1/72nd P-51B Mustang, `Patty Anne II', 352nd FG, 8th AF, USAAF, UK 1944

[tonyot]

Hiya Folks,

                  A modelling weakness that I have is 8th AF, USAAF bombers and fighters, especially the colourful P-51 Mustangs and the silver P-51B/C`s wearing the colourful markings are of particular interest,.... I find them addictive and want to build them all!! During my Army service we stayed in some old Nissen huts on STANTA, the Stanford Training Area and I found out that they were built as part of Bodney airfield, which housed the 352nd FG,.... known as the `Blue Nosed `sweethearts (edit; spelt Bravo, Alpha, Sierra, Tango, Alpha, Romeo, Delta, Sierra!!  )' of Bodney'!  Well from then I have wanted to build a few models of their colourful P-51`s and having already built the camouflaged `Hell-er-Bust' in 1/48th scale I wanted to do a silver P-51B and settled on `Patty Ann II' flown by ace Jack Thornell of the 328th FS, 252nd FG using a Hasegawa 1/72nd scale kit containing these markings and a lovely box art painting to boot,.... which I bought from E Bay. Unfortunately the kit was missing a part, the chin intake,..... but following a request for help on Britmodeller,.....  Lasermonkey kindly sailed to my rescue and sent me the part I needed,..... so thanks Mark,.... you are a very kind bloke.

 

Here is the real `Patty Anne II' and note that it had an extra third gun port painted outboard of the pair in each wing,.... I have tried to replicate this on the model too. I was unsure whether the aircraft had the usual black i/d bands on the upper wing and tail, but these do not appear to be visible in the photos that I could find showing the aircraft after D-Day, so I left them off. The aircraft is often depicted with D-Day stripes on the upper wings, but I have not found photos to prove this, so applied them to the undersides only,..I presume that when the D-Day stripes on the upper wing were removed, that the black i/d bands were not re applied?,

 

 

And here is the model, built from the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale kit, the silver was applied by rattle can using Tamiya Bre Metal Silver and the blue nose was brush painted using RAF Dull Roundel Blue enamel from Colorcoats,.... and thanks to Ben who gave me the tin. 

 

 

Cheers

           Tony

Edited December 14, 2020 by tonyot

[bigbadbadge]

Looks absolutely stunning Tony, great work as always fella.

Chris

[Farmerboy]

That’s a real sweetie, lovely looking model, superb finish.

[swralph]

Lovely build.😀

[FalkeEins]

lovely work Tony! ..."Aces & Wingmen" Vol I shows the stripes on the upper wing surfaces (Thornell welcomed home after his last sortie which was flown on 11 July, page 105) but the pics in Vol II show the upper wing surfaces 'clean' - the a/c was lost on 12 September with another pilot at the controls (Lt. Joe Broadwater KIA) - markings otherwise unchanged, which is probably where the confusion has crept in.  One other (little) tidbit of (color) info -  "Aces & Wingmen II -Vol 2" has a neat colored image of a 328 FS machine which shows the wheel hubs are red. I think you can see that is a real possibility here too from your pics above.. 

[tonyot]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looks absolutely stunning Tony, great work as always fella.

Chris

Cheers Chris,.... something a bit different and out of my usual comfort zone. 

 

1 hour ago, Farmerboy said:

That’s a real sweetie, lovely looking model, superb finish.

Cheers mate, glad you like it thanks. 

 

1 hour ago, swralph said:

Lovely build.😀

Thanks mate. 

 

53 minutes ago, FalkeEins said:

lovely work Tony! ..."Aces & Wingmen" Vol I shows the stripes on the upper wing surfaces (Thornell welcomed home after his last sortie which was flown on 11 July, page 105) but the pics in Vol II show the upper wing surfaces 'clean' - the a/c was lost on 12 September with another pilot at the controls (Lt. Joe Broadwater KIA) - markings otherwise unchanged, which is probably where the confusion has crept in.  One other (little) tidbit of (color) info -  "Aces & Wingmen II -Vol 2" has a neat colored image of a 328 FS machine which shows the wheel hubs are red. I think you can see that is a real possibility here too from your pics above.. 

Cheers Bud and thanks for the additional info. I did spot that the wheel hubs could be painted, but I didn`t know which colour,..... now you`ve confirmed red I`ll repaint them,.... thanks mate. 

[ijs302]

you can't beat an 8th air force  mustang nicely done and fineshed , a nice weakness to have i also suffer from the same , 

                                                                                                                                                                        ian

[RMCS]

Superb 

[stevehnz]

That looks brilliant Tony, I did a couple of Blue Noses, a -C & a -D earlier in the year & was well taken by the scheme, not bad for a baremetalphobe. I can safely say yours looks way better than mine.

Steve.

[Paramedic]

Really nicely done! I love the paintjob. And I love P-51B/Cs with Malcolm hoods.

[Bangor Lad]

Great work. I understand how the fighters of the 8th can be such a draw. I've got several I want to build, the only problem is which one to start with!

[Jackson Duvalier]

14 hours ago, tonyot said:

'Blue Nosed sweethearts of Bodney'

 

🤨  Riiiiiight....  😄  I'll play along, family forum and that.

 

Lovely little Mustangy thing you've built, Tony.  The masking on the transparencies is simply perfect.  Wish I could do as well.

[Homer]

Beautiful model, well done 👏 

[Paramedic]

12 hours ago, Bangor Lad said:

Great work. I understand how the fighters of the 8th can be such a draw. I've got several I want to build, the only problem is which one to start with!

 

Doesn´t matter as long as it is a Jug!

 

 

I agree though, need to go back to P-47s, P-51s P-38s soon..! This was great inspiration! ^^

[tonyot]

5 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

 

🤨  Riiiiiight....  😄  I'll play along, family forum and that.

 

Lovely little Mustangy thing you've built, Tony.  The masking on the transparencies is simply perfect.  Wish I could do as well.

Cheers Jackson,..... I can assure you that I `DID NOT' type that!!! My spelling was Bravo, Alpha, Sierra, Tango, Alpha, Romeo, Delta, Sierra!! I idn`t mask the canopy framework, it was brush painted.

3 hours ago, Homer said:

Beautiful model, well done 👏 

Thanks Homer.

 

1 hour ago, Paramedic said:

 

Doesn´t matter as long as it is a Jug!

 

 

I agree though, need to go back to P-47s, P-51s P-38s soon..! This was great inspiration! ^^

LOL,.... thanks mate!

[ian1485]

That looks great ! I love a Malcolm hood Mustang compared to a bubble top - they’re just quirky. I’m intrigued by the extra gun ports- I wouldn’t have thought the enemy would have noticed the extra one at the speed things were happening in the air....