P-51D-20-NA, L.E. Curdes, "Bad Angel"

[dnl42]

Here is P-51D, "Bad Angel". Flown by L.E. Curdes. Lt. Col. Curdes flew in the ETO and PTO. He is noted for having downed German, Italian, Japanese, and, um, an American aircraft. 

 

This is the Airfix 1/48 F-51D boxing, CAM's Thoroughbred Mustang decals, and Eduard's Brassin exhaust stack for the Airfix kit. Paint is Mr Color with Alclad for some details.

 

Here's Wikipdeia's description of the event leading to the American kill marking.

Quote

On February 10, Curdes, now a Lieutenant, formed a squadron of four aircraft that departed from Mangaldan Airfield in the Philippines. Their objective was to investigate if the Japanese were using a temporary air strip on the southern tip of Taiwan. No airfield could be found and Curdes returned to the Philippines. Flying over the island of Batan, the squadron split; Curdes and Lieutenant Schmidtke headed north, while Lieutenants Scalley and La Croix headed south.

 

Scalley and La Croix located a small Japanese airfield and attacked it and also called for reinforcements; Curdes and Schmidtke headed south to join them.

 

During the attack on the airfield, La Croix was shot down and made an emergency landing in the sea. As the squadron circled, Curdes could see that his companion had survived, and remained in the area to guide a rescue plane and protect the downed pilot. While covering La Croix, Curdes noticed a larger plane was preparing to land at the Batan airfield. He went to investigate and found the aircraft to be Douglas C-47 transport with US insignia. Curdes tried to make contact by radio, but was not successful. He maneuvered his P-51 in front of the plane several times trying to get the C-47 to alter course, but the C-47 maintained its course.

 

Curdes lined up his P-51 directly behind the C-47 and fired his .50 caliber machine guns into one of the C-47s two engines, causing it to fail. The C-47 still maintained its course for the Batan's airfield so Curdes then disabled the remaining engine forcing the pilot to ditch in the sea. The plane successfully ditched without breaking up, and the crew was able to evacuate into a lifeboat. La Croix approached and was brought on board the C-47's life raft, where he was informed about the situation. The plane had apparently been lost in poor weather and its radio had stopped working. As it was also running out of fuel, the pilot headed directly to the island's airstrip, unaware that it was under Japanese control.

 

At this point, the dusk and low level of fuel of the P-51 forced Curdes to return to base. The next morning, he accompanied the rescue PBY to pick up the downed C-47 pilot and 11 crew members, including two nurses, all of whom had survived the incident. To Curdes's surprise, he discovered that one of the nurses, named Svetlana Valeria Shostakovich Brownell, was a woman with whom he had had a date the night before the incident. Contrary to subsequent reports, Curdes did not receive a Distinguished Flying Cross for that event, although he did receive credit for the "Kill" and displayed it on his aircraft.

 

And here's a photo of Curdes and his bride, Svetlana Valeria Shostakovich Brownell. How many husbands can claim they shot their future bride out of the sky?

 

A photo of the prototype; a color youtube video is also available.

 

Without further ado, here's the finished model.

 

And here's the reason for this build, those amazing kill markings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AlienFrogModeller]

Nice!

[Whiskey]

Man I must have been bit by the Airfix and P-51 bugs at the right time cause there are some real beauties being posted today! Fantastic looking Mustang.

[dnl42]

@AlienFrogModeller and @Whiskey, thanks!

 

The kit's generally well done and builds nicely. I mean, I didn't make too much of a mess of it! There are some small improvements that can be made. The seat side braces and canopy frame can be thinned down; the latter can also be drilled out. The Eduard Brassin exhausts are a nice touch. 

 

The one thing that annoys me are the inner MLG doors. They only build in the fully down position, which isn't the most accurate. But, that's a nit. They got the MLG wells right!

[Whiskey]

I forgot I saw your build thread over on BM. Added it to my bookmarks for pointers on making it look as good as I can get it.