Background:
During a business trip to Greensboro, North
Carolina I was surprised to see the airport full with blue nosed P-51 replicas.
Some were even hanging from the roof and were quite large (1/4th?).
Walking around I found a display of pictures of
a Mustang pilot along with 4 x 1/48th beautiful planes. When I
approached the display, a senior gentleman approached me and we started to talk
about how good it was that the heritage was being preserved in such a good way.
He explained to me who George Preddy was and I was able to buy the last copy of his
biography in the airport Bookstore!
I then discovered that Preddy is the
top-scoring Mustang with almost 27 victories (24 in Mustangs) and that was
killed in a friendly incident by American anti-aircraft fire during the Battle of
the Bulge. It still calls my attention that, as
famous as the Mustang is, you barely hear about Preddy. He is not sung as
Gabreski, Johnson or Bong. Yet, he is the top scoring pilot in the famous
(arguably the best fighter plane of WWII) North American P-51 Mustang…
I
therefore decided to get in touch with the author of the book, Joe Noah. He put
me in touch with Sam Sox and I bought Hasegawa’s Blue Nose Mustang. As the
decals are not great and have several mistakes, Sam got me the Eagle Decals #100
set. Amazing set, with a nice book full of pictures and drawings. And by the
way, I was told by Joe that the gentleman at the airport is one of Preddy’s
youth friends, Otto Gaskins, who is there trying to keep George’s memory
alive. What a friend!
For
more information about the Preddy Brothers, please check www.preddy-foundation.org
Building the Mustang:
Following
the directions from the Eagle Decals book, it is very easy to understand the
modifications required.
The
Hasegawa Mustangs goes together really easy. The only modification required is to
cover the holes in the little panels under the nose. A little bit of filler in
some areas and that’s it!
Click on
images below to see larger images
I decided to use Alclad II for the first time,
as I wanted to give the plane the best shinny finish possible. So once the kit
was assembled, I sprayed it completely with gloss black enamel.
Then I painted the red rudder and masked it
along with the blue nose area to use it later as a guide to paint it.
After
practicing for a few minutes on a broken plane, I started to work with Alclad on
the Mustang. AMAZING! I could not believe my eyes. It was as good and shinny as
the models I see in Internet. The only problem: you have to have a perfect flat
surface cause the imperfections really show…and my undercoat of gloss black
had several…
The nose was masked, leaving
the black enamel exposed to be painted in gloss dark blue Humbrol enamel. Very
carefully I painted the blue nose, the spinner and the oversprayed base of the
propellers.
Click on
images below to see larger images
After removing the masking tape, I applied the
numbers on the rudder and the nose. Then I realized I had not left the black ID
strips on, so I had to mask the area and give a new coat of black to make them.
All the decals where applied and once dry, I
very carefully masked the area around the blue nose, black stripes and red
rudder and gave them a coat of matt varnish.
Finally, all the little details were added. For
the position lights, I mixed Future and a small drop of red/yellow or blue
acrylic paint. I am very happy with the new “clear” colors.
As a side note, only some
days ago I received an email from Joe telling me that I have glued the lading
gear doors backwards. I will have to fix them soon!
Click on
images below to see larger images
Conclusion:
I
am not a fan of the Mustang (Hurries, Spits, 109s and 190s but over all
Argentine Skyhawks and Mirages), but the story behind the plane and the pilot,
plus the encounter with Otto and kindness of Joe and Sam deserved a model.
Hope
you find it interesting and read about the exploits of the Preddy Brothers.
Pablo
|