P-51D questions

[VIPER0177]

Working on Tamiyas 1/32 kit. Gonna finish it as Big Beautiful Doll. My questions are which drop tanks were more common the paper or metal ones and what color would the tail wheel assembly be?

[DonSS3]

For the drop tanks, I'd just start flipping through your references and just do a mental comparison of which tank is more common. Even looking on line may be useful.

For the tail landing gear, I'd go with aluminum.

Also give these sites a look:

http://p51sig.ipbfree.com/index.php?

http://www.mustang.gaetanmarie.com/index.htm

http://www.swissmustangs.ch/index2.html

http://www.cebudanderson.com/

[anotherP51nut]

The choice of drop tank depended on the length of the mission. The paper tank was bigger (108 gals) than the metal tank (75 gals), but it was also lighter and easier to handle. It was also produced in the UK and readily available, and didn't utilize strategic raw material. You can see both types hung from the wings of 78th FG Mustangs. Little Friends is a great site which is dedicated to 8AF Fighter Command and is a wealth of information and images. Here is the link to the 78th Fighter Group gallery:

Little Friends - 78th FIghter Group Gallery

The tail gear assembly should be natural metal/aluminum.

Cheers,

Richard

Edited February 29, 2012 by anotherP51nut

[Jennings]

All gear struts were painted. Never natural metal. Most P-51Ds and Ks had painted aluminum struts. The only part of a gear strut that's unfinished is the oleo strut.

[anotherP51nut]

You're right of course Jennings. I was referring to the question of the colour and gave a lazy answer that could be misinterpreted. Yours gave the complete picture.

Richard

[seawinder]

All gear struts were painted. Never natural metal. Most P-51Ds and Ks had painted aluminum struts. The only part of a gear strut that's unfinished is the oleo strut.

Since almost no plastic kits have parts that are aluminum colored, the advice to do the struts aluminum would most likely imply painting, no?

[Jennings]

"Painted aluminum" means painted with aluminum colored paint. In other words, metallic (very, very slightly in scale) silver paint. In actual fact, the finish was a clear carrier to which a certain amount of aluminum powder was added per gallon. The same basic finish is still used in many places in the aircraft industry today.

[dnl42]

There are some shots over in historylink101 here, here, and here.

HTH :)

[Jennings]

How nice of them not to charge royalties on images they don't own in the first place :) I love the internets.