P-51 drop tank sway braces

[rjones726]

I'm building Eduards Long Range P-51 based on Iwo Jima ("perfecting" my NMF skills for a Tamiya 1/32 Korean F-51 ). The drop tanks have additional sway braces which I understand to be made of plywood. I am trying to answer two questions. First, were they locally manufactured or supplied as a stock item ? Second, what was the finish-natural, OD, Grey or ? I've found a couple of pictures using Google but details are difficult to determine.

 

Thanks for any help,

Rob

Edited September 10, 2022 by rjones726
add photo

[thierry laurent]

Hi,

 

I seriously doubt they were painted. As they were ad hoc products and disposable, this would be useless. Personally I would paint them a flat light wood color.

 

Hth 

 

Thierry 

 

 

[cbk57]

I will submit the opposite opinion of Thierry, I blew up the posted photo as much as possible, I see no wood grain that you normally see on unpainted plywood.  I agree these were adhoc, made on the spot but to me they show some pride of detail and construction and I think the shop crew used some grey paint or similar color they had on hand.  Being a humid salt air environment, I suspect they had to have some paint thrown on them.  They needed at least some weather resistance so they would not soak through and delaminate too fast.  

[thierry laurent]

Indeed, no grain but a lot of color variations and stains. This is why I think they were probably not painted. To me this looks more like unpainted hardboard.

[John1]

That's a great picture.  Interesting detail noted, looks like there is some sort of a canvas cover at the top of the landing gear, presumable to protect the pivot mechanism from all that dust / mud?

[rjones726]

44 minutes ago, John1 said:

That's a great picture.  Interesting detail noted, looks like there is some sort of a canvas cover at the top of the landing gear, presumable to protect the pivot mechanism from all that dust / mud?

I noticed that too. My guess is that the cover is in the khaki or OD range. Looking at the sway bray, it does appear to be painted instead of bare wood and very different than the cover. I think I'll pick a grey and go with that.

[TAG]

Hey, fellas

 

Here's some pics of VLR Mustangs being serviced on Iwo Jima with more views of the plywood sway braces, after blowing these up I'd agree that they're painted with some sort of pale color, gray or green or even khaki, put there's even some stencils on there along with some metal brackets and stays, so whilst ad hoc still definitely a piece of official military hardware. This first one also shows the plumbing and how filthy the undersides got.

Here's a close-up on the sway brace, scratches, stains and even a couple of stencils but no plywood grain. Also interesting to note the data plate on the outer edge of the flap.

 

Hope those help!

 

- Thomaz

Edited September 11, 2022 by TAG

[TAG]

3 hours ago, John1 said:

That's a great picture.  Interesting detail noted, looks like there is some sort of a canvas cover at the top of the landing gear, presumable to protect the pivot mechanism from all that dust / mud?

Keen eye, John, as always.

 

There was indeed a canvas boot for the P-51's main wheel well that very few people know about. It was almost exclusively used on PTO Mustangs, especially the VLR birds based on the coral airstrips of Iwo Jima. I've never managed to find a clear photo of the liner in place, but there are plenty where you can spot them if you look close enough.

 

Here you can see the canvas boot snapped into place on the main spar but still loose on the gear strut itself.

 

Here's a few more close-ups of Iwo Ponies:

 

And here is the factory drawing that shows what the boots actually looked like, shame about the huge and poorly placed PB watermark:

 

A little-known detail that I don't think I've ever seen properly represented on a VLR Mustang model, alas.

 

Of note while on the subject of landing gear boots, pretty much every operational P-51 during WWII had the canvas boot installed on the tail wheel, regardless of theater so make sure to include that detail in all your Mustang builds, fellas.

 

Cheers,

- Thomaz

 

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by TAG

[waroff]

HTH

 

unfortunately, nothing about the finish paint or protective coat

 

[Rockie Yarwood]

The legend in the upper right of Woroff's drawings (visible on the drawings on Air Corps Library) calls for finish specification FW-23. According to NAA table 102-00024,

FW-23 consists of:

 

1) Two coats sealer

2) One coat filler

3) One coat surfacer

 

No finish color is specified. A note in part A of the table states that parts are to be finish painted as indicated in part B of the table, and that areas not mentioned in part B need no further finish. However the section on exterior finishes in part B states that "all other areas" are to receive camouflage color.  So, unless the sealer, filler, and surfacer coats were clear, the braces would not have a "bare wood" appearance, whether they received a finish color coat or not. The stencil color was red.

 

Cheers,  Rockie

 

 

[thierry laurent]

6 hours ago, Rockie Yarwood said:

The legend in the upper right of Woroff's drawings (visible on the drawings on Air Corps Library) calls for finish specification FW-23. According to NAA table 102-00024,

FW-23 consists of:

 

1) Two coats sealer

2) One coat filler

3) One coat surfacer

 

No finish color is specified. A note in part A of the table states that parts are to be finish painted as indicated in part B of the table, and that areas not mentioned in part B need no further finish. However the section on exterior finishes in part B states that "all other areas" are to receive camouflage color.  So, unless the sealer, filler, and surfacer coats were clear, the braces would not have a "bare wood" appearance, whether they received a finish color coat or not. The stencil color was red.

 

Cheers,  Rockie

 

 

So, is a light grey color the most probable color?

[Rockie Yarwood]

I think grey is a pretty good assumption. Although the tone is very similar to the drop tank, so I don't think I would rule out a finish coat of silver dope either. There are lots of color images of late war fighters on Ie Shima, Iwo Jima, and Saipan, maybe something more definitive will turn up.

[thierry laurent]

BTW, Brengun released tanks with such sway braces in 1/32 (set 32047)