P-51 rc plane restoration for museum and tribute to Bill Getz

[davegee]

Hi All: I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I look forward to chatting with others with similar interests as me on this forum in the future.

Briefly, I have been involved with large model building for many years, a lot of it scratchbuilt, or partially scratchbuilt models. Several of my works are of spacecraft and rockets and have been donated and are on display at museums around the USA, including the NASM in Washington, DC.

My current project is restoring an old 1/4 scale rc P-51D plane to look like the plane flown by my friiend Col. Bill Getz (USAF, ret) iwith the 2nd Air Division Scouting Forces. The plane was in dire shape, and I have been working on it steadily since March. However, it is now nearing completion as a replica of Saucy Shirley, Bill's mount with the 2nd Scouting Forces.

The ultimate plan is to install this plane in the Spirit of Flight Center at the Erie, Colorado airport at 11am on Saturday, September 24. Bill and his wife Vicki are flying out from California to attend this ceremony honoring him, his service to our country, and his plane. Incidentally, Bill shot down an Me-262 jet during his tour with this outfit.

I would be happy to discuss this subject at any level with anyone interested in it. I can attach pics of the rebuilding of this large model (98" wingspan) or any other subject matter of interest to readers.

Cheers,

Davegee

 

[vikingBerserker]

Welcome aboard Dave and please by all means post pics of your work!

 

[Airframes]

Welcome, and looking forward to the pics. It sounds a large beastie !

 

[davegee]

Thanks, guys. Anything 98" long will find its way to bumping into walls, floors, furniture, etc., anytime you try to move it! The plane has some serious scale errors, probably done to make it more stable for flying, but I think the final work will at least be presentable to be a nice tribute to my friend Bill and his squadron mates in the Scouts.

I'm out of the country where I normally live right now (USA) but once I get home, I'll post some pics for you all to see who are interested. I look forward to talking with many of you down the road!

Cheers,

Davegee

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Dave, look forward to seeing the pics.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Cannot wait to see them.

 

[davegee]

Cannot wait to see them.

Hi All: I am going to try and send a few photos of the rebuild and restoration at a time. I received the hulk of this former flying rc plane back in March. It was in pretty sad shape..

There were several planes and parts in a trailer. Someone had donated several rc planes to the museum. I took the best P-51 fuselage, and two wings. The wings were both 98" wingspan, but to two different kits. I chose to keep the wing that the gear could be fully retracted inside the wells, but this was not the one that came with the fuselage. It took a lot of work to be able to fit the two dissimilar kits together.

 

[davegee]

Hi All: I was having some problems uploading more pics, so if you go to my photobucket link, you can see them. As I progress on the model, I'll add more pics. Here's the link: Pictures by davegee_photos - Photobucket

When you get to the page, look for an album entitled P-51D Saucy Shirley. There are other projects and models on this page that might or might not be of interest to the view.

davegee

 

[Geedee]

Another '51 being restored (hopefully to flight status ?) fantastic.

Any intention on replacing the prop with a 'four blader' ?

And sorry Dave, welcome to the family !

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Dave, it usually works better if you use the Manage Attachments button in the Go Advance post reply section. Photo bucket and Flicker cause some issues with the site if I'm not mistaken. So if you'll just up load the photos directly from your computer after resizing them to the correct size (600x400 I think is the correct size) you should be able to upload without any problems. Oh, and welcome to the forum sir. Excellent work to by the way.

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

800 x 600 is the image size maximum.
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/announcements/image-sizing-guidelines-24388.html

Cool pictures Dave.


Wheels

 

[davegee]

Thanks, guys. I will try to resize them and put them directly onto the site. I have ordered the vinyl stencils for applying the squadron codes and stars and bars, so some good pics should be uploaded fairly soon.

Thanks all for your interest in this project.

davegee

 

[davegee]

Hi Gary: the flying days of this airplane are over, unfortunately. The structure is not really suited for flying anymore, and it will be a permanent display hanging from the ceiling of the Spirit of Flight Center in Erie, Colorado, near Denver. But I am hoping it will be a fitting tribute to both Bill Getz and all his squadronmates of the 2nd Division Scouting Forces, which operated out of Steeple Morden, England.

davegee

 

[davegee]

Hi All: I have tried to downsize the size of some pics I just added to this thread. I hope this works. I am going to paint on the stars and bars, noseart, and tail and squadron insignia on Sunday. Will upload pics when this is successful.

davegee

 

[vikingBerserker]

Nice!

 

[drgondog]

Dave - another thought. The rudder was made of fabric, doped and painted. The paint would wash out to the point that it is awfully difficult to decide faded silver, near silver gray but flat when compared with rest of wing.

Second factor - all P-51s had a zinc chromate like (Not sure of actual primer) primer applied to top surface of the wing then finished with a silver paint which 'looked like', but was not, aluminum.

 

[davegee]

Hi All: Today was the "rollout" of the mostly completed Saucy Shirley model. I still have to add the 110 gal. drop tanks that are presently being manufactured by a friend for me this month. Once those are completed and installed, the airplane will be ready for installation in the Spirit of Flight Center on Saturday, September 24 in Erie, Colorado at l11 am. Anyone interested in attending, please come and welcome Bill Getz and the model his plane he flew in WWII!

 

[davegee]

Thanks for those detail suggestions. I did try to replicate the rudder, although it might not look like it in the photos. I painted the rudder a flat aluminum color to simulate the dope silver fabric on the tail. In person, I think it looks fairly close to what I was trying to convey.

As far as the wing goes, I am aware that the wing was painted aluminum color, but I did the best I could on this to make it look something like that. I tried to make the flaps and ailerons look a little brighter, to convey that they were fabricated out of aluminum sheeting. Hopefully it looks fairly realistic when it is viewed in the museum.

d

 

[drgondog]

Dave - you did a great job, I know Bill is very pleased!

If you feel like one more 'touch' that many people miss, add the stencil "4371" below the exhaust stack on left and ride side of the nose per the photo of Bill

 

[davegee]

That is a great suggestion, and I am happy to report that it is already done on this airplane. I tried to add as many little details that make this airplane complete.
Good eye on noticing that detail!

Dave