Mustang experts wanted

[barkin mad]

Would anyone happen to know what the general consensus was when it came to painting P-51 Mustangs in the field with N. grey / Lt grey or Med sea grey undersides. Did the grey extend into the radiator tunnel/walls? If not, where did it stop? Wheel wells the same? (though I suspect they remained in the factory finish)

 

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[Buckmeister]

Did you know that every Mustang was shipped from the factory with a set of canvas snap-in wheel well liners and tail wheel boot?  And I’m told that the well well liners were regularly used to help keep junk out of the inside of the wings.

[barkin mad]

Interesting, no I didn't, something you almost never see in models. I guess because the ground crew found them a nuisance.

 

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[Buckmeister]

According to a family friend who was a 354th FG P-51 crew chief (who passed on a few years ago at age 98!), he always installed the liners in his airplane.  Since UK based aircraft flew from improved fields, not dusty/muddy strips like in other areas, they weren’t strictly necessary, but he said they helped keep the airplane clean.  He said he thought they were probably pretty widely used in places where they were operating from less well prepared strips like Italy and the coral strips in the Pacific.