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Don Gentile's P-51B Shangri-La


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Fellow Modelers:  I have 1969 a Revell P-51B (Don Gentile's Shangri-La) in the box and I would like to know some details about the wheel bay color, undercarriage doors, and hubs.  Photographic evidence appears to indicate the wheel hubs were painted Insignia Red on both sides.  I am not sure about the undercarriage doors (natural metal, interior green (ANA 611), or yellow green) or wheel bays (natural metal, interior green (ANA 611) or yellow-green).  If someone has insights into this, I would appreciate it if you could respond to this forum.  Thanks.  All the best, George 

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From my fast fading memory:  Wheel well roofs and ancillary structures most likely natural metal with zinc chromate stringers.  Zinc chromate spar.  Wheel well doors natural metal interiors with a steel colored metal band down the center of the clamshell doors.  Zinc chromate is not green but yellow.  NAA had its own version of interior green until some time during the P-51D production run but the AN611 should be close .  Interior green I don’t believe was used in the wheel wells of the P-51B.  
 

The Revell kit is nowhere near accurate in many areas, not the least of which are the wheel wells so the above instructions may not be entirely descriptive of the kit wheel wells.

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There is an extensive build post on here by Peter at Airscale titled 1/18 P51C Mustang "Lope's Hope the 3rd" which has lots of details of typical painting of P-51B's and C's. "Shangli-La' definitely has the outer wheel hubs in red, same as the cowl and spinner, presumably insignia red. Can't see inner wheel area on the photos I have. Wheel doors as per Juggernut above.

TRF

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21 hours ago, George said:

Gents:

 

Thanks.  It's too bad we don't have color photographic evidence but it does look shiny.  

 

All the best,

 

George

 

I found over 30 different pictures of Shangri-La online (and in a few books), several in color.

It looks like a well photographed plane.

The outer wheel hubs were red and the wheel bays appear to have little YZC finish in them.

It squares with what I've read about earlier Mustangs having less anti corrosion finish than later variants.

The wheel bay ribs are definitely NMF, I'm guessing the stringers and main spar were finished with YZC?

 

To me it looks like this Allison P-51:

ahMyLyW.png

 

Shangri-La:

L3dcjvo.jpg

meikbna.jpg

 

Thoughts?

 

Edited by Johnny Cloud
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Gentile and Shangri-La have always been a favorite subject of mine, (in case my avatar wasn't obvious :D)

I'm inclined to believe that the main reason for wheel hub confusion is due to the nature of combat missions vs when photos were taken. There's documentation of pilots returning from an escort mission, refueling and re-arming, then going out to find targets of opportunity. Highly possible a photographer could have been at an airfield all day, taken a picture of said aircraft pre-mission, aircraft returns, tire is flat and instead of trying to repair the tire right away, change it out with a spare. Of course this spare rim could be of any color, so morning pic, hub/rim is red. Afternoon pic hub/rim is silver. 

 

One thing I learned from my own combat experience, (and where "rivet counters" can annoy me at times), is the fact that there's a HUGE difference between what a manual says, a factory load out photo, or "as delivered" photo. I've had my fair share of so-called discussions trying to explain that my M-1025 HMMWV had multiple correct load outs, depending on mission and locality. The factory installed stowage racks based on theoretical use. The manual showed what went in which rack. Our loading diagram for rapid deployment had 5 different schemes based on which type of aircraft was transporting it, (C5, C141, C130, UH60, CH47), and we modified what we carried based on locale and mission. My set up when I deployed to Panama in 88, was different than Panama in 89 during Just Cause, which was different from Desert Storm, which changed again when we actually entered Iraq. 

 

Now that I've sufficiently diverged on a ridiculous tangent, I think my point was that things change "downrange" based on the needs of the moment. And let's face it, a lot of aircrew photos were staged for whatever reason, (propaganda, war bond drives, factory motivation, etc...). I think the early 90's movie "Memphis Belle" touches on this especially well.

 

Of course, this doesn't account for the actions of Gremlins.....

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George I think the kind folks here are trying to avoid the elephant in the room. The Revell 1/32 P-51B kit is probably the worst of the bunch of WW2 fighters produced by them. Until Zoukei Mura comes up with theirs the best thing is to use the Revell kit as a paint mule rather than spending time agonising over the colour of the tailwheel. The Trumpeter kit is only marginally better so it will have to be ZM to the rescue. My two bobs.

TRF

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Gents:

 

Thank you for your pictures. They are a big help.  The photo of Captain Gentile does show the interwheel hub as natural metal.  The same photograph on the internet does not show this.   The wheel bays look a little like YZC but lighting can play tricks on us.  I learned that from a talented specialist in the UK who is a specialist on Japanese aviation and does forensic analysis on colors.

 

I would agree the Revell kit is probably not the best P-51B rendition in 1/32 but it has been sitting around for 51 years collecting dust (and after a 40 year hiatus from modelling) and warped from resting in a large cardboard box in a hot garage.  That being said, my current project is to build my old 1970s Revell and Monogram aircraft models (WW2 U.S. Navy and USAAF) in 1/48 and 1/32 scale and not spend a lot of time with aftermarket parts (unless it is canopy masking or fresh decals).  After the old birds are built, I'll move on to the new tool aircraft kits of the 21st century.  :DI am having fun with the hobby and take great delight in some research too.  I will not agonize over the tail wheel, the hubs or the aircraft's cavities.  The delight is the journey to the destination-a completed kit.  So, I thank my lucky stars and appreciate the assistance of the many wonderful experts on Large Scale Planes.  God Bless you all. :-) 

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Just to show you are not alone here. Many years ago I purchased the Revell P-51B with the express idea of using some parts to turn a Hasegawa P-51D into a B/C. All I used of the Revell kit was the wing inboard leading edges and the spine, the rest went into the bin. I beavered away for some time and got her all painted and decaled including hand cut name (Bald Eagle) and the whole project stalled because I couldn't make a decent canopy for the thing. It's still sitting on the shelf of doom. The lunacy continues because, again a while ago, I managed to get a Trumpeter P-51B cheap so went mad and bought all the Aries/Quickboost after market as well as Barracuda wheels and it all still sits in the box. I have a cunning plan however because if I start the thing the ZM one will magically appear.

TRF 

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