N.A. P51C Mustang III

Wurger said:

And here another pic of the Mustang I found some time ago. Source - "Polish aces of World War II"

Click to expand...

It is not a photograph of FB353, the markings are similar but not the same. The authors' suggestion is that it belonged to Szymański not Majewski.

I think it is the FB353. L.Majewski shot down 5 and 1/2 of V-1 missiles only . In the pic and the pic of PK-H it can be seen seven victory markings over V-1s. There is the one pilot of 316 Squadron only who shot down more than 6 V-1s, W/O Szymański Tadeusz , 8 victories.

Source... Zestrzelenia lataj?cych bomb V-1

Sweet looking Mustang.

Wurger said:

I think it is the FB353. L.Majewski shot down 5 and 1/2 of V-1 missiles only . In the pic and the pic of PK-H it can be seen seven victory markings over V-1s. There is the one pilot of 316 Squadron only who shot down more than 6 V-1s, W/O Szymański Tadeusz , 8 victories.

Source... Zestrzelenia lataj?cych bomb V-1

Click to expand...

As I have explained previously the markings on the two aircraft are similar but not the same. There are several very obvious differences. On the second aircraft the spacing between the markings is much further apart than FB353. On FB353 there are five V1 kills on the top row and two on the bottom row. On the other aircraft there are four on the top row and three on the bottom row. These are followed by four bombs, the last directly under the flare port. On FB353 there are twice that number and the last is just before the flare port. On FB353 the sixth V1 kill is directly under the cross at the start of the top row. Not so on the second aircraft. This is why the authors suggest it is Szymański's Mustang.

Similar marking are found on a number of photographs of 316 Squadron Mustangs.

The last photograph is from the left: F/Lt Marcisz, S/Lr Arct, F/Lt Majewski.

All sounds good Antoni. But we can't exclude that these victory markings were corrected later, especially that the second pic seems to be taken later than the first one with flying PK-H. Also the angle for taking both pics is different.What is more the removing the squadron emblem made some more free area for these next markings.
Anyway the model is finished now and the only mistake which can be notice easily is the Polish square under the exhaust pipes.

great model!

hi all

i had the honour of knowing Tadeusz (or Tadek as he preferred to be called) as my mother used to care for him in his later years at Whitlingham hospital in Norwich.

He was a character and a half, i can tell you! i wasn't very old, only about 10 or 11 but i used to love going up to Whitlingham on a Saturday and listen to some of his stories, and have a look at some of the squadron photos his wife used to bring in (im not sure if his wife is still alive, but she owned and ran a jewelers shop in Norwich, which i believe her son took over and still runs, however, i could be wrong on this as it has been 20 odd years since i saw either Tadek or his wife)

I remember he always told me he shot down 2 and a half FW190's! when i quizzically asked about the half he said that although he saw it go down and crash, nobody else did so it couldn't count as a confirmed kill. I also remember he used to tell me about one V1 (or divers as he used to call them) that just wouldn't go down, 3 or 4 times he tried tipping it with his wingtip (a method he said usually worked if done with the correct technique) before he finally manged to down it by sliding almost the whole of his wing under it and banking hard left, taking a big chunk of the wingtip off in the process.

He had two models beside his bed as i remember, one was a Spitfire (im assuming it was a mark 1 as that's what i think he flew in the early days of 316 Sqd) and one was a mustang, both of which were scratch build and hand painted by one of his sons with his recognition markings on. These letter were SZ-B and were used on both the spitfire and the mustang he flew.

The Mustang being an aircraft he shared with both Majewski (or 'L' as he simply called him) and another chap who's name for the life of me i cannot remember, as the mustangs were in incredibly short demand towards the later days of the war. His Mustang (the one he had at the side of his bed) was not marked with his kills, and i find it unlikely that the original aircraft was either as it was shared (towards the end of the war) however, i could be wrong on this as its only a personal opinion and not something i actually remember asking Tadek.

I hope this has helped somewhat, and on the subject of modelling (as i came across this whilst trying to find out where i could find a 1/24th decal set for a Mk1a spitfire with Tadeks marking) any ideas where i might be able to order a set? I'm hoping i can 'convert' so to speak, it from its original markings, to that which was flown by Tadek as a tribute to one of the most remarkable men i have ever met, and undoubtedly, one of the Polish Air Force's greatest V1 aces.

Any help will be greatfully recieved

Regards
Tam

Note : Edited due to poor grammar and spelling!

Good info and welcome to the mad house!
Not sure about 1/24th scale code letters, but you might find them at Hannant's web site. If not, then in this scale, masking and painting them wouldn't be too difficult. The easiest way would be to 'reverse mask', that is, paint the colour of the code letters first, then mask each letter by cutting the shapes from Tamiya masking tape. The camouflage colours can then be applied and, once dry, the masking tape can be removed to reveal the letters.
Hope this helps.

reverse masking! i love that idea! i'm definitely going to give that a shot.

I'm not usually an aircraft modeller (at least not since i was about 14 anyhoo!) i usually prefer 1/16th figures and 1/35th vehicles, but thought seeing i found the Mk1a Spitfire at a bargain price (£37 inc postage as i recall) i thought id give it a shot as i like high detail kits and the satisfaction you get when you look at it and think "thats pretty good actually!"

I havnt been able to locate any pics of Tadek's spitfire, although the pics of his mustang seem numerous, so if anyone has a pic of his spitfire for reference for any individual markings etc., then that also would be handy.

regards
Tam

Nicely done!