1/72 RS Models P-51H Mustang   Vermont ANG part 3

Gallery Article by Andrew Desautels  (a.k.a. "Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy")  

 

      

The Vermont Air National Guard was founded in 1947 as the 134th Fighter Squadron. Based in Burlington, Vermont, they were tasked with a primary mission of air defense of the Northeastern United States, and a secondary mission of ground attack. 

In 2015 I decided to undertake the building of their entire aircraft history in 1/72, as they are based in my birth city. This was ambitious since no decals exist for most of their aircraft as of this writing, leaving me to test the limits of my resourcefulness. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The third mount of the “Green Mountain Boys” was the P-51H Mustang, receiving just a small number of airframes in 1952 and operating them through 1954. Designed near the end of WW2, the Mustang’s “H” variant was completely redesigned from the legendary “D” model, but entered service too late to see combat. Instead, many of them ended up serving in ANG units. 

I used the 1/72 RS Models kit and did it mostly OOB; I encountered nothing overly tricky in the construction. 

As with most of the Vermont aircraft, no decals exist in any scale for their Mustangs that I am aware of. Much of it was improvised from the excellent kit decals by rearranging the serial numbers to match existing photos of a Vermont “H”, then using generic lettering decals for the "VT ANG" on the fuselage. 

Next time is Vermont ANG part 4: T-33A Shooting Stars.

Andrew Desautels

Photos and text © by Andrew Desautels