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Showing results for tags 'Old Crow'.
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I need a bit of help with the depiction of the name on Bud Anderson's P-51D 'Old Crow'. Was the name - and the engine cowling - repainted when the plane was changed from camouflage finish to bare metal? These are the only photos I've found in books and the web; This has already been discussed on the P-51 Mustang STGB IV Chat page. But due to the problems with the only low-res photo of the camouflaged plane, no conclusion could be made. @gingerbob and @Toryu have been very helpful, and Michael provided me some useful background on the plane's history; The side view above is also presented in Merle Olmsted's 'The Yoxford Boys' with the following caption: "... It was received at the 8th Air Force depot at Wharton in the first week of September, 1944, just off the freighter from Newark N.J. It would have arrived at Leiston a week or two later, where it was apparently immediately painted in RAF green and Anderson flew it like that until winter came on, when his crew stripped it back to bare metal. It was eventually scrapped in November, 1945." When the paint was quickly removed in late 44/early 45, it would make sense that they'd have left the name. Why bother stripping the paint and the name? And from what I've read it was done in a hurry overnight. But the individual characters of the name look 'fatter' on the camouflaged plane, and the SuperScale decals I've just got provide two versions stipulating to use the 'slimmer' one on the NMF plane. Photos can be deceptive, and although the name looks 'fatter' on the camou photo, this may not necessarily be the case. Its very low resolution and the white of the name may have 'spread' due to the size of the pixels. And exposure and printing can make a difference to how things look in photos. Does anyone have access to a better photo? Any thoughts or advice gratefully received. I have one week left to complete it! Cheers,