Here’s a few pictures of Detroit Miss that I have found on the web. From what I can see there’s currently only three available pictures of it, until someone finds some more hidden in a photo album stored in the attic or at an estate sale.

This is one of the pictures I posted earlier.

Here’s another one showing most of the plane.

This next picture is why Lifelike Decals have the canopy frame listed as being a blue color instead of the red. The kill marks are definitely a red color and the background color is different.

Lifelike is showing the canopy frame as a blue color.

This next picture shows another Mustang with the lower wing center stripes that are painted in Black. You can clearly see the drop tank obscures a lot of this area, so it makes sense if it was indeed left alone on LOU IV.

This last picture is showing “Ferocious Frankie” again. This is a good picture because it shows that the D Day invasion stripes were not identical from plane to plane. If you look at the landing gear door it’s apparent.

As always comments are encouraged.

Thanks for stopping by.

You have gathered a great collection of amazing pictures, Louis @lgardner
They are very helpful when building one of these Mustangs, thanks.

Looks like the main gear doors are closed in the photos for parked aircraft. I wonder how long it took for the hydraulic pressure in the lines to drop. Ergo the doors to drop in theater.

Hello again everyone.
Spiros, @fiveten
John, @johnb
Dr. Alexander, @eagleocf15
Stephen, @stephen-w-towle
Tom C., @tcinla

Gentlemen,
I have not been very active here on Imodeler lately. There has been a lot of "life" things getting in the way of my current bench time, (which coincidentally over the past few weeks has been zero). I have been trying to wrap up some loose ends that have been taking up the majority of my time. I'll explain.

Back in January I underwent a spinal fusion surgery on my neck, and in July I will be having another back surgery, in the middle portion of my back (with one more following that one sometime around October - December). I guess the years of hard manual labor have finally caught up with me. Between that, (and Father Time), I have destroyed a good number of discs in my spine, with multiple levels having been herniated, bulging, or just simply worn out. My neck was bone on bone contact, with no traces of disc remaining between the neck vertebrate, which in turn was compressing the nerves as they were exiting between these 3 levels.

The neck surgery was a huge success, and if the next two are omens of what is to come, then someday I will eventually be pain free. Living in pain all the time sucks, and it can cause a person to be a little grumpy at times.

The good news is that I will soon definitely have some bench time available to work on these builds in about a month from now, since I will be on a 5 pound weight restriction for 3 months following the operation. Maybe my idea of building that 1/48 scale Monogram B-29 right now is not a good idea ... 😉

So please continue to check back, as I sincerely want to finish these two myself. Cripe's A Mighty also happens to be my favorite all time paint scheme that was ever displayed on a Mustang. Here are a few pictures I took of Kermit Weeks' P-51D back in 2011.

Kermit also has a "Razorback" C model painted up as "Ina the Macon Belle". I was very fortunate to see her in the air during our visit that day.



Both Mustangs are absolutely gorgeous aircraft and highly polished.

Ironically Major Preddy was shot down and killed by American AAA on Christmas Day in 1944. If I can physically manage it, I would like to have these two Revell kits done by Christmas Day this year. I want to post a tribute article here Christmas Day on Imodeler if at all possible on the Major.

Stephen, @stephen-w-towle
You have a good question about the time it takes for the doors to drop after the engine shut down. I have seen from being around the full sized 1 to 1 scale Mustangs in real life on numerous occasions, that typically one door drops a little faster than the other, and if my memory is correct, the flaps will also drop at the same time as the inner clam shell doors do. On some aircraft, the drop starts to happen within 30 minutes or so following the engine shutdown, while in others it takes longer.

One thing also to consider is the outside ambient air temperature, and how it also could affect the drop rate. The colder the temperature is, the thicker the hydraulic oil viscosity becomes, and I would tend to believe this too could somehow affect the drop rate. It might not be too much of a difference, since hydraulic oil is a very light thin weight oil to begin with, (something around the equivalent of a straight 10 weight oil or so), but at temperatures hovering around zero to the teens (Fahrenheit) it would thicken up some.

Tom C., @tcinla
Thanks for the information about Urban Drew. As far as when I get around to building mine, I'll likely go with the blue canopy frame, as it seems to likely match what is visible in the "hand shake" photo. My interpretation of the picture is it looks as if his ground crew is helping him climb up onto the wing, (but a hand shake is the easiest way to describe it).

I have always wanted to build up "Detroit Miss" someday to replace the one I built as a kid. My childhood model was the good old Monogram 1/48 scale kit with the horribly fitting engine and wing covers. It came with the decals for "Detroit Miss" right out of the box way back then, and it was a fairly new kit, "state of the art". I took your advice a while back and picked up some Eduard Mustangs, 109's, and FW-190's. I even tossed in a few of their new Spitfires, and to round things out I grabbed a pair of Zeros, (all in 1/48).

These new Eduard kits do look VERY nice in the box. I will be looking for your Detroit Miss soon. Please continue to check back, as I want to wrap these two up.

Thanks again gentlemen for the comments, observations and kind words.

Take care and as always, comments are encouraged.

@lgardner, good to see you returning back to the bench slowly, Louis.
Good to hear that the neck surgery went well and let's hope it is indeed a sign for the once to come.
Awesome pictures of the Mustangs.

Looking forward to your builds, Louis (@lgardner). It is great to hear that your surgery went well.

Yeah, I know those life gets in the way moments. Lou, it would be simple to say don't get old only, the other option is not a good one either. Happy to see that your back on the board, your opinions, enthusiasm for the hobby/life are always welcoming and up lifting. Stay strong, stay well and stay safe.