MigModeller Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 Hi all I've just been looking at Wg Cdr M L Donnet's Mustang in "RAF Mustang and Thunderbolt Aces" I cannot find supporting photos of it anywhere else. How big would his personalised fueslarge recognition letters have been and can I find them on a 1/72 decal sheet? What colour is the spinner bose? Book gives dark blue. Black on some sites showing artists' impressions. If anyone can give me a link to photos of KM121, I shall be very grateful Cheers M.M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wm Blecky Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 (edited) Not the perfect answer, but perhaps a start for you. Kits-World offer's Donnet's P-51 on one of their 32nd scale sheets (bottom one): Maybe you can cobble up the markings you need for it in 72nd? I could not find an equivalent sheet in 72nd - maybe it's still forthcoming from them? Hope this helps. Edited June 21, 2017 by Wm Blecky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RZP Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 I found another profile by Gaetan Marie in the book The North American Mustang IV in Europe by Phil Listemann. It shows the starboard side. There is a Wing Commander's pennant under the windshield, and the canopy skirt is either camouflaged or olive green like the anti-glare panel on top of the nose. If it was a replacement canopy then it would likely be in the camouflage pattern for that area. There wasn't a photo in the book, so I'm not sure what he based his profile on. He is usually very meticulous about accuracy. You can also find it on his web-page: http://www.gaetanmarie.com/british-and-canadian-mustang-mk-iv/ Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wm Blecky Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 (edited) What's interesting is that the Kits-World sheet shows screened engine air filter covers, while the ones in your link Richard show them as louvered: A good picture of the actual plane would definitely be of good help in this instance! Edited June 21, 2017 by Wm Blecky 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RZP Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 I agree...a photo would answer a lot of questions. Too many differences to ignore at the moment. Profiles are nice, but it's always good to confirm things with a photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RZP Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 There is also a profile in the Osprey "RAF Mustang and Thunderbolt Aces". No photo again, but blue spinner, no Wing COmmander pennant, aluminum canopy skirt and louvres over the filtered carburetor air intakes. Slightly different again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveBrooking Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Mike Donnet wrote a short autobiography "Flight to Freedom". In that there is a poor quality photo of KM121 taken after the aircraft crashed on 23 April 1945 the photo shows the starboard side. The prop is ripped off but the spinner does look to be a dark colour. There is no rank pennant visible but that area of the fuselage is obscured with oil. His personal code seems to be in characters smaller than Gaetano's artwork to me. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MigModeller Posted June 22, 2017 Author Share Posted June 22, 2017 Thank you everyone for your replies. I've tried my three nearest county library sevices for Flight to Freedom; non of them have it. Would anyone like to have a stab at the size of the lettering? M.M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 You might try Abebooks for it, they appear to have quite a few copies listed for not a lot. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/flight-to-freedom/author/michael-donnet/ Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveBrooking Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) If you send me an email address I'll send you a scan...sorry to say I can't work out how to upload here. I would say that in relation to the proportions of the roundel the Kitsworld artwork is more accurate on height and position. The strokes of the letters are probably slightly thicker and the 'D' is too wide/square the corners top and bottom right should be a bit more curved. Steve Edited June 22, 2017 by SteveBrooking omission Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaëtan Marie Posted November 26, 2018 Share Posted November 26, 2018 Hi all, I'm Gaëtan Marie, author of one of the profiles shown here. I'm joining the conversation very late, but I thought I should indicate that I did use the post-crash photo of KM121 that SteveBrooking mentions as reference for the profile. I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to post the reference photo. It is indeed not of very good quality, although the copy I was provided has a decent size. Steve has a point about the size of the letters: I probably made them a bit larger than they should be. I'll have to look into it some more. All profiles should always be taken with a grain of salt as they are very often an interpretation, unless there is very good documentation. Interpreting B&W photos is always a challenge notably. I do my best to be as accurate as possible, but I am not immune to bad interpretation, lack of knowledge or simple omissions ! :-( Based on the photo, what I can say is that the W/C pennant is almost certainly there. It's faint and partly covered in oil but one can see the triangular shape and inner details of the pennant. If it's not a WC pennant, I have no idea what it might be, but it would be extremely similar so the pennant is the only things that makes sense to me. The canopy is definitely painted and not NMF. For the rest of the details, I'm less sure. There might even be some nose art/badge between the exhaust stacks and the spinner, but the location, surrounding damage and poor general quality of the photo make it impossible to determine. I hope this helps, short of being able to share the version of the photo I was provided. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 What a good answer that was! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now