Richard L.

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I have read several positive reviews on the H9 .60 size Mustang by the various reviewers and casual flyers alike, so I decided to get this plane and check it out for myself.

Since I always prefer my plane to wear a different color scheme than everybody else's at the field, I decided to recover the plane in one of my favorite schemes: Tuskegee Creamer's Dream.





Some background info on the Tuskegee Airmen:


To the bomber crews they escorted over Germany, the men of the 332nd Fighter Group, Fifteenth Air Force, were distinguised by the red tails worn by their P-51 Mustangs. To the rest of the US Army, the Tuskegee Airmen were distinguished as the first all-African-American fighter group to see combat.

The 99th Fighter Squadron arrived in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations during April of 1943 and flew P-40Fs and Ls while attached to the 33rd, 79th, and 324th Fighter Groups. In February of 1944, the three combat elements of the 332nd, the 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, arrived in Italy. They were initially issued hand-me-down P-39's and flew mainly coastal patrols, finally receiving P-47 Thunderbolts in April and May. They flew the Jugs for about a month before sufficient numbers of P-51 Mustangs arrived to outfit the entire Group in June, 1944. By that time, the 99th FS had rejoined its parent unit based at Ramitelli, Italy. The Thunderbolts were actually the first Tuskegee aircraft to fly with red tails, but it was with the Mustangs that the 332nd built its reputation. Each squadron was identified by its plane-in-group numbers and by different colored trim tabs on all three tail surfaces.

Prior to transferring from the tactical Twelfth Air Force to the strategic Fifteenth in May 1944, the Tuskegees flew mostly close air support, patrol, and armed reconnaissance missions. With the change of assignment, their primary mission became bomber escort. Although the 99th and 332nd destroyed or damaged a total of 409 enemy aircraft in the air or on the ground, their proudest achievement was never having lost a friendly bomber under their protection to enemy aircraft.

Edit: added background info

Richard L.

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I first stripped the factory yellow from the tail feathers and recovered them in UltraCote deep red. The red color on the real Tuskeegee P-51D is insignia red, which is a fairly deep red, so UltraCote deep red is a pretty close match.

Richard L.

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Since I will be using a YS 110FZ in the nose, chances are the plane will require tail weight. I have a carbon fiber rod in the vertical fin and another carbon fiber rod through the entire span of the rear stab to add some weight and rigidity to them. I forgot to snap some pictures of the rods in place before covering up the vertical fin and the rear stab, however.

Richard L.

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Next, I stripped the yellow from the rear of the fuselage. I would need to recover the front lower half of the exposed area in silver first, and then the rear upper half in deep red.

Richard L.

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By the way, special thanks to MinnFlyer for his excellent tutorials and tips on covering in the "Questions and Answers" forum: [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Covering_Videos/m_1939180/tm.htm]Covering Videos[/link]

This is my very first attempt at covering a plane structure with heat shrinkable film.

Richard L.

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Since the factory applied red around the front of the cowl was a brighter shade of red, I had to mask the cowl off and spray a coat of UltraCote deep red over the stock red. I also sprayed the spinners and let them sit for several days since UltraCote paint can take a long time to cure.

Richard L.

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Some pictures showing the rear of the fuselage after covering:

Richard L.

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Tailwheel in place. I'm going to keep the servos in the rear because I will need tail weight.

Richard L.

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Next, the invasion stripes were removed from the wing and a pair of yellow orange ID stripes added. Robart 551RS 85° air retracts and Robart 7/16" diameter offset oleo struts also bolted in place. The nice thing about these retracts is that they accept oleo legs directly without the use of 3/16" wire stub between the pivot block and the oleo leg.

Richard L.

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Wingtips covered in UltraCote deep red:

Richard L.

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Since the fuel tank will be mounted over the CG (the beauty of a YS 4-stroke), a plug was made out of balsa to fill up the hole in the firewall:

Richard L.

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Engine mounted. I went with nylon engine mount instead of stock aluminum mount to save around 2.7 oz of nose weight:

Richard L.

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Valve cover hole and air exit hole cut out from the cowl:

Richard L.

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Everyone has their own way of attaching the cowl to the fuselage. I like to attach the cowl to the fuse using nylon bolts screwed into drilled and tapped holes that are CA hardened. The nylon bolts are grabby, so they do not tend to back out under vibration. I also like to sandwich a flat metal washer between the cowl and a layer of glass cloth at each mounting hole location to prevent the hole from enlarging:

Richard L.

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Air tank for the retracts mounted in place beneath the turtle deck:

Richard L.

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Since I couldn't find a 1/7th scale African American pilot, I had to paint an Aces of Iron pilot.

mugenkidd

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Great work on the Stang Richard. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see how this one comes out.

JohnVH

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WOW, nice work Richard! You MUST bring some toys up to our scale meet!

kerrydel

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Now that is a bit of a surprise - a white woman on a black pilot's plane. I'm not trying to sound racist, I'm just thinking of the mood at the time. I wonder if he ever had any problems.

Kerry

Richard L.

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Sorry, that's an African American woman on the plane.

gow589

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I saw some of the airplanes they were using to film Tuskeegee Airmen down in Fort Smith AR. They only had a couple P-51's and they looked kind of rough. The red tails and other markings were painted in water based washable paints. They would shoot some scenes, hose them down and paint them up in other colors. Pretty cool.

Richard L.

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The woman on the sides of the fuselage is indeed a stylized, cartoony African American woman. Below are two pictures showing her with her goodies covered for your viewing pleasure:

lear31A

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Wow, she has got some junk in the trunk!

HotelSierra

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Richard, once again you have proven that there is no such thing as a boring plane. As much as already been covered on this plane, both good and bad, you have brought renewed interest to the H9 P-51. Matter of fact, I've got one hanging on the ceiling in the original color scheme that you are inspiring me to recover and fly. As you already know, the are great flyers! Once again, nice work.

Richard L.

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Thanks.

The back of the firewall is treated to a layer of 5 oz glass cloth and 45-min epoxy to help secure it to the front of the fuselage. I still can't believe the firewall is made out of rather soft 3/16" thick ply instead of 1/4" hard ply. Note the two small holes for the fuel lines.