L/F colors on a Wisconsin ANG F-51D

[Daywalker]

Greetings all!

 

I have been trying to research early aircraft from the Wisconsin ANG (specifically the F-51D) and cannot for the life of me find what I need on this topic.  I have tried reaching out to the ANG itself, but they were unable to provide any helpful information.  The aircraft I am most interested in are these, and I am looking for the colors on the spinners and rudders.

 

 

 

This one below has slightly different markings (different letters I.E. "ANG" instead of "NG" and a different colored spinner.  It looks like black and white, but could be something else?  It also has the standard cuffed propeller instead of the "paddle" blade propeller usually seen on F-51D's.  If I can't find anything on the ones above, I may just do this one and paint the spinner black and white.

 

 

I found these images here, and would appreciate any help researching these aircraft!  I have found other ANG units' colors from color photos, other scale decals, etc but Wisconsin is another beast all together.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Daywalker

[Hartmann352]

All I could dig up is:

Aerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier - North American P-51D Mustang, s/n 44-72989 USAAF, c/n 122-39448

 

Unable to locate anything with the stripes on the rudder or any color photos of the 115th FW that far back.

Sorry man.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[Daywalker]

Thanks for chiming in Dave, I had seen a couple of photos of that one but hesitated as I wasn't sure if it was restored to an accurate paint scheme.  

 

Cheers!

 

Frank

[Oldbaldguy]

Something in the back of my head keeps telling me that the diagonal rudder stripes were red and black.  Seems like I’ve seen a color photo somewhere.  Did you contact the EAA museum to see if they know?  The EAA founder, Paul Poberezny, flew with the Wisconsin Guard for years (I think their P-51 may have been one he flew while in the Guard) so they might be able to shed some light. The Guard kinda did their own thing - within limits - for a while back in the day.  Add to that the variables of state politics, different commanders coming and going, inventory turning over rapidly as the USAF got newer and fancier stuff and passed their hand-me-downs on, mission changes, the fact that many ANG units were gentlemen’s flying clubs during the tween years, so you get a mishmash of colors and schemes that can leave a builder a lot of leeway.  It wasn’t until Congress decreed through legislation that the federal Air Force Reserve and the state-owned Air National Guard would be trained, equipped, and have the same missions as the active duty Air Force that standardization in markings and paint schemes became the norm.  Nowadays, it’s very hard to tell which Air Force component an airplane belongs to because they all look the same, do the same jobs, deploy to the same places, share the same ramps, and half the time fly each other’s airplanes.  This is a huge force multiplier and something that puts the USAF light years ahead of the other US services in regards to flexibility and mission accomplishment.  Also makes for boring model building, but it works better than what we had before.

[Daywalker]

Good idea, I hadn't thought about asking the EAA!  I'll reach out to them and see if they can help.  

 

Cheers!

[Troy Molitor]

What a great subject Frank.  Let us know when you find out a finite answer.  Go Badgers!   

[Daywalker]

35 minutes ago, Troy Molitor said:

What a great subject Frank.  Let us know when you find out a finite answer.  Go Badgers!   

Thanks Troy, will do!

 

[Jan-Arie]

There maybe is some info in this topic on britmodeller, but I don't know if it's correct starts at page 5
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235087832-three-more-for-the-wisconsin-air-national-guard/page/5/

Edited April 30, 2022 by Jan-Arie
correction of info

[Daywalker]

Thank you for that link Jan-Arie, I am going to reach out to the man who built those to see where he found the color info.  Cheers!