1-48 ICM / XS Models P-51 Beguine - in flight

[Caerbannog]

Hi all,

I like to contribute the P-51 Beguine here. The radiator housing of this air racer under the fuselage was deleted and moved to two pods at the wing tips (looks a bit like ram jets). The look of this special Mustang is quite unique and I think it will be spoiled when "regulary parked" on the display shelf, so I attempt to put it on a pole (which I usually never do) and also try to add a small motor to drive the prop.

I did some chopping and gave the cockpit parts a green basecoat.

Pics will follow.

Rene

[wellzy]

Welcome to the group build , another racer cant be bad

Les

[Caerbannog]

Thanks Les,

here is a picture for a start:

Base kit is the ICM P-51 which is a cheaper alternative to the Tamiya one: Same parts layout and IMHO the same level of details but no location pins and bad decals. The conversion set is from XS Models and contains a new prop, a fin filled, a piece of resin which fills the belly of the fuselage after the cooler has been cut off and of course the new cooler for the wingtips. A nice set of decals and canopy masks are also included.

As you can see I glued the wing parts together and chopped the wingtips as per XS models instruction. Then I inserted the rear windows in the fuselage and roughly primed the cockpit parts. Some more chopping in the nose area to get an electric motor inside and that is all so far.

Rene

[Deacon]

Yet another kit/conversion I need to get hold of!

Great start.

[Bengalensis]

That's a great choice. Always good to see more racers.

[trickyrich]

Very nice and it has things on the wings to make it go even faster...oh ok they radiators but still....AWESOME!!!!!

Jackie Cochran was an amazing lady so it's great to see an aircraft she flew in plus another racer!!!

gosh at this rate I'll have to bring out the RB-51!!

[Caerbannog]

Ok a slightly different type of update:

The electric motors from my slot car spares box are too big and after checking various options I decided against the ‘plane-on-a-pole’ with spinning prop for now.

I did not do much else than puttying and sanding the wings and the cooler pods. One of the four parts was quite mishap. I assume the resin was contaminated with water as it was much lighter in colour and contains myriads of air bubbles. What was worse: It was significantly larger in diameter, so I had to sand it down a lot and thus revealing more bubbles and pinholes…

So I did not much of progress on the model but figuring out possible solutions for the motor thing I became curious and wanted to find out a bit more about the disaster at Cleveland in 1949. Here is the essence of what I found:

The P-51C - which became the Beguine was found in Wichita Falls in rather poor state and bought by J. D. Reed who already had two other air racers (a P-38 and another P-51). The P-51C was race tuned by North American Aviations personal during their free time and free of charge. The coolant pods are leftovers of the P-80 ram jet program. In about late summer of 1948 the conversion was done but problems with the roll stability resulted from the conversion – maybe from the shortened wings / ailerons.

On a ferry flight the P-51C ran out of fuel and belly landed. The damage was not that heavy and after repair it was repainted in a dark green and christened “Beguine”.

J. D. Reed then sold the plane to Jacqueline Cochran, who wanted to fly the Bendix race with Beguine. It is not known what and if anything was done about the roll instability problems.

Jacqueline Cochran entered the Beguine in the Cleveland Air Races in 1949 and chose Bill P. Odom as pilot. Bill Odom was a world famous pilot and record holder at that time. He broke the around-the-world record twice in 1947 and set up a new record for a non-stop flight from Hawaii to Teterboro New Jersey in a Beech Bonanza in 1949. In 1948 he entered a P-47M in the Bendix race but a fuel leak prevented that he could start. However all these records are no sprint race records and Bill Odom himself is reported to have said that close course air-racing is not quite his game: "I'd rather fly around the world twice than do one of those."

The National Air Races in 1949 were held from Saturday 3^rd till Monday 5^th (Labour Day) in Cleveland (they were held in Cleveland for the first time 20 years earlier). On Saturday

Bill Odom raced the SOHIO race in the Beguine and won it, even though he flew higher and in wider turns around the pylons than any other competitor. Still the speed of the most radical Mustang racer of that time was so high that it finished first. This reminds me on how Jimmy Doolittle won the Thomson trophy in the Gee Bee R-1 in 1932– not an easy to fly plane either…

The following Monday Odom started in the Thomson Race at 4:45 p.m. In 1948 the Thomson race was a four pylon race and I read the Beguine was planned for this. But in 1949 there were seven pylons to be passed in anti clockwise direction. Odom completed the first round in third position at around 400 miles per hour, passed pylon #2 too far out and tried to correct which made the plane flip.

