1/48 Tamiya P-51D RAAF Korean War

[darson]

Okay ladies and gents, the Easter break is over so it's time to get this show on the road.

This is my entry for the Korean War Group Build and as the title says it will be the Tamiya 1/48 P-51D Mustang as flown by 77 Squadron RAAF during the initial stages of the war until the squadron re-equipped with Meteors.

I am going to model the personal mount of the squadron CO, Wing Commander Lou Spence who was KIA during a raid on storage facilities at Angang-ni, north of Pusan in South Korea, which had been recently captured by Communist forces. Spence was leading four Mustangs in the attack armed with rockets and NAPALM when his aircraft failed to pull out of a steep dive at low altitude and was seen to crash into the centre of the town, exploding on impact.

The best boxing of the Tamiya Mustang is definitely the Korean War F-51 one as this contains all the additional mustang parts that don't come with the other boxings, These include both standard and Dallas canopy, cHamilton Standard and Aeroproducts props, as well as all of the ordinance and drop tanks carried by the P-51.

Now I admit I might have gone a little overboard on the Utracast resin accessories but in my defence I have been hoarding these for ages and this seems like a goon place to use them.

Lastly we have the decals from Aussie Decals and unfortunately the aircraft I'm doing is the bottom one (A68-809) which is the most boring of the lot, oh well.

[Arniec]

Nice one Darren. I will watch this one.

And all those nice goodies.

Cheers,

[Nearlymen]

A quick note ! I think that prior to the Korean War Lou Spences mustang had the tricolour spinner but during the war it may have been a uniform Red ? Someone is bound to be able to confirm this, anyone ?

Cheers

Clive

[darson]

A quick note ! I think that prior to the Korean War Lou Spences mustang had the tricolour spinner but during the war it may have been a uniform Red ? Someone is bound to be able to confirm this, anyone ?

Cheers

Clive

Thanks Clive and you are absolutely correct and thanks for the heads up. The decal instructions state "The spinner for A68-809was painted Red, White and Blue while stationed in Japan prior to the Korean War. However around the time fighting broke out it appears that the spinner was changed to all Red and remained so until sept 3, 1950 when this aircraft was shot down by enemy ground fire".

Cheers

[Brews]

Spence's a/c had Z-block tread tyres.

As for the spinner, I can guarantee that the red, white and blue stripes were flown in action. 77 Sqn was based at Iwakuni, Japan, and flew from there to Korea on missions. A forward resupply base was set up in Korea, and a further missions were flown from there during the day, with the 'stangs returning to Iwakuni for maintenance/repair overnight.

A couple of notes on RAAF CAC-17 /P-51D that I can pass on, having done a bit of research on these last year:

1. Wheel wells and gear doors were typically painted Zinc Chromate Yellow (and from what I've mostly seen, this was of the yellow shade, not green or salmon). Most P-51s had silver lacquer in these areas except for the wing spar, so this is a significant point.

2. Cockpit interior was bronze green. Again, this is a distinctly Australian feature.

3. The canopies were the fully "blown" "Dallas" ones.

4. Cuffed HS props (no surprise, although not the blunt-tipped HS uncured ones common in Korea).

A couple of youtubes you will find of interest:

Here, you see Spence landing at the 2:34 minute mark. His red spinner varies from the rest of the squadron's. Coincidence? Probably not. It's likely that he flew a/c other than the red-spinnered one, though.

This one has been recently uploaded, but I've seen it before in lesser quality. Note that the gear bay doors look dark. I wouldn't like to say for sure, but this could be bronze green.

Note that 77 Squadron used 3" RPs, then 5" HVARs, then 3"RPs again (on Meteors).

Here is a photo on Wiki of P-51s at Iwakuni. Note the colour of the gear bay doors. Also, the prop on the nearest one, although it looks cuffless at first glance, is actually cuffed. Optical illusion.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/F-51Ds_77_Sqn_RAAF_at_Iwakuni_c1950.jpg

HTH. I might have more info ... but this is all off the top of my head (more or less).

Good luck!

[Brews]

Here's a little bio of Lou.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/spence-louis-thomas-11741

[pacificmustang]

almost entered this one myself Darren! Looking forward to your build. Brews, some great info there

Regards

Bruce

[darson]

Spence's a/c had Z-block tread tyres.

