Andre B Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) Hello, The old Lindberg "Bomber Escort", an P-51D Mustang (probably the very first P-51D in1/72) was marked VF-L with serial number 317926. Was this an real aircraft or just an fictional marking made by Lindberg? It seems that Lindberg saw what was comming and didn't want to pay any royalties to Boeing by not naming their kit as an P-51D Mustang. https://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=23976&page=1&manu=lindberg Picture's of the Lindberg "Bomber Escort" can be seen att IPMS Stockholm. https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9533&p=87124#p87124 Cheers / André Edited May 9, 2019 by Andre B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) VF*L would have been a code from the 4th Fg. 336th Fight sq. These were the old Eagle squadrons from the RAF. Couldn't find much on the serial # ? Dennis Edited May 9, 2019 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 9, 2019 Author Share Posted May 9, 2019 Hello Dennis, Yes, I knew about the 336th fighter squadron. Built, well building the Sunny VIII from the same squadron... https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9158&start=30 Thats why I've got interested in the background of the Lindberg kit as it had decals for the 336th but with yellow letters. Strange "homework" done by Paul Lindberg concerning markings from an rather well knewn squadron... Cheers / André 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 1/75 rather than 1/72, I believe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 9, 2019 Author Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) 30 minutes ago, Work In Progress said: 1/75 rather than 1/72, I believe If so, the Airfix, Tamiya and Matchbox kits also are in 1/75 scale. Did you take a clooser look on my pictures? It depends from where one does the meassuring. The fuselage is more or less of the same length and size of the Matchbox, Revell and latest Airfix kits. In fact the Lindberg fuselage parts fits the Matchbox fuselage parts amazingly good. But the wings are rather short by some mm. It could be taken as an "Racing Mustang". Makes me wonder what aircraft Lindberg meassured... Cheers / André Edited May 9, 2019 by Andre B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: VF*L would have been a code from the 4th Fg. 336th Fight sq. These were the old Eagle squadrons from the RAF. Couldn't find much on the serial # ? Dennis Arguably the most famous natural metal P-51D coded VF-L was Captain McFarlane's 44-13961. There's photos of this aircraft in the air and on the ground in Fry and Ethell's "Escort to Berlin" and a different airborne photo in both Fry's "Debden Eagles" and Davis' "4th Fighter Group in WWII" (the version in Davis being much better quality and an excellent photograph). This P-51 was unnamed and carried invasion stripes on the underside of the fuselage. Cheers, Tim Edited May 9, 2019 by Smithy Spelling 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 2 hours ago, Andre B said: If so, the Airfix, Tamiya and Matchbox kits also are in 1/75 scale. Did you take a clooser look on my pictures? It depends from where one does the meassuring. The fuselage is more or less of the same length and size of the Matchbox, Revell and latest Airfix kits. In fact the Lindberg fuselage parts fits the Matchbox fuselage parts amazingly good. But the wings are rather short by some mm. It could be taken as an "Racing Mustang". Makes me wonder what aircraft Lindberg meassured... Cheers / André Sounds like 1/72 fuselage, 1/75 wings then maybe. I must say, it's far from the worst P-51D fuselage rendering. Original Revell and Original Airfix being two particular disgraces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 9, 2019 Author Share Posted May 9, 2019 10 minutes ago, Work In Progress said: Sounds like 1/72 fuselage, 1/75 wings then maybe. I must say, it's far from the worst P-51D fuselage rendering. Original Revell and Original Airfix being two particular disgraces. I don't think Airfix and Revell was any disgraces concerning their age and what they could compare with in those days around 1950. But it's a disgrace that Revell still sells their P-51D as a "new kit". What Lindberg got right was a wing that was smoth (with filled and sanded panellines compared to the latest Airfix and Tamiya offerings). And the clear part was rather crisp and clear too... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) 9 hours ago, Andre B said: The old Lindberg "Bomber Escort", an P-51D Mustang (probably the very first P-51D in1/72) was marked VF-L with serial number 317926. On the Joe Baugher USAAF serial number website, 43-17254 through 43-19673 were all cancelled contracts. Examining the outstanding Little Friends website, I found the following 336th sq aircraft coded VF-L. Looks like Lindberg made up the serial or maybe worked from a photo of one of the VF-L coded Mustangs but the serial wasn't readable. I did not check to see if any of these aircraft carried nose art or were named, but you could go to the site and check the photo gallery or the chart for that . Mike 41-6579 P-47C 44-12154 P-51K 44-13961 P-51D 44-14350 P-51D 44-63691 P-51D later to Sweden as 26068 http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/4th-fighter-group/ Slightly off-topic, but I got a gift set one Chrismas that had the Lindberg P-51D, P-47D, Spitfire IX, and Bf-109F all in one box- had 'em all built Christmas morning- ah, those were the days! Edited May 9, 2019 by 72modeler added text 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) 5 hours ago, 72modeler said: I did not check to see if any of these aircraft carried nose art or were named, but you could go to the site and check the photo gallery or the chart for that . Mike 41-6579 P-47C 44-12154 P-51K 44-13961 P-51D 44-14350 P-51D 44-63691 P-51D later to Sweden as 26068 The 4th is something I have a small interest in so here's what I have 41-6579 P-47C was quite a well known aircraft in the 4th being the CO of 336 at the time, Maj Carl "Spike" Miley's personal mount. The aircraft carried Donald Duck on the port side cowling and "Spike" under the windshield on the port side. Photos in most of the books on the 4th as well as colour profiles. 44-12154 was unnamed. 