George Preddy's P-51D 'Cripes A'Mighty 3rd'

[drgondog]

PART II

The lowered port flaps also shows that the red step marking is visible. Fuel full points are indicated with the use of red caps on the fuselage side and upper wings. The flare port, visible below the canopy as a circular opening on the fuselage side, shows evidence of discoloration around it.

Figure 12 shows that the aircraft now has 23 victory markings on the nose. This would date the photos to a period between sometime July 21, 1944 and July 28, 1944. This assumption is made based on the fact that Preddy claimed a Bf-109 on July 29, that would see 23 crosses on the nose of his P-51.

Examination of the Figure 12 also reveals that the staff of the aircraft letter "P" has been lengthened. The black type ID band has also been removed from the rudder and upper surfaces of the horizontal tail. The band on the lower horizontal surfaces remained intact. The drop tanks were seen with unique artwork applied by the ground crew.

Figure 13 shows the face painted on the left drop tank. The colors are believed to be white and red. McVay and Kuhaneck also added their names. The right side drop tank also carried artwork see in figure 14. Unfortunately, no information is known about the appearance of the right sides of the drop tanks.

Cripes A'Mighty 3rd would ultimately display 31 white outline German crosses on its nose. In Part, this was due to the conflict on August 6th when Preddy would destroy 6 Bf-109's in one mission. That number reflected the 26 air and 5 ground kills that he claimed.

Figure 15 shows heavy exhaust staining on the fuselage covering the upper portion of the data stencil. Minor leaks are visible from the spinner. Otherwise, all other markings remained intact.

No discussion about George Preddy and his P-51 can be complete without mentioning his ground crew. Sgt. M.G. Kuhaneck would be commended for maintaining the vital firepower of this P-51. Preddy would never encounter a jammed weapon in combat. Under the supervision of S/Sgt. Lew Lunn and Cpl. J.J "red" McVay, Preddy never aborted a mission due to mechanical failure. Without their skills, it is arguable that Preddy would have never achieved his impressive results.

END.

Figure 12 = 5th pic down on page 3
Figure 13 = 10th pic down on page 3 (drop tanks)
Figure 14= 10th pic on page 3
Figure 15= 11th pic down on page 3

A note- frequently the scores would not be added until after 8th VCB confirmed the credit, so a July 29 victory migh not show up for 6 weeks or so, but if the pilot was confident of a Destroyed rather than a Probable he might tell his crew chief to add it the same day.

I know from the pics of my fathers Mustangs, that the victory symbols didn't show up for at least one to two weeks.

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks very much for the info Bill! It is very much appreciated!

 

[B-17engineer]

Since no Machine Guns were supplied in the kit... I have to make my own. Since I won't be opening anything up, stretched Sprue will do.

Pics later!

 

[B-17engineer]

Between looking at books for pics for other guys threads, and the Blue nosed bastards.... I got quite a bit done.

No machine guns were provided to I stretched some sprue.

Glued the guns in with CA glue.

Let those set for 20-30 minutes. Sanded the ends so they were even.

Sprayed the propeller cap. I think I did a good job on paint color

and then began fitting/gluing wings.

 

[Wurger]

Looking very nice. Especially these barrels. Well done H ~.

 

[Airframes]

Good progress H. Don't forget, once the spinner, back plate and prop go together, you'll have to re-paint the spinner, to cover the joint.
I always assumed this was the Monogram kit, re-boxed, seeing as Revell and Monogram are the same company, but it's not. It looks like the Otaki or Fujimi kit. Strange; the Monogram kit had separate lower cowling, and separate gun hatch covers, with guns and ammo belts provided.

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks Wojtek and Terry

Thanks for the pointer Terry!

 

[Crimea_River]

I thought it was the Monagram one too. Continuing the nice work H!

Harrison, the machine guns on the Mustang were staggered so that the feed chutes didn't clash with each other. The tip of the inner guns were actually inside the wing leading edge and all that stuck out was a sleeve. See pic.

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks Andy! So I'll just sand them down a bit. Well the inner one and the middle ones.

Shouldn't be too hard, will probably do that later if time is permitting.

 

[Airframes]

Good point - I forgot to mention that! This is what sometimes leads to people thinking the inner guns were sometimes removed. The blast tubes, or 'sleeves,' on the inner guns normally ended (on period aircraft) just level with the wing fairing, which, in certain lighting conditions, gave the appearance of an empty gun position, as the muzzle itself was in shadow. As these blast tubes were often oversprayed when the wing was 'sealed', making them look 'silver', it made the illusion even stronger.

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks for the info T

 

[B-17engineer]

Been living on the workbench the past few days........I am actually loving my P-51...

Pics later in the week.... I just won't have time.

 

[dirkpitt289]

You're really cruising with this one Harrison. Looking good

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks... 6 day weekend= lots of paint (done recently) and glue.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Wow H those seat harnesses look fantastic and your doing a great job on the other bits, guns are good to, but tell me, did you drill out the exhausts?

 

[B-17engineer]

Yes I did.

Thanks also

 

[B-17engineer]

After doing the aluminum paint and the blue nose yesterday I began painting the white areas for where the invasion stripes are going.

It's coming out REAAAAALL good.

 

[B-17engineer]

Need more white paint and thinner

Shes on hold for a bit then.

 

[Lucky13]

Looking bl**dy good H!

 

[DBII]

Nice progress H

DBII