As for the spinner, I can guarantee that the red, white and blue stripes were flown in action. 77 Sqn was based at Iwakuni, Japan, and flew from there to Korea on missions. A forward resupply base was set up in Korea, and a further missions were flown from there during the day, with the 'stangs returning to Iwakuni for maintenance/repair overnight.

A couple of notes on RAAF CAC-17 /P-51D that I can pass on, having done a bit of research on these last year:

1. Wheel wells and gear doors were typically painted Zinc Chromate Yellow (and from what I've mostly seen, this was of the yellow shade, not green or salmon). Most P-51s had silver lacquer in these areas except for the wing spar, so this is a significant point.

2. Cockpit interior was bronze green. Again, this is a distinctly Australian feature.

3. The canopies were the fully "blown" "Dallas" ones.

4. Cuffed HS props (no surprise, although not the blunt-tipped HS uncured ones common in Korea).

Note that 77 Squadron used 3" RPs, then 5" HVARs, then 3"RPs again (on Meteors).

Here is a photo on Wiki of P-51s at Iwakuni. Note the colour of the gear bay doors. Also, the prop on the nearest one, although it looks cuffless at first glance, is actually cuffed. Optical illusion.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/F-51Ds_77_Sqn_RAAF_at_Iwakuni_c1950.jpg

HTH. I might have more info ... but this is all off the top of my head (more or less).

Good luck!

Thanks heaps Brews that's really helpful information:

1. Spinner: Banded it is then

2. Wheel Well & Gear door Zinc Chromate: Check

3. Dallas canopy: Check

4. Hamilton Standard prop: Check

5. Z-Block tread: Hmm not so check, I'm afraid I'll have to live with the diamond thread tyres that I have.

Many thanks again for all the information.

[Nearlymen]

For some strange reason I can't seem to cut and paste links into my posts but never mind we'll do it long hand !

Anyway go to the 'Australian War Memorial' website and search their photo archive for 'Lou Spence', loads of great photo's of A68-809 during the Korean war. If you click on the photos in your search results you get a bigger version, which will give you all the detail you'll ever need ! Also clearly shows the cuffed props, but at the time the photos were taken the spinner is a full red, but I assume these photos were taken just before Lou's loss.

Oh and to add a bit of colour, I've seen pics of underwing tanks that are Chromate yellow not silver, which I'm led to believe were napalm ? Again someone might be able to confirm this, certainly in the pic above the tanks look the same colour as the gear doors and allowing for yellow shades looking black in old BW film I think it maybe the case !

Cheerio

Clive

Edited April 25, 2014 by Nearlymen

[darson]

For some strange reason I can't seem to cut and paste links into my posts but never mind we'll do it long hand !

Anyway go to the 'Australian War Memorial' website and search their photo archive for 'Lou Spence', loads of great photo's of A68-809 during the Korean war. If you click on the photos in your search results you get a bigger version, which will give you all the detail you'll ever need ! Also clearly shows the cuffed props, but at the time the photos were taken the spinner is a full red, but I assume these photos were taken just before Lou's loss.

Oh and to add a bit of colour, I've seen pics of underwing tanks that are Chromate yellow not silver, which I'm led to believe were napalm ? Again someone might be able to confirm this, certainly in the pic above the tanks look the same colour as the gear doors and allowing for yellow shades looking black in old BW film I think it maybe the case !

Cheerio

Clive

Hey Clive,

I asked the same question on the colour of the Napalm tanks and David Muir the author of Southern Cross Mustangs wrote to me in regards to the photo above and said "The tanks in this photo are USAF Naplam tanks finished in OD. These are essentially standard USAF pattern 75 gal tanks modified with igniters fitted to the filler caps. If you look closely you can see the igniters and the safety wires that armed them when released; look just aft of the gear leg cover.

The text was in white and on this example reads:

NAPALM USE ONLY

CONTRACT No AF-921504-51

03L-AL-288

For reference these are the igniters David is talking about

Thanks for the tip on the AWM, I'll have to have a closer look for some more reference material.