The P-51 crashed into the garage of a family house killing Odom instantly. As the plane completed just one lap the tanks were still full and exploded, setting the house on fire.

The house belonged the Laird family which moved here just last Thursday. Bradley Laird, 36 was cleaning the windows from the outside (another report says he was watering the garden), his five year old son David with him. His wife Jeanne, 24 was inside and her father Ben Hoffman in front of the house close to the younger son Craig, 13 months old who was in front of the garage in his playpen.

The explosion caused fatal burns to Craig who died hours later in Hospital. Jeanne died in the house and found in the bathroom - she was not burned.

Ben Hoffman suffered from burns but recovered from the injuries, Bradley and David Laird were unharmed.

Bradley Laird had his company transfer him to Indianapolis, Indiana after the funeral for his wife and younger son.

This horrible accident completely stopped the National Air Races for 15 years (in 1964 resumption as National Championships in Reno).

The house still exists. I wonder if the owners know the sad history, but I should think so:

The following map was created with google maps. The red dots are the pylons, the blue hatched line is what I suppose (strickly speaken I have no clue) the racing line would be and the hatched black line the way the Beguine must have flow to hit the garage. Of course this looks quite odd (especially the one in the lower pic) as it is viewd from strickly above:

"Nichols Field" in the search box is where the 3rd pylon stood (AFAIK).

More info on the Beguinne can be found here:

http://www.air-racing-history.com/aircraft/Beguine.htm

and in the book "The Top 20 Moments in Cleveland Sports" by Bob Dyer - search Google books. The chapter "Race of Doom".

Just found this link with even more info on Bill Odom and the Cleveland crash as well:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=166846

Rene

[Caerbannog]

Ok today some poor pics of poor progress, just to show something:

Rene

[gingerbob]

Welcome to the GB (a little late!) Oddly enough, I just had a 1/48 Beguine conversion pass through my hands (this one by Mike West/Lone Star)- I'd ordered it for a friend. It'll be interesting to follow your labours...

Edit: Oops, forgot to say I appreciated your historical presentation, too.

bob

Edited August 12, 2014 by gingerbob

[Caerbannog]

Thanks Bob,

here is finally an update with some progress.

The cut out was done to place a motor inside. I wanted to use a slot car motor but the standard ones are a tad too big, so one has to use the slimmer ones (Scalextric slotbikes and classic F-1 cars use such). Of course I had none such as a spare so finally glued the engine bay shut. Next day (not kidding) I happend to enter a slot car store to find two such motors for just a Euro each (used). Although I will not use them on this build (I tried but cannot break the engine cover loose) I bought them nonetheless at that price...

So Beguinne will now be parked as most of my models with wheels down. This means the typical wrong wheel wells and I have to find a smaller size tail wheel as the Beguinne had not the standard P-51 wheel there.

The hole for the gun sight was covered by a sheet of plastic and Superglue. Now I look at the picture see the Superglue needs some addressing... But guess what: The canopy is already in place...

Rene

[wellzy]

Looking good so far nice work on the office

Les

[Caerbannog]

Thanks Les.

I had to remove the canopy yesterday - there was a finger pint inside and some small plastic piece from enlarging the attachment holes of the horizontal stabilizers. As I glued the canopy with Testors glue for clear parts this was rather easy. I polished the canopy inside out with tissue and "scratch remover" polish. Now it shines a lot better. I reattached the canopy, masked it with Tamiya tape and gave it a first coat in interior green.

Meanwhile the horizontals are in place too. As mentioned above the attachment holes are too small and need some cutting.

I also attched the landing flaps after filling and sanding the prominent shrinked dents on their underside. Some lost rivets had to be redone after this.

As said this is the ICM kit which is a close copy of the Tamiya kit. But the quality of the Tamiya plastic parts is superior in fit and molding - although the details are almost the same. You just need to take much more care with the ICM kit (I build the Tamia kit some years ago). The clear parts of my ICM kit were very thick and had to be replaced. I used my left over Tamiya canopy which is worlds ahead and fits perfectly. The ICM kit is OK for conversions as the Beguine as there is some surgery needed anyway. I would not choose it for a standard P-51B/C as the clear parts and decals are pretty useless and as there is more filling and sanding needed. So especially not if I would plan a NMF finish you should get the Tamiya kit.

