P-51D "Old Crow"

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Iam making a 1/48 model of Bud Anderson’s “Old Crow” P-51D - the NMF one. As I understand the story, Bud’s ground crew stayed up all night stripping the OD paint off his plane with rags and gasoline so it would be silver.

My question is this: since the g/c stripped all the paint off with gasoline, etc., would that have also eliminated all the “lift here”, “no step” and other stencilings on the a/c? Or, would they have re-applied them after stripping the OD green from it?

I’ve noticed in the picture of him sitting on the wing of this plane that the last 4 numbers of the tail number have been stenciled on the engine panels, but I’m not sure as to the other markings? I checked out the modleing section on the Old Crow web site, but found no answers to my questions there. Anybody know if I should apply all the stenciling or not?

Thanks, John

2

Took the paint off at HIS request? If so the crew chief should have shown him where the rags were and said “have at it L T, my guys are busy enough”.

3

From p. 150 of “to Fly and Fight”, speaking of the ground crew stripping his plane:

"No one asked them to do that! No one expected it. No one ever asked or expected them to change the spark plugs after each mission, either. Not every crew did that. But they did. . . "

Besides that - it was CAPTAIN Anderson at that time.

Now, back to my original question - small stenciling on or off?

Thanks again!

4

Great book I have read it more than once. Great man and pilot. That is a very good question. Crew that would take that good of care of their plane might just be that detail orientated to reapply all of those stencils. Normally I would think that the answer would be no. I know if I was the crew chief I would not bother. These guys seemed pretty dedicated though. Another good question is did they even provide them with stencils to reapply lost markings during normal repairs. If they did’nt would they have the time to cut out the stencils? Would’nt it be nice to here from someone who was there actually servicing these aircraft? Good luck in your quest I to would like to know. I often leave of some of the little stencils on aircraft that I weather assuming they would have been oblitorated by normal service. Any experten out there?

Soulcrusher

5

If they stripped the paint off, they probably only reapplied the neccesary warnings, like the data placard, a few no steps, etc. I want to read the books so bad, I read Yeager’s and loved it. Those two were a great pair.

6

Well, I remembered that I had Bud Anderson’s son’s e-mail address, so I e-mailed him and asked him if he could ask his dad for us. Below is his reply:

John, A good question. I have found is doing research on all the different 357th FG Mustangs, that a photo is just a shot in time. The very next day, the plane could have been painted differently or modified somehow. My father does not remember if all the markings were put back on. I have supplied two links below. The first one is several shots of the silver Old Crow it appears there are no markings on the fuselage. The second photo is an end of tour photo of my father sitting on the wing of Old Crow. You will note that the engine panels now have 4450 on them, so they would not be mixed up with another mustang during maintenace. My best guess is that the other markings were slowly added back on the plane after it was stripped of the green paint. However, it is your model and however you paint it, will be OK. Please send us photo of your three models when they are done and we will add them into the Gallery of 357th FG Mustangs. Thanks for your interest in my father. Best wishes, Jim http://www.cebudanderson.com/ http://www.cebudanderson.com/budphoto1.htm http://www.cebudanderson.com/autographed_photos.htm<<