Cheers

[Procopius]

At least some napalm tanks were painted chromate yellow, cf. this shot of SAAF 2 Squadron Mustangs:

[Nearlymen]

Why this didn't work first time around ! Anyway here you go !

http://www.awm.gov.au/search/all/?query=A68-809+&op=Search&format=list&section%5B%5D=collections

http://www.awm.gov.au/search/all/?query=lou+spence&op=Search&format=list&section%5B%5D=collections

Cheers

Clive

[Troy Smith]

Now I admit I might have gone a little overboard on the Utracast resin accessories but in my defence I have been hoarding these for ages and this seems like a goon place to use them.

if you are going for the detail up...get a proper wheel well, as the only kit that has them correct, rear of well following spar, not gear door outline, is the 1/32nd Tamiya.

Aires and vector do them, can't find a pic of the Aires, here's the Vector

http://www.neomega-resin.com/p-51d-wheel-wells-468-p.asp

It's probably scratchable but tricky to do...

cheers

T

[darson]

Okay time for a little progress update and I'm going to ignore international convention here and start with the wings instead of the cockpit.

Step one for me on this build is to fill the most of the panel lines on the upper and lower wings as these were puttied over in the factories. I understand from what I've read that this practice was discontinued on the Australian build Mustangs after the war but as this aircraft was ex-USAF I'm going to putty away.

I'm using as my guide a diagram put together by Jennings Heilig which I have found to be immensely helpful so thanks Jennings.

I used an old technique for filling the panel lines which I have used for years. This is a great technique for filling in seams, especially if there is delicate detail in the area or there are hard to reach places. This way you won't damage anything, unlike the fill and sand technique. Just apply the Mr. Surfacer with a small brush. And allow it to dry for about 20 minutes. Then simply dip the end of a cotton bud in the Isopropyl then just gently rub the area where the panel line or seam is. It may take a few moments for the alcohol to begin dissolving the Mr. Surfacer, longer if it has thoroughly dried and cured. You may need to apply more Mr. Surfacer and repeat the process a couple of times until the seams are filled to your satisfaction. I did one more application after these photos and carefully cleaned up any Mr. Surfacer residue using cotton buds (many) and the IPA.

Cheers

[Brews]

if you are going for the detail up...get a proper wheel well, as the only kit that has them correct, rear of well following spar, not gear door outline, is the 1/32nd Tamiya.

Aires and vector do them, can't find a pic of the Aires, here's the Vector

I would need some convincing that the Neomega gear wells shown have the spar in the right place.

[Brews]

Darren, I'd want to check the lower wing against photos before I filled in any of those panel lines. The upper wing was the critical one as far as keeping it smooth went. All photos I've seen of the lower wing show it in NM, with unfilled/sanded panel joints.

[Biggles87]

Hello, I'm going to steal your method for filling in panel lines if I may. I've got a long term project going on the Dragon P( F)51 at the moment which I intend to finish as a Korean War aircraft. It's one of those projects which becomes so tedious that I only do little bits att

a time otherwise I would throw it away and as it's already survived a partial collapse of my modelling room ceiling I think it deserves another chance. I've already filled and sanded the upper wing surface but will try your technique on the lower one. If anyone has the Dragon P51 and doesn't know where to start , take a look at www.scalespot.com for some inspiration, I did.

[Biggles87]

Oh oh, I didn't read Brews' post before writing mine, stupid boy! I had better check my referces, talking of which has anyone seen 'Building the P51 Mustang' by Michael O'Leary. It's full of original period photos, all in black and white but of excellent quality (probably medium format originally). The original hardback issue is now out of print I believe, but it has been reprinted in cardback.

[Biggles87]

I have just checked in the P51 book and there are several pictures of P51 mainplane undersides. I would say that the B and C models

certainly look to have primer going back as far as the panels under the wing tanks but stopping short of the tips, if you have access to this book look at page 105. The P51D is more difficult to determine, some pictures seem to show primer and others not but there is a close up of the port undercarriage and wheel well on page 174 in which the underside of the wing looks extremely smooth and painted, with no visible panel joints or rivets.

If anyone is interested I will try to post some pictures, but be patient it will be my first attempt, I will probably have to ask for assistance as SWMBO is more computer literate than me. I'll wait until she's in a good mood.

[Troy Smith]

I would need some convincing that the Neomega gear wells shown have the spar in the right place.

Why? I have a set, so can check and would interested to know of a problem!

I'm guessing you think the resin spar is angled forward, and should be straight across the back?