**** DONE: P-51D "Millie G" Lt. Col. E. B. Giller 343rd FS - Aircraft of the Aces GB

[T Bolt]

Nice one mate! This is mine.....

Real nice Jan! Did you use the Aero Master decals? How did the chesks aroung the nose go?

 

[Lucky13]

Same decals as you mate indeed..... Didn't have any problems at all with any of the decals, all worked fine as I remember.

 

[brucejscott]

Nice Jan!

 

[T Bolt]

I was looking at an old book I have had in my bookcase for over 20 years "North American F-51 Mustangs in Latin American Air Force Service by John Dienst Dan Hagedorn". It made for some interesting reading, and then in the appendix listing all the Dominican Republic F-51s and their ultimate fate, there it was:

FAD 1914 P-51D-20-Na/J-26 44-72123, RSwAF26092 ……..Survived 32 years service and now displayed at San Isidro on a plinth outside the FAD base there. A very distinguished aircraft, it is also an 8th AF veteran, formerly coded CY+G The Millie G with the 55th FG, 343rd FS with nine confirmed kills.

WOW! I could not believe it. First thing I did was to find it on a satellite picture, and that's the first pic below. Then followed an internet search that found the remaining pictures, and the following history:

1945: 20th January - delivered USAAF "Millie G" 343rd FS, 55th FG, coded CY G
flown by Maj. Ed Giller
1946: 16th Dec. to Sweden RSwAF 26092 wing F4, coded P rK, E bG
1952: sold to Dominican AF became FAD 1914
1984: withdrawn from service, on display at San Isidro AB
2002: reconditioning for display: painted to its original "Escuadron de Cazas Ramfis" scheme of 1952 at San Isisdro AFB, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2002: 25th July, re-mounted on pole at San Isisdro AFB

So the Millie G went from The USAAF to the Swedish air force, than was one of 42 Mustangs Sweden sold to the Dominican Republic (must ask Jan about this) where it served until 1984, and is still there, mounted on a pole!

 

[Lucky13]

Waaaayyyyyy cooool!!

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

Very cool.


Wheels

 

[Airframes]

Great find Glenn ! Pity it can't be replaced by a less 'valuable' airframe, and returned to the USA for display as the original 'Millie G'. Wonder if the USAF Museum would do a swap ?!?

 

[brucejscott]

That is so WILD!

 

[Wayne Little]

Wow thats some story....

 

[Crimea_River]

Great detective work Glenn.

 

[Andy70]

What a great story!

 

[T Bolt]

I can't believe that out of the 15,269 Mustangs made, the one I've chosen to model is one of a couple of hundred survivors at most, and that I should just happen to come across that info by chance at this time in a book that I've had for 20 years, but haven't actually read until now. Someone want to quote me the odds on that!

…………… Pity it can't be replaced by a less 'valuable' airframe, and returned to the USA for display as the original 'Millie G'. Wonder if the USAF Museum would do a swap ?!?

According to that book, the 43 Mustangs were bought from Sweden for $300,000. Then in 1984, the remaining airworthy 12 aircraft were sold to Johnson Aviation in the U.S. That price tag was also $300,000. It would be poetic justice if it took another $300,000 to get the last one home.
I would say it's a safe bet to say that most of those 12 (if not all) are flying Warbirds today. Somewhere I have a Warbird directory in which I was going to try to track down those 12, but it has disappeared. Probably somewhere on the "Color pics For a Model I'm Building" thread.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good one Glenn.

 

[Airframes]

He He !

 

[T Bolt]

I've made a start, working on it a little here and there over the last couple of weeks, but haven't posted anything up until now because it didn't seem like there was much progress to show, but here's where I'm at to date. There is still a lot of detail painting to be done.

I've come up with the idea of maybe building this same aircraft as it looked with the Dominican AF in the mid 1950s as FAD 1914 for the upcoming Aircraft in Foreign Service Group Build. I've began playing around with a graphics program to see if I could make the decals and it looks promising so far. I'll post it when I've done a little more work on it.

 

[Lucky13]

 

[Geedee]

Glenn...just stumbled (got to get the entrance step to this site sorted out !!!) on your build.

Thought you might find the attached useful. Took these at Ezell Aviation when I went to the CAF Airsho with Tony back in 2008. She had suffered a belly landing earlier...note bent prop...and was in for some TLC.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice start Glenn!

Nice shots Gary!

 

[hub]

Off to a good start Glenn!
Looking forward to seeing this one finished

Mike

 

[T Bolt]

Great shots Gary! And very timely too since I'm painting the details on the cockpit walls next. The pics will be a big help. Now I have to figure out a way to put that yellow line on the control panel!