Midwest Aero Mustang Repaints

[Bomber_12th]

I've been a huge fan, for a long time, of the work done by the company Midwest Aero Restorations. They have done 8 complete Mustang restorations to-date, all award-winning, and so-far I have covered 6 of them through various past Warbirdsim products and repaints. A while back I decided I'd do repaints of the other 2 Midwest Aero Mustangs I had never gotten around to do doing yet, but in making those repaints I also decided to go through all of the other six and completely redo them as well, providing replacement textures for the products that feature those models as well as providing repaints for other products such as "Mustang Tales". This has been something I've worked on and off on for the past few years and finally decided to make a consorted effort to finish them and have them uploaded to the SOH library and elsewhere, which I have done this morning. Through all 8 of these, the diffuse, alpha, spec and spec alpha textures have all been completely redone from the ground-up, and each includes all new high quality normal maps and revised/improved cockpit textures. As always, these are designed for use with Bob Rivera's environmental maps, 'Alternate_Globalenvtest.zip', found as Avsim, installed in the main FSX Texture folder, so as to provide the reflections shown.

The repaints cover:

"Cripes A' Mighty" (replacement textures for "Cripes A' Mighty: Then and Now" and repaint for "Mustang Tales")
"Daddy's Girl" (replacement textures for "Restored Part 2" and "Mustang Tales")
"Red Dog" (repaint for "Restored Part 2" and "Mustang Tales")
"Happy Jack's Go Buggy" (replacement textures for both "Restored Part 1" and "Happy Jack's:Then and Now" and repaint for "Mustang Tales")
"Live Bait" (repaint for "Restored Part 2" and "Mustang Tales")
"Was That Too Fast" (repaint for "Restored Part 2" and "Mustang Tales")
"Frances Dell" (repaint for "Restored Part 2" and "Mustang Tales")
"Frenesi" (repaint for "Restored Part 2" and "Mustang Tales")

They should be available in the library shortly.


"Cripes A' Mighty" ~ P-51D-30-NA (44-74813) registered as N151BW, owned by Thomas Ungurean of Zanesville, OH. Built too late to see action in WWII, the aircraft served in Canada as RCAF 9261 in the 1950's. Sold surplus in 1958 and passing through numerous civilian owners, the aircraft was eventually acquired by Ken Wagnon in 1996 and sent to Midwest Aero Restorations for ground-up restoration to complete WWII stock configuration. This benchmark-setting restoration was completed in 2002, winning Oshkosh WWII Grand Champion and later the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trophy two separate years. The aircraft is finished in the authentic markings of Maj. George Preddy's P-51D "Cripes A' Mighty" (IV) while he was the commander of the 328th FS, 352nd FG, 8th AF in December 1944. The highest scoring Mustang ace of WWII, Preddy was killed in action due to friendly fire on Christmas Day, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge.

Both the replacement textures and the repaint for "Mustang Tales" depicts the aircraft as it is in 2019, but also included are alternative textures for "Cripes A' Mighty: Then and Now" to depict the way the aircraft first looked in 2002, following the completion of restoration.




"Daddy's Girl" ~ P-51D-20-NA (44-63807) registered as N20MS, owned by Charles Somers of Sacramento, CA. The aircraft is known to have been delivered to England and accepted by the 8th Air Force, but no combat assignments are known (likely remaining a pool aircraft). Light on hours/practically new, the aircraft was sent back to the US at the end of WWII and in 1950 was acquired by the Uruguayan Air Force, becoming FAU 272, and later was acquired by the Bolivian Air Force in 1960, then becoming FAB 506. The aircraft's military career ended in the mid 1970's with the aircraft becoming registered in Canada in 1977 as C-GXUO, and later as N20MS in the US in 1985. Acquired by Jon Vesely in 2001, the aircraft was sent to Midwest Aero Restorations for ground-up restoration which was completed in 2004, winning Reserve WWII Grand Champion at Oshkosh. The aircraft is finished in the authentic markings of Maj. Ray Wetmore's P-51D "Daddy's Girl", assigned to the 370th FS, 359th FG, 8th AF.

The aircraft is depicted as it appears today in 2019.




