Clunkmeister

No, not overboard, just some exhaust staining and some lead deposits on the fuselage sides.

I agree with you there. There are a lot of well respected decal drawers out there who have gotten it very wrong. But such is the model industry. The only decals are truly trust are Eli Raphael’s Zotz brand and Jerry Crandall’s Luftwaffe stuff. Some of the Fündecal line seems decent enough as well

And so it begins. Let’s trash this thing.

One thing with the Allison powered Mustangs. Notice that the inner gear doors are always locked up when parked.

No problem, Dennis. I may be off on a few of the specifics, but I think I’m pretty close. Feel free to change or add to anything. People seem eager to discount the Allison powered Mustangs as a lesser machine, but they were the best in the world at the time. Those 4 Hispanos packed one helluva punch, although I still scratch my head at both Britain and Germany insisting on staying with rifle caliber machine guns as their primary armament. Britain with the 303, and Germany with the 7.92mm (8mm Mauser). The Allison Mustang was an excellent photo ship, a great ground attack machine, and an excellent mid altitude fighter that only got better as the Allison matured. It had crazy range, and was insanely fast. It served the RAF well in Europe, finding it’s spot quickly, but absolutely shined in the MTO and the Far East. The work it did with the Air Commandos is legendary. As far as I know, the only reason they were phased out is because NAA stopped building them.

With all the interest in the early Mustangs, here is a short synopsis. When the RAF asked NAA to build their designs under license, NAA did one better and designed a brand new aircraft, in about 120 days. The RAF placed an order for 320 aircraft and named them the “Mustang”. The first was the Mustang l. Mustang l: The first batch of Mustang Is were the NA-73, basically the same design as the XP-51 using the original powerplant, the Allison V-1710-39. NAA kept the first production aircraft, AG345, for a test mule and to work out various concerns. The RAF received the first Mustang Is in October, but 20 aircraft were lost at sea during shipment. When the RAF perfomed tests on the Mustang I, they were very enthusiastic about the new fighter. It was 30 mph faster than the Spitfire and had more than double the range. AG348 was the last Mustang with the short nose intake as problems were foundwith carburetor induction during high-angles of attack. NAA then extended the nose intake right up to the spinner. This was a similar fix to what Curtiss performed with some Tomahawk variants. Also, up to serial AG348, Mustangs we’re basically hand assembled, but starting with AG349, they were built on an assembly line. In December 1940, the RAF added another 300 aircraft to their order. Still called Mustang I, the new NAA designation was changed to NA-83, due to an improved flared ejector exhaust. Mustang Ia: March of 1941 when amend-Lease was passed, the US placed an order for 150 more Mustangs to be sent to Britain. This allocation was NA-91, RAF designation of Mustang Ia. The Mustang Ia was equipped with four Hispano 20mm cannons installed in the wings, with the two nose guns deleted. They packed one HELL of a punch. Out of the 150 ordered, only 111 were serialed for the RAF and probably less than that actually received. After Pearl Harbor, the US Army held the remaining order of NA-91s Thea t for Britain. These, about 55, were designated P-51 and were fitted with four .50 cal guns instead of the cannons. Aerial cameras were installed on some and they were designated F-6. The US Army also developed a dive bomber version, called the A-36 "Apache". Mustang II: The US Army placed their second order for P-51s, this time the P-51A, NA-99. 1,200 were ordered in August of 1942. The differences between the P-51A and the P-51/Mustang I was a new Allison V-1710-81, no nose guns, just four .50 guns in the wings, a fixed belly scoop and they were plumbed for drop tanks. The Mustang configuration was getting closer to what we know today… Since the RAF was shorted on the last order, 50 NA-99s were designated Mustang II and sent to the RAF. The new Allison had a significantly improved supercharger which greatly increased mid-altitude performance. The Mustang II had a top speed of 412 mph at 10,000 feet, making it the fastest mid-altitude fighter of it’s time. Yes, the P-47 and the Tempest were faster, but they were much later developments and had twice the horsepower. With the development of the Merlin installation, the full order of NA-99 was cut short for the introduction of the P-51B/C. I believe that production of Allison powered Mustangs ceased at that time. It’s interesting to note that a well tuned Allison powered Mustang could run away and hide from the Merlin powered Mustang at mid altitudes. A total of 1,579 Allison powered Mustangs were produced. If anyone wants to add to this, feel free, but we must remember that if it wasn’t for the RAF and their need of a hot new fighter, we would have never had the Mustangs we know and love.

For my personal information action, you say the RAF called it a 1A? Interesting. I’d love it of you had some documentation and you could start a thread under General Discussion, documenting the various versions of the RAF Allison powered a Mustangs. They are a very popular subject, but so little is known about them. Thanks, and welcome!

What I love about these early Mustangs is how they were used right up to the moment they literally fell apart. There are plenty of pictures out there of some very beat up aircraft.

I’m not sure if you’ve done one yet, but I’d love to see an FAA clipped wing bird as well.

