War.  It was a bloody conflict that in many ways was a precursor to Vietnam, where the majority of the folks in the US (unless they had a father, husband or son serving) paid little attention to it.  This was in stark contrast to WW2 where the entire nation was involved and engaged in the war effort.   Another interesting thing was that the equipment used was mix of cutting edge technology and WW2 leftovers.   

 

Specifically regarding WW2 leftovers, we have the F-51D Mustang.  5 years before, the Mustang was the F-22 Raptor of WW2.   Arguably the best fighter of that war (especially when you factor it's amazing range into the equation), in Korea this thoroughbred was simply an expendable bomb truck.  Many aircraft lost their puttied wings, which provided a few extra MPH due to laminar flow, many others lost even more performance when the USAF opted to lock it's tailwheel in the down position to reduce maintenance issues from mud and ice building up in the tail gear bay.    In the end, performance no longer mattered and these once cutting-edge aircraft were simply fed into the operational squadrons, used until lost or scrapped and then replaced by others. 

 

The aircraft were no longer waxed and polished for maximum performance, instead, they were left outdoors in truly horrible weather conditions and apparently, little effort being made to clean them.  Part of this was probably due to the tempo of missions.  Instead of flying long range escort missions maybe once per week as they did in WW2, weather permitting, these Mustangs often flew 3-4 times per day.    This tempo also took it's toll, Mustangs (and their pilots) were lost at a horrific rate.  Many have argued that the Mustang had no place in this conflict as a close air support aircraft, due to it's light construction and especially it's liquid cooled engine.  The underside of the Mustang was a maze of coolant piping and a single rifle round in this area would result in the Mustang being lost as it's critical engine coolant rapidly leaked out.    The P-47 would have been a much better fit but in the cold logic of warfare, it was determined that there were more Mustangs available, so these aircraft were pulled from state-side ANG units and sent to war again.  That being said, these aircraft and their pilots performed heroically under extremely challenging conditions. 

 

The F-51 was basically just a re-designated P-51 with a few changes.   There are some threads in the General Discussion Forum that go into much greater detail but a few things differentiated these aircraft from their WW2 counterparts -   All F-51D's had mounting points for 6 x 5" HVAR rockets.   Many (possibly all) had the battery relocated from behind the pilot to the engine compartment and in these cases, a cooling air scoops as added to the side of the fuselage.   Many (but certainly not all) had "cuff-less" propeller blades.  Many (but certainly not all) had additional radios and IFF gear mounted behind the pilot, on top of the fuselage fuel tank.  Many (but not all) had the putty removed from their wings during rebuilding at USAF maintenance depots prior to being sent overseas. Lastly some also had cooling louvers retrofitted on the fuselage sides, behind the wing root.     I think those changes pretty much cover it.  I'll provide more details and some illustrations once I get into the build. 

 

Moving onto the model, at this stage I think I'll be replicating Little Beast II, a hard-serving F-51D assigned to the 12th Fighter Bomber Squadron in mid-1952.  Not 100% sure on this, got plenty of time to figure this out.  Here she is taxing out for yet another combat mission.  She's armed with a standard load of 2 500 lb bombs and 6 HVARS (the other standard loadout consisted of two napalm tanks and 6 HVARs) and appears to have her tailwheel locked down.

xAH4bhyl.jpg

 

For this kit, I'll be using the Tamiya Pacific Version P-51D kit, along with AIMS Korean War Mustang decals (sadly, I believe these are the only decals of Korean War markings out there, another indication that Korea is still the "forgotten war") and a bunch of Barracuda resin upgrades.  I'll provide details on all the AM bits later. 

 

My biggest concern is going to be the NMF finish on these aircraft.   I've always struggled with this and in the case of these Korean War birds, it's going to be compounded by trying to replicate the extreme weathering they were subjected to.  Here is a great example:

 

136289006-02bg5aqm-adsc_7314x.jpg?w=950

 

Note the high degree of filth and also note how dull and weathered the metal finish is.  Looks more like dull, grimy grey instead of the shiny, immaculate finish seen on most WW2 Mustangs.  The pic above also does a nice job of showing those cooling louvers retrofitted behind the wing root and the additional radio gear behind the pilots seat.   If anyone has tips for replicating this type of finish, please let me know!!