"Red Dog" ~ P-51D-30-NA (44-74469) registered as N514RP, owned by Lawrence Classics, based at Bentonville, AR. Although having the identity of a Mustang built in 1945, the airframe that exists today really started as a parts-build in the 1990's, culminating in a first flight in 2000. In 2002, however, the aircraft was acquired by Classic American Aircraft and sent to Midwest Aero Restorations for ground-up restoration. One of the requirements of the restoration was for a completely smooth wing, with the majority of the panel lines and rivets filled with putty and block sanded to a perfect finish. Completed in 2006, the aircraft won Reserve WWII Grand Champion at Oshkosh. The aircraft is finished in the markings of Maj. Louis Norley's P-51D "Red Dog", assigned to the 334th FS, 4th FG, 8th AF.

The aircraft is depicted as it appears today in 2019.




"Happy Jack's Go Buggy" ~ P-51D-30-NA (44-74452) registered as N74190, owned by Bruce Winter of San Antonio, TX. Built too late to see action in WWII, the aircraft served in Canada in the 1950's as RCAF 9225, and then served in the Guatemalan Air Force as FAG 366 from 1962-1972. In 1976, the aircraft became one of several ex-Guatemalan AF Mustangs acquired by Connie Edwards from Don Hull and placed into storage. The aircraft was acquired by Bruce Winter in 2002 and sent to Midwest Aero Restorations for ground-up restoration to complete WWII stock configuration. Completed in 2008, this benchmark-setting restoration won WWII Grand Champion at Oshkosh and the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trophy. The aircraft is finished in the authentic markings of Capt. Jack Ilfrey's P-51D "Happy Jack's Go Buggy", assigned to the 79th FS, 20th FG, 8th AF. Unlike the previous Mustangs restored by Midwest Aero, this one was completed with an unpolished finish, with the metal purposely scuffed to a dull finish to provide a wartime appearance.

The replacement textures for the "Restored Part 1" version depict the aircraft as it looked in late 2008, soon after the completion of restoration. The replacement textures for the "HJGB: Then and Now" cover both how the aircraft looked at Oshkosh in 2008, immediately following completion of restoration, as well as a depiction of how the aircraft looks today in 2019 with current state of weathering. The repaint for "Mustang Tales" depicts the aircraft as it looks today in 2019.

[Bomber_12th]

"Live Bait" ~ P-51D-25-NA (44-73343) registered as N551JV, owned by Lewis Air Legends, based at San Antonio, TX. Not much is known about the aircraft's history through the 1940's and 50's, but the aircraft became the famous racer "Seattle Miss" in 1964, owned by Ben Hall. It later carried the names "Esther's Mink", "Traveler" and "Miss Salmon River", always as Race #2. The aircraft was damaged in a forced landing at Reno in 1971 and then floated around as a restoration project for many years. The aircraft was acquired by Larry Thompson and sent to Midwest Aero Restorations in 2005 for ground-up restoration. During restoration the aircraft was acquired by Jon Vesley. Completed in 2010, the aircraft won the Oshkosh WWII Reserve Grand Champion award. The aircraft is finished in the authentic markings of Capt. Clayton "Kelly" Gross' P-51D "Live Bait", assigned to the 355th FS, 354th FG, 9th AF.

The aircraft is depicted both as it appeared when completed in 2010 in stock military configuration ("Mustang Tales"), as well as how it appears today in 2019 with a jump seat ("Restored Part 2").




"Was That Too Fast" ~ P-51D-20-NA (44-63577) registered as N151JT, owned by Lawrence Classics, based at Bentonville, AR. This aircraft was originally completed by North American Aviation on November 20, 1944, and used in State-side training until 1946. It was acquired by the Uruguayan Air Force in 1950, becoming FAU 265. After being retired, the aircraft remained on museum display in Uruguay until 1985 when it was sold and imported back into the US. Floating around as a restoration project, the aircraft was acquired by John Turgyan in 1994 and eventually sent to Midwest Aero Restorations in 2008 for ground-up restoration. During restoration the aircraft was sold to Jon Vesley and was completed in 2013, winning Oshkosh Post-WWII Grand Champion. The aircraft is finished as a Korean War era F-51D, in silver paint rather than bare metal, painted in the authentic markings of a 36th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 12th Fighter-Bomber Group F-51D named "Was That Too Fast".

The aircraft is depicted both as it appeared when completed in 2013 in stock military configuration ("Mustang Tales"), as well as how it appears today in 2019 with a jump seat ("Restored Part 2").




