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1/48 Tamiya P-51D Mustang, as flown by Major George Preddy ”Cripes a Mighty”

Started by Louis Gardner · 12 ≡ · ↻ 6 years ago · 1/48, Mustang, P-51, Tamiya

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Louis Gardner said 7 years, 3 months ago:

A few days ago I was looking at this kit from Tamiya that I had in the stash. I've been itching to build a Tamiya Mustang for a long while now.

Believe it or not, I have never built a Tamiya Mustang. I have built quite a few Monogram and Accurate Miniatures Mustang kits, but have never built a Tamiya version. So after watching Chuck Villanueva's Korean War F-51 build progress, I was tempted even more. His is really looking great and was partially to blame for this next build of mine... Just teasing you Chuck, Thanks for the inspiration my friend.

Here's what I will be starting with. It will be a fairly box stock build. (Nothing fancy)

About a week ago I ran across this wonderful book that also comes with a set of decals for all of Major Preddy's P-51's planes, (which just so happens to be my all time favorite Mustang color scheme). The book appears to be well written, and covers all of his Mustangs and has a great write up on the pilot along with some killer photos that show a lot of little details that we modelers strive to find for accuracy...

Here's the decals and they really look even better in person.

I am looking forward to getting busy with this one ! But I also have a deadline to finish my 1/28 Revell Fokker Tri-plane... and a few 1/48 scale Hasegawa F6F's going on too...

Please stay tuned for updates, and possibly another build of the same plane, but in the larger 1/32 scale, using a Hasegawa Mustang that I also have stashed away.
Louis Gardner said 7 years, 3 months ago:

I have several more of these Tamiya Mustang kits in the stash. I've been thinking about possibly building a few more when I get cracking on this one in my typical assembly line fashion.

Years ago I became friends with a P-47 pilot who flew Thunderbolts over Europe in 1944. He flew the razor back D model while he was assigned to the 356th Fighter Group out of Martlesham Heath. His unit had the fuselage codes "OC" just like the "Starduster" plane does in the decal sheet below.

As fate would have it, I recently found and purchased as set of decals for the Mustangs which replaced the Thunderbolts after my friend returned Stateside.

Unfortunately he passed away several years ago, and I never managed to get a model plane built for him. His name was Ed Malo.

So as a tribute to him, I was thinking about building a Mustang or two using the decals from his unit for markings.

The new Airfix kit should be released soon and I hope that I can get a few of them too. The recent posting here of the new Airfix kit prompted this decal purchase.

Comments are encouraged.
Paulo Castro said 7 years, 3 months ago:

it's always good to see a Mustang under construction.

These Tamiya kits just fell together very easy, you'll love it.
Enjoy!

PS: I have it's smaller brother in 1/72nd to build.
Cheers
Chuck A. Villanueva said 7 years, 3 months ago:

They are a joy to build as this is the very first Tam kit I have attempted, and it just goes together so well. The seams will be easy to clean up and prepare for a Natural metal finish which this will be. Like you the last two Mustangs I have built and still have are the Accurate Miniature kits which were good but not like the Tam kit. And still have a Hase and another AM kit in the stash. But I do have my eye on picking up an Airfix kit as well. Now that I finally got some Aluminum and steel I can go ahead and get started back up on it. Yet I still haven't found a good decal set for a Korean War Stang other that what is in the kit.
David A. Thomas said 7 years, 3 months ago:

Goering is supposed to have said that once he saw the red-nosed mustangs over Berlin, he knew the war was lost. But there's something about those blue noses...

I have complete confidence in you, Lou...
Craig Abrahamson said 7 years, 3 months ago:

Louis - is that the one that includes the pilot figure with his left arm resting on the canopy rail?
Louis Gardner said 7 years, 2 months ago:

Thanks guys for the kind words.

Chuck,
Several years ago I picked up a set of Korean War decals from Aero Master. (Part #48-100).

This is a pretty cool set of decals as it has markings for a F9F-5 Panther, F-86 Sabre, F-80C "Shooting Star", Vought F4U-4, and lastly a F-51D named "Buckeye Blitz VI" from the 36th FBS, 8th FBW in Korea, 1950 This is the same markings as an option shown on the side of the kit box.

I'm planning on using this set on my 1/48 scale F-51 Tamiya kit (which just may end up migrating into this build too...) if the kit supplied decals don't work well. I plan on doing some research first though, just in case the manufacturer's got it a little wrong...

as I said earlier, your wonderful F-51 is what inspired this build log here. Thanks again my friend !

Thanks David. I like the Blue nosed Mustangs too... Years ago I built an old 1/48 Monogram kit and used the markings of "Petie 2nd" HO*M on it. I may end up posting a small article about it here soon, as it was the first plane I used bare metal foil on... Thanks for the vote of confidence my friend.

Hey Craig ! No buddy, this one doesn't have the pilot figure you mentioned... Sorry, but even if it did, my figure painting skills are not on par, so I probably wouldn't use it anyhow.
Craig Abrahamson said 7 years, 2 months ago:

Yeah...mine neither - but I was gonna see if I could HAVE it. 🙂
It's one of the few figures that actually look sort of "authentic".
Louis Gardner said 7 years, 2 months ago:

It is a good looking resin figure Craig. Very realistic. If I had one you could have it...
Craig Abrahamson said 7 years, 2 months ago:

Thanks, Louis, but the one I was thinking of isn't/wasn't resin...it came with the Tamiya Mustang kit (perhaps it was the one from the 8th Air Force I saw).
Mark Rezac said 6 years, 10 months ago:

You are indeed building a gaggle of mustangs. I really like both of those blue diamond mustang schemes. I am building one of those myself as “Jackie“. If you mess anything up on the kids or with the details, let me know as I have a large amount of extra stuff for those kits. After I finish my 10 I’m not sure I’ll be onto mustangs for many years to come :-).
Louis Gardner said 6 years, 10 months ago:

Hello everyone... Sorry for the tardiness with progress, but I have been rather busy with some other projects. I have several kits on the work bench that are almost completed.

The two Hellcats should be finished in a day or so, then I have a few more almost ready for revealing from the Kasserine Pass GB.

As soon as they are finished, the Mustangs will be cleared for takeoff... But they will be sharing space with a certain Tamiya Me-262...

Thank you Mark for the kind offer... I may take you up on this if necessary.

This particular set of markings from the 356th Fighter Group have a personal connection for me.

Years ago I met a gentleman who flew P-47's from the Group, and we became friends almost instantly. His name was Ed Malo, and his D model "Razor back" Thunderbolt had a fuselage code of OC * P. He later flew Mustangs, but was stateside by the time the 356th transitioned over to the P-51. He told me about how many of his friends remained in Martlesham Heath, England, and gave me a copy of a book he wrote about his wartime flight experiences, and an autographed artists rendering of his actual plane ... Both are pretty cool items. A copy of the painting of his P-47 is currently in the 8th AF Museum, as is a drawing showing his plane coming in for a landing.

Eventually I will build a Thunderbolt with his markings.

Sadly Ed passed away several years ago.

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Work in Progress – Aircraft

1/48 Tamiya P-51D Mustang, as flown by Major George Preddy ”Cripes a Mighty”