Next steps will be finish painting the canopy and cleaning up the parts for the prop assembly. Both will get a polished aluminum finish with Alclad.

Rene

[trickyrich]

wow thats quite a build you have going on here, some serious surgery!

Hopefully the plug for the old radiator won't give you as much trouble as the one for mine did!

[Caerbannog]

It probably did Rich - on the blurry pic below are about 10 layers of primer in the ex radiator area...

The Mustang this morning - primed and sanded:

After takeing the pictures I masked around the canopy and gave it a coat of gloss black for the Alclad to follow.

I am currently recasting my Ultracast spinner from another P-51 in my stash, but the resin is a bit old I fear and the results so far are not too good (still better than the kit parts).

Concerning the green colour I have found the pictures below of Beguinne on my harddrive and an automotive paint which I used for a Jaguar XK120 LeMans slot racer which seems to be a good match: A very dark blueish green. Let's see...

I have no clue where I found the pics and who owns the copyright - if anybody. I just show them here for the colour of Beguinne. Hope this is OK.

Rene

[Wolwe82]

nice work, cannt wait to see this one finished

[Caerbannog]

Usually I would paint the NMF areas last but this time I made a change. The prop blades are XS Models parts and the spinner is a recasted Ultracast part. The original Ultracast part is fantastic and it would have been more clever to use it on the Beguinne than on my other Mustang as the surface is perfect - not so my recasted part. So blades and spinner received dozens of filler and black coats - with as much sanding and polishing. There are still some very small defects which show through the top coat of Alclad but I will only correct this if time permits:

So next step will be masking the Alclad and apply dark green.

Rene

[Bengalensis]

Looks great, looking forward to see some paint on it.

[AnonymousDFB1]

She's looking good

[wellzy]

Very nice keep up the good work xxx

[Caerbannog]

Thanks! I painted the Mustang in the dark green mentioned above but found it too green. I mixed some blue in to match the pics and sprayed the Begunie again - now it looks a bit too blue... So now I wonder wether I mix more green in or give it a thin gloss coat in clear green (Tamiya). The colour of Beguinne is much harder to mix than I thought.

Edit: I just gave the colour a polish and it looks better now - I suppose the dark green base coat is shining a bit through th eblue-green top coat which has become thinner from the polishing now. Need to wash the residue away and will then decide if it is OK as it is or if I will try to give it a green clear coat. Has anybody ever tried to use retarder for Tamiya? I have Gunze retarder (mild) and think it will help to get a thin and shiny clear coat - any suggestions?

Meanwhile I scrapped the ICM exhausts after a failed attemt to drill them out. I tried again with some left overs from a Tamiya kit and achieved a better result.

The good news: I am still working on this.

Pics will follow.

Rene

[Caerbannog]

So here some pics. First compared to the colour photos of the real thing which were posted above:

You already see how different my mixed colour looks under different lightning conditions. It usually looks more green, but sometimes almost blue.

Here one more pit which I took indoors this morning without flash:

And the same with flash:

Definitely a green with a blue hue. I am not quite convinced but will leave it as it is now. Next will be painting the U/C bays in chromate and then decaling.

Rene

[Bengalensis]

It's looking great. If I had come up with the colour you have, and had those old photos as a reference, I would be satisfied. I mean we don't really know exactly how true they show the real colour either. I think it's often up to the picture we have in our head how the model should look to satisfy us. To me, your model will look right.

[Wolwe82]

I think the colour is nice, the first shot at the sunlight (i guess it is sunlight?) looks exactly like the real thingy at the sunlight, thats great. The gloss colours can look very different in different light conditions, i think your is realy just right

[gingerbob]

It may just be my eyes (or my monitors), but I don't see green in any of those! I also remember that reaction from other visits to Beguine, because I know I've looked at the colour photos of the real thing, and thought, "What colour did they say it was painted?"

bob

[Caerbannog]

Did not do anything but painting the wheels on the Beguinne as I had to speed up with my Tempest for the D-Day GB. Ok not quite true - I prawled around the Beguinne the last days wondering about the colour - and I will now keep it as it is. Maybe it is not correct and maybe a bit too blue but if I had to say if it is green or blue I would say "Green. No blue - eh green I think."

Be it as it may - tonight I start decaling the Beguinne and the Tempest.

Rene