Forgotten War Mustang

[John1]

Here are the decal options I have to choose from:

 

My original set from AIMS

 

And the just released set from Print to Scale (a company I've never heard of before, any info on their quality would be welcome):

 

Having a tough time deciding on which option to model.  I was all set on "Little Beast II" from the AIMS set but since I've got the new sheet, I'm now undecided.   I honestly am drawn to "Linda and Bobby Jr" for some reason but it's got the WW2 vintage OD green glareshield and I want an aircraft with the later black glareshield to stand out a bit from the thousands of WW2 Mustang models.   So at this point, I think I'm going with "Butchie"  One note - not sure why the directions show the shark's teeth in dark blue.   On the decal sheet, they are the correct color - white.  Butchie made it through nearly two years of war, before being lost in early 1952.    Just wondering if anyone has seen any pics of this aircraft?   The Osprey F-51D book has a profile of her which matches the decal illustration but I'd sure love to see a picture or two of the real thing since, on occasion, a few mistakes are made on illustrations.   I've exhausted my Google-Fu and have not found anything.    Any assistance is appreciated.  One nice thing about Butchie is that she doesn't have the fuselage radiator cooling louvers so I won't have to deal with sratchbuilding those. 

[Antonio Argudo]

yes, it is a misinterpretation by the illustrator, here are 2 pictures of "Butchie"  cheers

 

 

[John1]

54 minutes ago, Antonio Argudo said:

yes, it is a misinterpretation by the illustrator, here are 2 pictures of "Butchie"  cheers

 

 

 

Thanks very much Antonio.   Where do you find all these great pictures.   I've been searching the net for this stuff and have had very little success.  

 

One thing the decal sheet missed was the black diamond on the MLG cover.   No biggie, I can replicate that easy enough.  It does appear that Butchie was one of the F-51D's that was finished in overall aluminum lacquer.   Your observation that on these birds, the stainless steel panel around the exhaust is the same color as the rest of the fuselage makes it easy to pick these aircraft out. 

 

There was a separate thread discussing these painted Mustangs on the Aviation Discussion forum.   Would you mind if I reposted some of your pics and info into that thread?

 

 

 

 

[Antonio Argudo]

you are welcome John,  

1 hour ago, John1 said:

Your observation that on these birds, the stainless steel panel around the exhaust is the same color as the rest of the fuselage makes it easy to pick these aircraft out. 

that was mentioned  by  modeller Matt McDougall from  "Doogs models"  he was/is also doing a Korean war  Mustang, and aussie one.

here you can see some partial panel repaint in this example 

 

 Would you mind if I reposted some of your pics and info into that thread?

no problem, cheers

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by Antonio Argudo

[N4521U]

On 12/27/2019 at 6:53 PM, MikeMaben said:

Hi Bill , by that time they were flying the P-51H.

Most of the Ds were shipped off to Korea but

I suppose it's possible you could have seen some.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/194th_Fighter_Squadron

 

In any case , have fun. 

 

Thanks for the reply. I've seen both, as in this photo showing a D, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:194th_Fighter_Squadron_-_North_American_F-51D-30-NA_Mustang_44-74825_Treasure_Island.jpg

Does look painted tho, as no color difference in the stainless steel panel under the exhaust. There are many pictures of F's on the line in front of the Hayward hangar. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-51H_194th_Fighter_Squadron_(4777706358).jpg

Cheers,

Bill

Edited December 29, 2019 by N4521U
Added F photo

[Madmax]

This has become a fascinating thread!

 

I really enjoy what you have done with the wheels John...  

[John1]

On 12/28/2019 at 11:09 AM, Antonio Argudo said:

 

 

 

So I'm back with yet another question.   Some F-51D's had a black stripe of paint applied on the wings (see above).   I had always assumed it was something to hide the prodigious amount of soot and staining that came from the MG's.    See above.   It's not a unit ID marking because I've seen various Mustangs in Korea with this.  Just wondering if Butchie has these stripes (see the pic below):

 

 

 

It appears that she does, I assume that these are also on the upper wing surfaces?

[John1]

Figured it's time to post some pics of plastic instead of yet more questions!    I've got the fuselage mostly buttoned up.   Just a tad of filler here and there but aside from that, everything fits nice and tight!

