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Showing results for tags 'Stranger In Town'.
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Edit 1.4.: Hello! I started this build as a waist window conversion only, in "regular" aircraft modelling section. Giorgio and Enzo were kind to allow me to continue the build within a Group Build theme. "Strangers In Town" indeed were the first American Bombardment Groups when the "Friendly Invasion" began. The local people were all not too enthusiastic about the Yanks, for three reasons: "They were overpaid, oversexed and over here". End edit . V-P Could I do that? Would it be too difficult for a clumsy, regular kit builder like me? That's what I was thinking thursday night, two days ago. During the friday I decided to try that. Here's where we start. The newish Airfix B-17G staggered waist fuselage halves. Port will be untouched but acts as a template for the starboard modification, which I believe was close enough to a mirror image in the prototype. I drew the new opening to the inside of the fuselage. Airfix has been kind to supply the framework which helped tremendously in locating it. Then I drilled 0,5mm holes in the corners. The vertical cuts I made starting with a hobby saw and finished near corners with a knife. The horizontal cuts were all knife made. Voilá the crude new waist gun position opening is there! The removed fuselage piece is already cemented from upper, long horizontal edge and lower corners, with a thin styrene patch support on the inside. That was yesterday, when I also applied a good layer of putty on the old window. The new one is being trimmed to its shape. I needed to add some strips of styrene here and there. Some kind of success! There's a see-through opening now and the old window position looks neat too. I may add a dab of filler here and there, but nothing major is needed, please remember my regular level of model building... Here you see the waist window dry fitted in place. It's lost all of its attachment "lips" from the inside but is surprisingly tight. I was reminded at a B-17 fb group that most of the unstaggered G:s carried three panel waist windows. I intend to take care of that by just masking and painting the frames on Best regards, V-P
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This build is dedicated to @Giorgio N's Stranger In Town GB, which didn't get through the bunfight for 2020. This is definitely a stranger in town. The RAF had previously used P-40s, but the P-51 Mustang was a completely different kettle of fish. It was big, strong and ultra modern. Unfortunately the Allison-engined Mustangs have had a lot of bad press. People will tell you that they were slow and pretty much useless. It wasn't until the Merlin engine was fitted that the Mustang became a useful fighter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Admittedly, the supercharger on the Allison V-1710 engine had only a single stage, limiting the aircraft's performance above 15,000ft. But below that altitude it was a world beater. It was very fast indeed and had an exceptionally long range. In October 1942 RAF Mustang Is escorted Wellington bombers on a daylight raid over Germany. It's important to remember that Mk Is did not carry drop tanks so it was all done on internal fuel! Due to the lack of high altitude performance, Mk Is were mostly used for ground attack and fighter recce missions, where they excelled. About thirty years ago I gained access to No IV Squadron's wartime record books. The pilots were very pleased indeed with thir mounts and praised the fact that they could easily outpace anything sent up to intercept them. This meant that the Luftwaffe had to lay ambushes for Mustangs as they couldn't keep up in a tail chase. Even so, the Mustang pilots were confident that they could simply walk away from any fight - a very important option for a recce aircraft. So, this will be my build for this STGB. A Mustang Mk I of No IV Sqn. Photos of IV Sqn aircraft are hard to find but I have found this one. https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/p51-raf/mustang-mk-i-ap247-4-sqn-raf-2/ I feel it is in Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky. I know that's how the aircraft were delivered to IV Sqn and this one doesn't look too worn, so that's what I'm going to go with.
