Warbirdsim's "Mustang Tales" Now Available!

[TuFun]

This is a must have... I'm blown away John with this level of detail and I love detail! That's the kind of detail I would love to do in repainting projects!!! -Ted

 

[Sundog]

I've tried re-downloading from my links. I just get a blank page.

 

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you for letting us know of this Sundog! As I've mentioned to you via PM just now too, whatever the problem may be will get sorted as soon as possible.

 

[PRB]

The "attention to detail" poured into these packages is fantastic. I have the WBS P-51B/C and the D "then and now" package. The B/C is still my favorite. While I'm more a P-38 guy than Mustang, this whole series is so good you can't help buying them! This plane has a proud history, probably represents the pinnacle of US WW-II fighter design, and as such is an important topic for history, the "not another P-51" crowd notwidthstanding, hehe. John and WBS have certainly done it right. :salute:

I'm hoping John finds "enlightenment" and turns his passion to the Lockheed twin in the near future...

 

[ColoKent]

I myself...

....would love to see an F-82E and G.

The quality of John's work is fantastic! Wow...

Kent

 

[Sundog]

The only real problems I have with John's Mustangs is figuring out which one to fly next.
There are so many great choices!

 

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you Paul and Ted, Rick, Ferry, Huub, Zsolt, Rob, Pete, Daveroo, Kent, and everyone else who have left compliments and feedback on the work! It really means a lot!

 

[Bomber_12th]

At the "Minnesota Office", this photo hangs proudly on the wall, and when we were ever going to be doing an F-51 project, I knew it had to be included. Through the help of Martin Kyburz (Swiss Mustangs) and an article by Scott Bloom, I was also able to have two more photos of this exact same aircraft, taken from other angles, so that I could get both sides looking correct. Following Guard duty, the aircraft would be sold to Trans Florida Aviation and became the second prototype Cavalier F-51D, registered N5421V. Later this was changed to N551D, and the aircraft was unfortunately destroyed in a crash at Lincoln, Virginia on April 17, 1966 (the registration, N551D, was later applied to a CAC manufactured Mustang, currently owned by Jack Erickson, on display at Tillamook).

For those familiar with Mustang markings/details, note the re-positioned grounding jack for the fuselage fuel tank (black circle with the words "Ground Here").

 

[Bomber_12th]

i see what you mean john,and looking at the photo on page 48,compaired to pg47...if you look where the yellow stripe is on the drawing/painting on pages 42/43..it looks like its there on #18 on pg 47...is this a differant plane?..or is that maybe a shadow im seeing?.just forward of the tailwheel..narrow dark line on the fusalage..im NOT arguing here...im asking...lol....and as to the "many differant planes"...id forgotten that part of the story...i read so many magazines and books every month i tend to get confused..

Hi Dave,

I've finally gotten around to collecting the various photos, and here is the 'Tale of the #18's'...

When I was looking into the various available photos of the aircraft that is attributed to being assigned to Col. Dean Hess, that being ROKAF #18, with the Korean characters forming the phrase "By Faith I Fly!" scribed on both sides of the nose, I noticed that the markings between one, and the markings between another, weren't alike, but that I could find several photos of one, and several more photos of another (including video), and so I decided to go with the one I had more photos (and video) of.

I couldn't find any information about whether or not the aircraft were one in the same, and if it was just photographed at different times in its service life, or not. From what I've seen, I'm led to believe that that is the case. Early on, the aircraft has the yellow stripe around the aft fuselage and appears to be bare metal (though dull), with the USAF stars & bars still present, having just been painted over with the ROK insignia. Take note of the specific style of the K on the tail, the #18 on the side of the fuselage, the insignias, and the characters on the nose. The yellow band can just barely be seen just aft of the rear fuselage/tail joint.






Now here is the version of the aircraft that I chose to duplicate. It appears that later on, the aircraft was painted over-all silver (as all of the ROKAF Mustangs were eventually). When this was done, all of the markings (nose characters, number, insignias, and tail 'K') were repainted (which could also explain why when after the aircraft was painted silver, the person in charge of applying the insignias got it wrong in a few different ways). Unlike the earlier markings, the later silver-painted ROK Mustangs didn't have the yellow bands. The 'K', the '18', and the insignias are very different than before.












