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Lindberg 1/72 scale "Bomber Escort"...


Andre B

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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 by Andre B
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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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...

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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 by 72modeler
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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 by Smithy
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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

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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 😉 

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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 by Andre B
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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.

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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 by Andre B
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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 by tempestfan
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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...

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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?

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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 by Andre B
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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 by Andre B
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