Titus Oates’s Aussie ‘Stang
Tamiya's 1/48 P-51D Mustang finished as an Australian CAC CA18 Mustang 21.
Firstly though, a little bit of history I managed to glean about the plane, (& apologies in advance for any errors & omissions on my part):
The scheme is based on a privately owned ex-RAAF Mustang belonging to one Aubrey Titus Oates who had it painted in a Post Office red and had the civil registration of VH-AUB during the early 1960's.
The actual plane was an Australian built Mustang manufactured during 1946-47 at Fishermans Bend in Victoria.
During it's military service with the RAAF it owned the serial number A689-107.
Towards the end of the 1950's it went up for disposal and was purchased by Mr Oates and put on the civilian register.
It was civilianised in as much as the gun-ports were capped, the shell ejector chutes blanked off & the pilot's seat armour plating removed as was the military radio gear behind the seat.
The kit is painted in a high gloss finish as it would looked during 1962-63 when the machine was based down in Moorabbin, Victoria.
By April 1966 it was up for sale & passed on to Ewan McKay of Jericho Queensland.
During the late 1960's & into the mid 1970's the aircraft's condition began to deteriorate. It was sold on to Col Pay in 1975 & subject to a lengthy restoration resulting in an immaculately finished example resplendent in it's original RAAF livery & registered as A68-107.
It is still in flying condition to this day.
As for the kit...it's a Tamiya so no worries with the build here.
The cockpit is a bit basic and as I had a 'spare' Verlinden resin cockpit detail set for the old Fujimi kit I decided to do a bit of modification to the pit of the Tamiya P-51.
With the kit sidewalls removed on went the resin replacements.
The seat though perhaps not 100% accurate for this particular 'Stang was just too nice to leave out..& anyway who's to know...
The rest of the pit is a hybrid of original & Verlinden resin parts.., it all went together without too much drama.
And that was pretty much it, apart from the changes listed previously for the 'AMS' part of the build.
Decals were from Red Roo, which I found to be very average at best. Nice print quality but the actual carrier film was way too thick to be sufficiently invisible under umpteen layers of clear coat.
Finally I'm including an actual period photo of the plane I stumbled across during my research.
(And once again apologies for having this uncredited; happy to credit the original photographer if they can make themselves known to me).
Thanks for looking.
Marek, and nice looking model and good rendition of the real one. Always fun to see what happened to old war birds. I was wondering what the story was behind it, was it a racer or just a private flyer ?
Hi Terry, I think this was more a private flyer rather than a racer as the Australian warbirds scene was very much in its infancy way back then and air races weren't really the go back in the 1960's (and those more knowledgeable on the subject matter please chip in to correct me).
Nicely done, Marek...and a good job on that wooden floor, too. 🙂
Thanks Craig ?
At 1/48 very little of the work on the cockpit is visible at a normal viewing distance, unless you get up close with the penlight of doom!
These old War birds look really good in racing markings. I have a Special Hobby F2G Corsair that I have been itching to build up for the same reason. Your Mustang turned out very well. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Thanks Louis ?
Good looking model Marek, Geoff Goodall's aviation history site credits that pic to Rod Adam taken at Moorabbin in 1963, also mentioned are other Mustangs in an air race from Brisbane to Adelaide in 1964, not pylon racing though !, where does the 9 in A689-107 come from ?
Hi Allan, thanks for the additional info re. city to city air races. The A689-107 serial reference comes from the Red Roo Models decal sheet info-graphics and was pretty much my initial go to source of information on the subject matter. It may well be a typo on reflection as other web-based sources have it as A68-107.
Yes Marek definitely a typo !
Hello Marek,
I found your story very interesting.
I thought your Mustang looked great in that scheme. I like the cockpit detail, the seat looks just right to me.
Thanks Julian. ?
Looks just fine! I especially like the cockpit details including the floor & seat. Well done, Mate!
Cheers! ?
Yet another great example of the classic Tamiya kit, thanks for sharing it with us, Marek.
No worries, thanks George. ?
Looks fantastic - you just can hide a Mustang under all that red paint!
Thanks Greg, can I say doing a gloss red finish is a swine of a job to get right, & I've nothing but respect for the Auto modellers who can achieve such perfect finishes.