P-51 "Maggie / Sandy"

***jankees*** · April 2nd, 2012, 13:11

It's been a while, but today I actually found time to get my paintbrushes wet again..
It's still wip, and since I'm leaving on a short holiday this wednesday, you'll have to be patient before I get round to finishing and uploading it, but I thought you might like a few shots already.
P-51D-5 44-13692 LC-X "Maggie (Left) "Sandy" (Right) was flown by Capt. Cartheledge J Huey Jr. of the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, based in Kingscliffe.

The 20th FG carried one of my favorite paintschemes, and I liked this one because it did not have any white in the nose markings. I'm not happy with the 'Maggie', but couldn't find a nice enough picture, so this is my stopgap solution. If anybody has a good pic of the noseart, I'd be much obliged.

***Bomber_12th*** · April 2nd, 2012, 13:28

Love seeing these 20th FG schemes, Jan Kees! It's a unique look, how the 20th FG Mustang markings were all black and white, but the nose art was often quite vivid, with reds and yellows. (I can't wait to get around to updating Warbirdsim's restored variant of "Happy Jack's Go Buggy" - it's still my favorite of the Mustangs flying today). I'll see what I might be able to find for "Maggie/Sandy", though I don't expect to have any better luck than you (I know the "Little Friends" site would have already been checked and re-checked).

Speaking of 20th FG marked Mustangs, this photo was posted to a warbird forum a few months back, and when I saw the piano keys I immediately thought of you - I don't recall which one this is, but the photo was taken sometime in the 70's or possibly early 80's (and it isn't "Dolly", the Mustang that was also finished in 20th FG markings a few decades ago).

***jankees*** · April 2nd, 2012, 13:47

I knew I had it somewhere...

back to the drawing board...

***Bomber_12th*** · April 2nd, 2012, 14:07

That is an awesome photo! I like the 'posed'-nature of it, with the pilot not wearing standard combat-wear/flying helmet. I think you can still just make out the bead sight still mounted in front of the windscreen. The canopy plexiglass has been changed out with that of the later design.

(Note the dark-colored antenna mast. These, sometimes on restorations/models, have been painted black. However, all of these antenna masts were painted olive drab when manufactured - that is how they arrived to aircraft manufacturers or as spares in the field. On P-51 production, one of the North American Aviation finishing specifications when Mustang production switched to being bare-metal, was painting these antenna masts silver, and that's how they usually were, especially straight from the NAA factory, installed on bare-metal Mustangs. It is my theory, that most of the dark-colored antenna masts in these old B&W photos, are likely replacement units, remaining in their factory (the factory that produced the antenna masts) applied olive drab paint, out of the box - though again, that is only a theory of mine. It could still make sense that someone did happen to paint the mast black when the group markings were applied.)

***jankees*** · April 12th, 2012, 14:20

I finally found some time to look at Maggie again, and here are a few more wip shots (still forgot the aerial):

What do you think, looking better?

***roger-wilco-66*** · April 13th, 2012, 07:18

Wow, another masterpiece!
Great work!

Cheers,
Mark

***jankees*** · April 14th, 2012, 08:20

forgot to mention that it is now downloadable on OZx, so if you have the Little Friends 2 package, give Maggie a try, and post a screenshot here?

***Bomber_12th*** · April 14th, 2012, 08:40

Thank you Jan Kees! And I've been meaning to say, great job recreating the nose art! It's always awesome to see these aircraft, from black and white photos, 're-born' in color.