"Frances Dell" ~ P-51D-30-NA (44-74453) registered as N51ZW, owned by Carl Patrick of Broomfield, CO. Built too late to see action in WWII, the aircraft served in Canada as RCAF 9597 in the 1950's. Sold surplus in 1959, the aircraft was wrecked in 1963 and eventually started to be rebuilt in 1981. Restoration was completed around 1988, then owned by Jim Priebe, and painted in fictitious markings as "Glamorous Jen". Later renamed "Glamorous Gal" and acquired by Howard Ross in 1993, and then later by Bob Baranaskas in 2002, the aircraft became a very familiar and beloved sight at airshows in the northeast and along the east coast of the US. The aircraft was damaged in 2011 from a partial gear collapse on landing, resulting in the aircraft being sold to Carl Patrick in 2012. The aircraft was sent to Midwest Aero Restorations for partial restoration/repairs, with the aircraft completed and flying again in 2014. The aircraft is now finished in the authentic markings of Lt. Clark Clemmons' P-51D "Frances Dell", assigned to the 84th FS, 78th FG, 8th AF. This aircraft won the "Best P-51" award at Oshkosh 2019.

The aircraft is depicted as it appears today in 2019.




"Frenesi" ~ F-6K-15-NT (44-12852) registered as N357FG, owned by Comanche Fighters, based at Eagle Pass, TX. This aircraft served State-side with the USAAF and was sold surplus soon after the end of WWII. The aircraft was entered in the 1946 Cleveland Air Races as Race #80 "Full House", but was involved in a belly landing during time trials. The aircraft was later repaired and was acquired by the Dominican Air Force in 1954, becoming FAD 1900. The aircraft was sold and imported back into the US in 1984 and began flying again in 1990. Acquired by Jim Beasley, through the 1990's the aircraft was finished in the markings of "Frenesi", a P-51D flown by Lt. Col. Tommy Hayes, of the 364th FS, 357th FG, 8th AF. In the early 2000's, Beasley decided to ground the aircraft and perform a ground-up restoration. The project was sold to Dan Friedkin/Comanche Fighters in 2009 and was sent to Midwest Aero Restorations to complete the project to full WWII stock configuration. With a lot of work having to be redone or done new, the aircraft was finally completed in 2017, to the same bench-mark setting standards of their most WWII-authentic work, and finished once more in the, now more accurately recreated, markings of "Frenesi".

The aircraft is depicted as it appears today in 2019.

[Bomber_12th]

Some more assorted screenshots:

[downwind]

Magnificent, John. Every time I fire up a Mustang with your skin on it, there is a rush of excitement. As outstanding as the Mustang Tales P-51's are to fly.

[MustangL2W]

MAGNIFICENT John!!! I am always so grateful whenever you share any of your work with us!
Any plans on maybe giving the "B-C" Model any Love with say "Lope's Hope" and "Berlin Express??" Both of those Mustangs are show-stoppers as well. Would be spectacular to have on the Warbirdsim Flight Leader models.

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you guys, I hope you'll get some enjoyment out of these!

Jim, I've been holding off on those as I don't feel my old P-51B/C models would do them any justice (though not that my P-51D models are perfect either). It would be a dream project to build a brand new set of flight sim P-51B/C's, though I'm not sure if/when that will happen (would be wonderful if I were retired and had all the time to devote to such things). Warbirdsim has appeared to have closed shop, but I'm continuing to work on my B-25J model to eventually release it in some form or another - will certainly have some images to post as summer wraps up.

Midwest Aero currently has two P-51D projects under restoration in addition to an original Bf-109G-6 that they are restoring for the same owner as "Happy Jack's Go Buggy". I've thought about perhaps making a repaint of that Bf-109 as well for the Flight Replicas model, to go together with "Happy Jack's Go Buggy" in the sim.

Here are a few more screenshots I liked. Note that with "Cripes A' Mighty", when it was completed in 2002, it had silver/gray non-slip walkways and the gun ports were painted red. A few years after the restoration was completed there was a detail found in a photo of another P-51D that was painted just like "Cripes A' Mighty" ("Chub A Luk") where the swivel cups of the gun ports were painted white, and so they were repainted to match on the restored "Cripes". The walkways were also later replaced with darker/tan colored versions. Both depictions are now included/can be chosen from.







When "Daddy's Girl" was completed, it had silver/gray non-slip walkways, but those were removed in recent years and I have it depicted as such.

[Bomber_12th]

[Greenhouse357]

Awesome, John! Look forward to them.

[Sundog]

Thanks John, I'll be downloading these once they're out. Having said that, I have a nit pick with the restorers; don't any of them realize we fought in the CBI and Pacific as well? I would like to see some more restored P-51s painted in some of those schemes. Just saying.

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you Bob and Ken!