 

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now.   One last note - this is going to be a looong build.   I'm inherently lazy and my modeling time is always limited.  I'll post updates when I can.  

 

Thanks for looking!

 

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1 minute ago, monthebiff said:

Cool project, that NMF almost looks like paint. 

Right???  I have no idea how I’m going to replicate that finish.  It’s similar to those old aluminum canoes that have been stored outdoors for a decade or two.   It’s like a really flat light grey with a metallic sheen.  

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great project John, I'm looking forward to see the build going on, I am tempted to do a Korean Mustang too,  about the differences with ww2  don't forget the cockpit were painted entirely in black, best luck mate!

cheers

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19 hours ago, Antonio Argudo said:

great project John, I'm looking forward to see the build going on, I am tempted to do a Korean Mustang too,  about the differences with ww2  don't forget the cockpit were painted entirely in black, best luck mate!

cheers

Hi Antonio,

 

As a point of clarification, not all F-51's had the black cockpit.  There is lots of good info on this subject on a couple of threads in the General Discussion forum but as I understand it, only certain F-51's, that were refurbished stateside prior to deployment, had the cockpit repainted.  These aircraft also had the putty stripped from their wings at the same time.  Other F-51's kept the original WW2 cockpit finish.   

 

I really like the pics you posted of that Mustang from the USAF Museum.  That cockpit looks like what a real combat vet should look like.  Dirty, dusty and with lots of scratches and chipped paint.  Great opportunities for weathering and there are enough green painted fixtures left to break up the monotony of an overall black cockpit.    Right now, I'm planning on trying to replicate this look.

 

I'll have to replicate a few of the post-WW2 mods that are shown in those pics but it should be manageable between the Tamiya parts, the Barracuda resin and a bit of scratchbuilding.

 

Question for anyone out there - would the area aft of the pilot's back armor also be painted black or would it have remained in the original green color? 

Edited by John1
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I'm not certain, but likely it was. The fuselage fuel tank would have had to be removed to install the new radio equipment. It was rubber and the removal process involved squeezing it out through the bottom of the fuselage, not an easy task. There is a drawing in the maintenance/engineering manuals of the process. Once it was removed it would be fairly easy to repaint back there. I'll see if I can find out anything more from one of the Mustang experts.

 

Richard

Edited by R Palimaka
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Hi John,

2 hours ago, John1 said:

would the area aft of the pilot's back armor also be painted black or would it have remained in the original green color? 

from what I remember reading in the p51 SIG some years ago, back in ww2 there was already a normative from the end of 44 to paint everything visible in black behind the pilot seat in order to avoid sun reflections in the cockpit, if the Korean Mustangs keep like that I don't know for sure but seems more like it, this is a replication of that in a warbird Mustang, cheers

 

cockpit3.jpg

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4 hours ago, R Palimaka said:

I'm not certain, but likely it was. The fuselage fuel tank would have had to be removed to install the new radio equipment. It was rubber and the removal process involved squeezing it out through the bottom of the fuselage, not an easy task. There is a drawing in the maintenance/engineering manuals of the process. Once it was removed it would be fairly easy to repaint back there. I'll see if I can find out anything more from one of the Mustang experts.

 

Richard

Didn’t know they removed the fuel tank, I thought the only thing relocated from that area was the battery, which was moved to the engine compartment. 

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1 hour ago, John1 said:

Didn’t know they removed the fuel tank, I thought the only thing relocated from that area was the battery, which was moved to the engine compartment. 

 

Sorry John, I wasn't very clear there. What I meant was that they had to temporarily remove the fuel tank to install the new radio equipment. While it was out they could have repainted in black. Then the tank would have gone back in after. 

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