1/48 Hasegawa P-51D Mustang

Gallery Article by David Walker on June 10 2010

 

P-51D Mustang - Cripes A’Mighty 3rd

The incentive to build this exact model came from owning a mirror with the image of Cripes A‘Mighty 3rd, which I won at a fairground years ago.

As famous as the Mustang is, you barely hear about Preddy. Yet, he is the top scoring pilot in the North American P-51D Mustang.

Preddy's second P-51 serial no. 413-321 was one of the first bubbletop Ds delivered to the 352nd FG and carried the name "CRIPES A'MIGHTY 3rd".

This is one of the most recognisable P-51s of the war as it was photographed at several publicity photo sessions of Preddy with his groundcrew staged after his famous six 109 kills in one day on 6th August 1944.

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Colour paintings and black & white photos suggest the colour of the nose to be a light shade of medium blue, (much lighter than the standard dark blue worn by most of the "Blue-Nose" Mustangs of the 352nd FG in late 1944/early 1945). "CRIPES A'MIGHTY 3rd" was an "early" P-51D, easily identified by the lack of the fin-fillet at the fuselage/tail join, and wore an overall natural-metal finish. With Allied air superiority camouflage became a minor issue for pilots and many fighter aircraft were stripped of their camouflage schemes or left in their natural-metal delivery finish.

Modellers should use any of the Hasegawa P-51D/K kits as the base for "CRIPES A'MIGHTY 3rd", and any other "early" D, as the fuselage parts have been specifically tooled for easy removal of the fin fillet plastic. 

I used the excellent Eagle Cals Decal 1/48 Set for this model which also comes with a superb 24 page booklet which provides all the modelling and painting detail and decals for any of the different aircraft that George Peddy flew .This is well worth the money for the great detail it gave me.

I also used the superb Resin ULTRACAST Engine exhausts which provide much better detail and are already hollowed out , plus the poor Hasegawa Pilots Seat was replaced with the ULTRACAST Mustang Seat ( without Moulded on seatbelts ) as I prefer to attach the Eduard Seatbelts for extra realism.

I used the Eduard Photoetch set throughout (which is one of their very best in my opinion ) and this made a huge difference to the Model , for painting I used the Alclad paint with an unglossy surface , as I wanted this aircraft to look weathered through hard use . I first of all built the cockpit then assembled the model , and covered the fuselage with Black Paint Undercoat , then applied the Natural Metal finish Overcoat Alclad Paint.

I used paint masks to apply the underside D-Day Markings to the underside of the aircraft , as the decals provided are less easily to weather.

I finally applied the accurate decals from Eagle Cals and the stencils provided by Hasegawa , and the Model was finished.

I recommend the book “ George Preddy “ by Noah and Sox for a full biography and combat record of this wartime pilot.

David Walker

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Photos and text © by David Walker