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P-51 D 1/48 eduard The story of Wild Bill Crump and his little coyote „Jeep“ !


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Hallo friends,

 

This is my  rendition of Wild Bill Crumps P-51. it’s the eduard kit in 1/48. The wings are puttied and airbrushed with silver. The difference between silver and natural aluminum of the fuselage is good visible. The decals came from Lifelike. I had a lot of fun and was very touched of his story. If you like visit his site , you won’t regret it, I am sure you will be touched too. I contacted Bills son who got a friendly permission to use these photographs.

thank you very much Bob. 

have a nice weekend friends! 
 

Andy 

 

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John William (Wild Bill) Crump was one of the 356th Fighter Group pilots based at RAF
 Martlesham Heath during WW2. Bill flew Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. That is not particularly
 unusual. But what is unusual is that Bill carried a passenger in his cockpit on at least five sorties.
 During the 1930s Depression in America, Bill tried to make a living by helping farmers with their
 coyote problem. On one occasion a farmer presented Bill with a baby coyote in a box and said he
 could “start with this one”.
 Bill could not find it in himself to kill the animal and adopted it as his pet. He later smuggled it into the
 UK when, after earning his wings as a pilot, he was posted to Martlesham Heath. Bill discarded his
 gas mask and "smuggled" the baby coyote aboard the Queen Elizabeth. The Coyote became a family
 member at the 360th Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force The coyote had "dog" tags, a log
 book ("Form 5 "), Immunization record. The coyote was called "Jeep" NMI Coyote ( NMI stands for
 "No Middle Initial"), and he accompanied Bill on his missions, in the cockpit of his Thunderbolt,
 named “Jackie.” Bill later flew P51, Mustangs.
   Bill was billeted at Playford Hall during his stay here, and it was at Playford Hall that “Jeep” sadly died
 when he was run over.

Jeep received a Military funeral, "missing man" formation, taps and a victory roll roll by his master,
 before being laid to rest with a gun salute of Colt 45s, in the grounds of Playford Hall. A plaque marks
 the spot.
 Over 60 years later, In the week preceding the VE Day celebrations at Martlesham Heath,
 Tennessee.
 Jim is friend of Bill Crump and had been asked to visit the grave on his forthcoming visit to England.
 Al was a WSO in B-58 (Hustler) and Jim was a pilot in KC-135s. I arranged to meet them both, alongspacer.png
 with their English friend Sandra (a Boeing 737 pilot) at the Duxford VE Day show on the 7th May. We
 had a great day together and I was enthralled with their stories.
 On Sunday 8th May the group attended the MHAS's VE Day celebration, where they met our gang
 and also Lt Nichelle Brokering (also a KC-135 pilot ).
   Later, Bob Dunnett and I accompanied the three guests to Playford Hall to see and film the grave of
 “Jeep.” It was a moving occasion.
 Tarkey Barker
 A biography of Wild Bill Crump can be found on , www.wildbillcrump.com a website created
 by Bill's son as a tribute to his father and celebration of his life.

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Edited by Andy Dyck
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  • Andy Dyck changed the title to P-51 D 1/48 eduard The story of Wild Bill Crump and his little coyote „Jeep“ !

Pretty neat story and superb modelling dear Andy. The P-51 is awesome as are the figures. Best regards, Jean.

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:wow: And double :wow: Having just completed the Tamiya rendition of the P-51D (Petie 2nd in my case) I can really appreciate how good this model is and the great job you did on it :clap: 

 

Photos are spectacular too! :worthy:

 

Ciao

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3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

That's a touching little story and a beauty of a model. Brought together with your diorama and photography skills, the result is another triumph. Well done indeed!

Absolutely true!

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Andy…….of everything that you have shared with us here, this one is my favorite.  Superb attention to detail only made better with an excellent backstory that you shared with us.  :yahoo:

 

Mike

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Lovely to see! I became aware of these two while listening to Tales From Above, Warbirds podcast. :) Not bought the decals yet but I plan to make it too. Just won´t be as nice as yours.. ;) Great job!

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I like the painting with the silver color and the colourful all around view from this type P-51D that you chosen, as and the realistic painting on your figures! Excellent photos too!!!!

Congratulations Andy👏

 

Giannis Doxas

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A superb P-51, ditto photography and a touching story. What more can you ask for?

 

In fact, I had to look very carefully at that first colour photo to figure out if it was a warbird snapped at an airshow or the actual model.

 

Impressive work.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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A fantastic model Andy, and very well photographed. You'll no doubt be familiar with this image too:

 

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Image: IWM (FRE 6075) 

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That's fantastic Andy! Great P-51 model, great story, and even greater photography. How do you faint the reality photos so that they look antique? Meisterklasse, echt!

Michael

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Excellent build Andy! I’m a volunteer at the Martlesham Heath Control Tower museum and we have a display cabinet dedicated to ‘Wild Bill’ and Jeep. The background is a very good match for Martlesham too. What red did you use for the 356FG nose markings?

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