 

 

I simply glued the rudder and elevators in place.  One major dislike I have with this kit is all the work that Tamiya wants you to go through to make the kit into a toy with retractable landing gear, movable flaps, control surfaces, etc.   I have no need for any of those "features". 

 

Moving on, I've done some additional work on the landing gear wheel wheels.  Lots of fun color options here.   For some reason, later Mustangs often had one bay with unfinished aluminum roofs (actually, the underside of the upper wing) while the other was GZC.   In addition, the rear bulkhead (which was actually the wing spard), was usually YZC.   That's the scheme I went with, I think it adds some nice color.   

 

 

 

Not a lot of corrective work is needed in this area, Tamiya did a good job.   Only thing I did was drill out the holes in the oleo calipers and also removed the solid plastic backing for the hydraulic cylinders mounted to the aft bulkhead. 

Couple of notes - I just received the Fundekals P-51 stencil set.   Very nice, as is all of Jenning's stuff.   It even includes the stamped markings that were applied to sheet aluminum at the mills!   In retrospect, I should have applied these decals before I added the ribs, etc but of course, I was in a rush and as a result, it took twice as long to shoe-horn these small decals into place.  IMO, they really add quite a bit to the look.  I also added some decals to the landing gear but since my photo skills are awful and today was a pretty cloudy day, it's tough to see these.  Also note - I haven't added any additional details to this area.  I'm going to add some hydraulic and electrical lines to busy things up but unlike the Corsair I did last, where I slavishly added every line, this area on the Mustang is packed with tiny lines and fittings.   I'll add some but there is no way I can add everything.   Would have been nice to have an aftermarket outfit take a shot at this area.

 

I obviously will be weathering this once I'm complete.   That's it for now, thanks for looking! 

[N4521U]

Such nice work.....

and I keep saying to meself, "I didn't know that", "I Didn't know That"!!!!!!!

 

Bill

[Anders_Isaksson]

Excellent work on a very interesting subject.
I have loose plans on doing the same with my Tamiya P-51D so following this with interest now that I found your WIP.

[John1]

So based on a post in the Aviation Forum where I inquired about those black wing stripes, I got some very useful information.   I'm going to apply them the entire width of the wing's under surface and only approx 12" scale inches on the upper surface.   Still no idea if this was some sort of theater marking, my best guess is that it was nothing more than a means to hide the general filth that was generated by these weapons.   Need to keep in mind that unlike the escort Mustangs of WW2 which at best, might fire their weapons 1-2/week and then fly back and be meticulously cleaned by the crew chiefs, the Korean War Mustangs fired their MG's 3-4 times (sometimes more), per day, every day (unless they were grounded due to bad weather).   There seemed to be very little effort made to clean up the gun soot and dripping weapons lube between missions.   Not that I blame these guys, pretty hard to worry about stuff like this when it's 20 degrees below zero!   

 

Here is a great illustration of how nasty these aircraft got.   I have no idea how I'm going to replicate all this grunge!!  

 

On a modeling note - I'm just working on some sub-assemblies right now.  My ancient Badger 200 airbrush, that I have had for probably 20 years finally died on me. Waiting on a replacement but until, not a lot of stuff to show.

 

Thanks for all the great comments and as always, thanks for looking! 

[Antonio Argudo]

Hi John,  some  pictures related to your last posts, some interesting  gun stains on the wings, cheers 

 

and a Korean markings  warbird

Edited January 3, 2020 by Antonio Argudo

[John1]

On 1/2/2020 at 9:30 PM, Antonio Argudo said:

Hi John,  some  pictures related to your last posts, some interesting  gun stains on the wings, cheers 

 

 

 

Thanks very much Antonio (as always).   The top pic is pretty cool.  Note the replacement upper cowling with the OD glareshield and the replacement rudder.   

 

Bottom pic shows how grimy the wings got from the MG soot.   Also a great picture to provide guidance on weathering.  Had no idea how dirty the aft fuselage got.  Not many pics out there that show the bottom of these aircraft.   

[Sepp]

Fascinating thread, and lovely work. Great save on the glareshield, too. 

[Biggles87]

I wish I could find as good a photo of the original FF943 as that warbird, the only one I have ( taken from a distance ) makes it difficult to decide wether it’s a NMF or painted.

Keep up the good work.

 

John