44-13961 P-51D - as in my post above 44-14350 P-51D was named "Connie II" probably earlier when it was VF-C before becoming VF-L. 44-63691 Marty II Probably not of specific use to this build but might be of use to those with an interest in the 4th. Tim Edited May 9, 2019 by Smithy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 9, 2019 Author Share Posted May 9, 2019 Thanks Tim, As an P-51D builder such information always are of interest. One of my "plans" was build one P-51D of every squadron in the 8th AF. Well att least those who had connections to Sweden. There is always one more good looking Mustang with an interesting history to build! Cheers / André 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 23 hours ago, Andre B said: Makes me wonder what aircraft Lindberg meassured... Cheers / André Possibly Lindberg didn't measure anything, as the Jury seems to be still out whether this kit is a HobbyTime original (or the HobbyTime a copy, or the Lindberg a copy...), even though Scalemates suggest otherwise 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) 12 minutes ago, tempestfan said: Possibly Lindberg didn't measure anything, as the Jury seems to be still out whether this kit is a HobbyTime original (or the HobbyTime a copy, or the Lindberg a copy...), even though Scalemates suggest otherwise 😉 Hard to tell these days. But same kit and.decals... Cheers / André https://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=1164249&p=timeline Edited May 10, 2019 by Andre B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 13 minutes ago, Andre B said: But same kit and.decals... Cheers / André https://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=1164249&p=timeline According to an Analysis posted on a certain modelkitcollecting site, the kits are actually subtly different in various Details, though the "core" is the same in both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) 31 minutes ago, tempestfan said: According to an Analysis posted on a certain modelkitcollecting site, the kits are actually subtly different in various Details, though the "core" is the same in both. I never seen the HobbyTime kit closely so I can't say. But it would be interesting to point out the subtly differences in various details. Funny that HobbyTime called the kit a "Night Fighter Special"... ? Cheers Edited May 10, 2019 by Andre B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) IIRC the night fighter special results from HobbyTime including a generic sprue of assorted underwing stores not really related to the Mustang that was also sold separately and may have been the first aftermarket kit in history. Also IIRC, the surface detail, parts arrangement on the sprues and wheels differ between the kits. Edit: The Serial in the HT kit appears to have been 44-14861, bith the sme VF-L codes. Edited May 10, 2019 by tempestfan Adding serial 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, tempestfan said: IIRC the night fighter special results from HobbyTime including a generic sprue of assorted underwing stores not really related to the Mustang that was also sold separately and may have been the first aftermarket kit in history. Also IIRC, the surface detail, parts arrangement on the sprues and wheels differ between the kits. Edit: The Serial in the HT kit appears to have been 44-14861, bith the sme VF-L codes. In this HobbyTime kit it seems that the decals are exactly the same as those decals I've got with the Lindberg kit. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hobby-time-1002-p-51-mustang--1164249 But as you say the sprue differs concerning parts arrangement... Edited May 10, 2019 by Andre B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 If you look hard enough on the scalemates pic, you can see the 414 and the 86 in the Serial. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicarage Vee Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 I hope that no one minds if I go off on a bit of a tangent here, but there seem to be some P-51 experts here... I have for some time been interested in modelling a P-51B that belonged to the 306th BG (presumably for formation monitoring/hack duties). The only pictures I have of it are poor quality ones in 'First Over Germany' by Arthur Bove (long, long out of print). The serial appears to end in 457 which would make 43-6457 of the 355th FG a possible. Other than the Little Friends website, is there any other that traces P-51 histories? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Vicarage Vee said: I hope that no one minds if I go off on a bit of a tangent here, but there seem to be some P-51 experts here... I have for some time been interested in modelling a P-51B that belonged to the 306th BG (presumably for formation monitoring/hack duties). The only pictures I have of it are poor quality ones in 'First Over Germany' by Arthur Bove (long, long out of print). The serial appears to end in 457 which would make 43-6457 of the 355th FG a possible. Other than the Little Friends website, is there any other that traces P-51 histories? Little Friends is the best I knew about. But if one searching for serial number, pilot and/or aircraft name one could sometimes find more information concerning history and fate. It also depends on type - P-51D or P-51B. In Sweden we have lot of information about some P-51D's as the Swedish Air Force flew with lots of P-51D aftet the war. But we had only a few (one) P-51B. But there where some that emergency landed in Sweden during the war... http://www.forcedlandingcollection.se/USAAF/indexUSAAF.html Cheers / André Edited May 10, 2019 by Andre B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 3 hours ago, Vicarage Vee said: Other than the Little Friends website, is there any other that traces P-51 histories? You might try this site. Mike http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicarage Vee Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Thanks Mike, interesting site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toryu Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 This one is quite good, too, when you search for codes, plane names or pilot names: http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft?search=4317926&type=&airforce=&group= 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicarage Vee Posted May 10, 2019 Share Posted May 10, 2019 Thank you Toryu, another useful site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 (edited) So in the end the main stream 1/72 P-51D complete list (?). 1955 Lindberg 1958 Airfix 1st 1963 Revell 1973 Heller 1973 Matchbox 1974 Hasegawa 1st 1974 Airfix 2nd 1988 Academy 1994 Hasegawa 2nd 1997 Italeri 2000 Tamiya 2007 HobbyBoss 2012 Airfix 3rd Something missing (no short series mentioned)? Cheers / André Edited May 11, 2019 by Andre B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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