Carl, by the time I’m done with it, it’ll be filthy and 27 different colors. The AVG were the American Heroes at a time when the USA and Britain were reeling from continuous losses. Britain was still in danger of an invasion by sea, U-boats and surface raiders were sinking tonnage in en ever increasing amount, Pearl Harbor was still a smoking ruin, the Philippines were falling, Hong Kong fell, Australia was a definite possibility, and along came a bunch of crazy yanks with their fearsome mounts, proving that the Japanese could be beaten. There was all kinds of documentation, but precious little close ups of the planes themselves. As for the CBI, it was a miserable place to serve, and the big stories were in the European theatre. Europeans killing each other. Much closer to home than some steaming jungle on the other side of the world. It was an odd war, where some of the most fearsome aircraft were P-51A’s, P-40s, and B-25 gunships. Those aircraft were cast offs in other theatres, but were devastatingly effective in the CBI. The best bomber by far was the B-24, and transport was provided by C-46s. Pretty much the exact opposite of the European war.

Slowly getting there. Time to start dirtying her up.

Oh man! Yes, another. Orsair, but this one with a twist! John, I absolutely, 100% LOVE the result here! Stunning build!

OK yes, I understand now. I'm a touch slow at times. What absolutely stuns ,e is how there so little actual hard information out there on such a famous and thoroughly documented Fighter Group.

Carl, whose family is very familiar with the Nationalist Chinese, stated that the color on the lower roundels seems spot on. As far as the upper roundels go, I don’t have a clear straight on picture of the upper wing surface of an original in service AVG Tomahawk, so I can’t comment on the uppers. I’m not going to defend GWH, but just the fact that pretty much ALL restorations in recognized Military operated museums show the upper roundel size as the size included in the kit, and as issued by Eagle, Montex, and CE, I will assume the uppers are sized correctly. The uppers are lighter in color simply because eye witnesses universally stated that the blue on the upper Chinese roundels, when exposed to the direct sun and rain, very rapidly faded to a much lighter, faded blue. And THAT, to me is where the interpretation comes in. What I don’t like about the GWH decals is that they missed the mark on a few of the shark mouth versions. But until finding out in this build, I had no idea that the shark mouths were painted freehand, and all of them differed from each other

Peter, the decal being used now IS the kit’s lower wing roundel, as supplied by GWH. The Eagle Editions lower Chinese roundels are too small. That’s what I originally used and pulled the bottom ones off. As far as I can see, the rest of the Eaagle Editions decals are correct, though. And Cutting Edge decals are wrong, just like the Eagle Editions decals. The only AM who got it right was Montex.

🤣

Aaaand I dropped the made up rubber tailwheel with hub attached, And it bounced a rolled off into parts unknown… 😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤡

OK guys. I’m happy. These are the kit lower decals. I like these much, much, much more. And as Carl said, it looks right. I’ll take Carl’s knowledge on Nationalist Chinese markings as fact. When you have family that has and is involved, that’s good enough for me. The new decals are on the top, followed by the original picture again, and finally, the Eagle decals. The difference is obvious. Yes, ai keep posting the same picture of the “gently used” Tomahawk simply to avoid people having to keep scrolling back I am MUCH happier with the lower roundel now

Which is why I go back to these two pictures. My build using EagleCal lower markings, and an actual slightly used Hawk 81 of the AVG. To my eye, the actual lower roundel from the Eagle sheet (on my model) is quite a bit smaller than depicted on the bent airplane. Also, at least according to pictures, the lower roundel is noticeably larger than the upper. I will continue looking online to see if I can find a definitive straight on view of the upper wing roundel. And if Carl feels that the color is good, I’ll use it, as it’s a big enough issue to me to warrant me using the kit roundels on the lower surfaces. Plus, I haven’t sealed it in place yet so removing the Eagle decals is simple and easy. If my build was all but finished as is peter’s is, I’d not go there. Obviously, everyone has their bugaboos, and to me this is important enough to my way of thinking that I’ll take the time to do it I’m anal enough where it would bug me forevermore Like many say, scale modeling, lacking exact references and firsthand witnesses, one rolls the dice and in the end, it’s in the eye of the builder Peter, I couldn’t agree more regarding decal research. I think back to Kitty Hawk decent plastic, but a gorgeous set of in register decals so riddled with errors as to be a joke. And Tamiya’s famous 1/32” thick decals 🤣✅

Carl, I did the same as you. I just checked the very last place I expected to find the answer: the kit decals. Amazingly, the kit decals feature a lower roundel that is noticeably larger get diameter than the upper decals, and noticeably larger than the EagleCal decals, which feature roundels all the same size. As the lower roundels were out of the sun and faded little if any, I feel comfortable trying them. Unfortunately, I’m not positive on the color. It almost appears too dark.

Well, the Montex masks are unavailable. Life goes on…

Montex appears to have nailed it, although I question their use of the Angel figure on the port side only. Eagle has you do it on both sides. Also, Montex shows some VERY dark blues being used.

Hey Carl, actually, Montex looks closer to me… CE is the same as all the others. Maybe it’s telling us to leave well enough alone?

I’m anxious to see, because both GWH and EagleCals got it wrong. I’m quite honestly thinking of ripping them off and making some masks in the correct size. my concern is that since they’re already settled in with multiple applications of Micro Sol, it may be too late. Even the US Military got it wrong!