Ken, I absolutely agree with you there, 100%, though it isn't necessarily the restorer's fault, as it is always the owner's decision how the aircraft is painted. There is a huge bias towards paint schemes of ETO Mustangs. Even MTO schemes are fairly rare outside of the 332nd FG. There are a few Mustangs flying today in Pacific Theatre and CBI schemes - "Dolly" and "Kwitcherbitchin", both Iwo Jima schemes, the P-51K "Fragile but Agile", that was based in the Philippines, and "Lopes Hope 3rd" and "Mrs. Virginia" which are two CBI schemes (I would love to, and may now have to, make repaints of "Dolly" and "Kwitcherbitchin", and new textures for "Fragile but Agile"). The late Selby Burch restored two different Mustangs over the years that were both finished in Pacific Theatre schemes, but in both cases, as soon as he sold them, the new owners had them repainted into ETO schemes.

Pat Harker's TF-51D (formerly "Ridge Runner III"), currently nearing completion of rebuild at Airmotive Specialties, is being painted in the Iwo Jima markings of "Hel-Eter". There is also the P-51D 44-72028, currently under restoration in California, that is a Pacific Theatre combat vet and which will hopefully be finished in its original markings as it was when assigned to the 40th FS, 35th FG, 5th AF, named "Marge/Vivian" (fortunately photos exist showing how the aircraft looked in 1945 in those markings). However, despite this, I also know off the top of my head several more P-51 restorations currently taking place that are intended to be finished in ETO markings. There are several Pacific and CBI based units that had very striking color schemes on their Mustangs that I'm surprised aren't represented on any of the Mustangs flying today.

Of course "Was That Too Fast" is a rarity in itself, for being a Mustang restored in Korean War era USAF configuration and markings. Prior to Jon Vesley acquiring it during restoration, and the direction of the project changing, it was originally going to be restored in WWII configuration and painted in the 357th FG markings of "Passion Wagon".

[ZsoltB]

This is very nice D5 paint

[huub vink]

Thanks John Beatiful work (and screenshot) again and always a good read!

Cheers,
Huub

[noddy]

Many thanks, outstanding as usual.

[fuzz1]

These paints are spectacular, thanks for your ongoing efforts John. Among your other skills I've always considered you to be the king of metal effects in our virtual world, but you've outdone yourself with these offerings.

I'm particularly enjoying Big Red, Live Bait and of course, Cripes A'Mighty.

Concerning your remarks about updated VC textures, I did notice the VC looks better but can't exactly put my finger on why. Could
you perhaps outline what changes you have implemented in this regard? Can the improved VC textures be copied over to existing paints? If so, could you identify which specific files should be copied and overwritten?

Amazing work.

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you guys, I really appreciate your replies and compliments!

Zsolt, I love that scheme too, and the computer renders they used for those series of Eduard products really look fantastic (love the look of the metal)!

Fuzz, with regard to the cockpit textures, the improvements have been a long time in the works - mostly done while I was working on "Mustang Tales" a number of years back, but with some further improvements since then. All of the highlights and shadows were always there, but it was too subtle/washed out in my early work, so I spent some time pulling out more of the highlights and darkening the shadows for more depth. The other major thing I've worked to improve on them is the overall continuity of the textures from part to part, with an eye on the cockpit as a whole/complete picture, and making certain aspects most in focus, such as the gun sight crash pad, "pop out" more.

With regard to taking the cockpit textures from one of these repaints/replacement textures and using them in another - there are a lot of different variations of P-51D cockpits throughout the Warbirdsim D-model products, and each one is a bit different in what textures it requires, and often times even though the textures share the same names, the mapping and graphics are often different due to different components between one model to the next. The safest bet would be to only use the cockpit textures from a repaint that uses the same model as the paint scheme you're looking to use them with. All of the "P-51D_INT" textures, and "K-14" and "Gage_Face" textures, are for the cockpit.

I should say that with the "Happy Jack's" and "Daddy's Girl" repaints being released, which provides replacement textures for those variants in "Rest. Pt.1" and Rest. Pt.2", I'll be continuing that trend by releasing new replacement textures for the rest of the "Restored Pt.1 and Pt.2" variants, and will also include versions as repaints for "Mustang Tales". Each too will have individual new/improved cockpit textures. I've already got a few more finished, and they just need packaging up.

[dvj]

I don't know if I should download these, or just sit back and admire your screenshots.

-d

[fuzz1]

John, your comprehensive reply is helpful and most appreciated. Looking forward to your future artwork.