P-51 Drop Tank Question

[RadMax8]

I’m building Accurate Miniatures’ F-6B (Photo Recon P-51A) which I will be portraying sometime after D-Day. I will be adding drop tanks to it, to add in the visual interest. My question is about the metal drop tanks the USAAF used. I know they came in both neutral grey and natural metal finish, at what point was there a change? I would imagine sometime in ‘44, same as when planes began showing up without camouflage?

 

Thanks in advance for any information!

[Toryu]

You‘re right. Grey 75 gal tanks had completely disappeared by D-Day.  Since they were dropped, they had been used up quickly after the change to NM ‘camouflage‘.

Not so the metal 110 gal tanks which were still produced in a light grey colour.

[RadMax8]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Question that you brought up, weren’t the 110 gallon tanks made of paper?

[Toryu]

There were two versions: 108 gal British-made paper tanks and 110 gal US-made metal tanks (can be identifed because the attachment stripes fore and aft were missing).

 

Just an afterthought: It's possible that a reconnaissance F-6B never was forced to drop her tanks, so the grey ones may have lingered on, but not very likely.

[RadMax8]

Thanks for the info. NMF tanks it is! And I’ll be sure to look for the different tanks.