To complicate matters, Hal Wilson, who was Dean Hess' exec, also supposedly had a #18 as well (which Wilson would joke about with Hess, that his #18 flew better than Hess'). Hal Wilson's had the phrase "Last Chance!" scribed on each side of the fuselage, as shown in the below photos (note that this aircraft doesn't have the characters on the nose like Dean Hess' aircraft, and had a black band around the spinner):

 

[Bomber_12th]

Speaking of ROK Mustangs, this is one of my favorite Korean War era color photos. The photo shows the ROKAF Mustangs (in late markings) when they were stationed at K-18. Some had the 'K' and the numbers painted in the same blue as the insignia, while on others, like Col. Dean Hess' aircraft, these were painted black.

 

[Daveroo]

thanks for the reply and explanation on the Hess aircraft John,goes to show why you are one of the best at what you do.deep and thought out research...well done mate!...

 

[Bomber_12th]

Update

For those who have purchased the aircraft before the update was made:

If anyone has any problem getting access to their download links again, and/or just wants the updates without having to re-download the full set of files again (as it is quite big), just shoot me a quick PM or a quick message to my e-mail at johnterrell87 @ comcast.net (no spaces) or an e-mail to Wabirdsim Support.

For those who purchase the product from here on out, since the time the updates went into affect, the update is already included in the files.

 

[MenendezDiego]

Congrats on the release. Big fan of your work!

DM

 

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you Diego! And thanks again Dave! I appreciate it, both of you!

I've been thinking we need to get some F-51D's together with some F-86's, L-19's, Skyraiders, LT-6 Mosquitos, B-29's, A-26's, F-84's, and T-28's (will really be slick too when A2A releases their P-51H/F-51H). Anyone know of any Korean War sceneries that work in FSX? I hope it's not lost on the minds of many, but this year marks the 60th Anniversay since the end of the Korean War.

Again, if anyone has any questions or needs any help, please don't hesitate to contact Warbirdsim support or me directly.

 

[MenendezDiego]

Thank you Diego! And thanks again Dave! I appreciate it, both of you!

I've been thinking we need to get some F-51D's together with some F-86's, L-19's, Sky Raiders, LT-6 Mosquitos, B-29's, A-26's, F-84's, and T-28's (will really be slick too when A2A releases their P-51H/F-51H). Anyone know of any Korean War sceneries that work in FSX? I hope it's not lost on the minds of many, but this year marks the 60th Anniversay since the end of the Korean War.

Again, if anyone has any questions or needs any help, please don't hesitate to contact Warbirdsim support or me directly.

Sounds like a plan. Let me know when and where. I'm sure I can scrounge up some F-86 testers/devs to also take part.

DM

 

[Bomber_12th]

Will do Diego! I've been meaning to get back into multiplayer flying for quite some time. One of the great things, as I started writing those aircraft out, is that most of them are already available as FSX native aircraft, or are in the works right now for FSX (like Ant's superb T-28). I don't know if we'll ever see a Yak-9, which was the F-51D's main adversary during the Korean War.

 

[jankees]

I notice quite a few of thos ANG aircraft have the tailwheel extended during flight. Was this standard practice, to block the tailwheel, and why?

 

[Bomber_12th]

Hi Jankees,

As of January 1953 and beyond, it did become an order for all USAF F-51D's that were in operation at the time that the tail wheels be locked down.

This is all that the technical order says for the F-51D in particular, as to the purpose behind the modification:

"Failure of the tail gear to extend to the "Down and Locked" position results in extensive damage to the aircraft during landing."

http://p51h.home.comcast.net/~p51h/sig/TO/01-60JE-51.pdf


Some have attributed this to the P-51H's tail gear, which was noted to have had problems, and possibly all "F-51s" across the board were subject to the modification simply because of the P-51H (I don't know). There was a time period a couple of years ago when the Collings Foundation were having some troubles with the tail gear on their TP-51C, and just had it locked down for a while, while on tour, until some detailed work could be done on it to fix the problem and make sure it was safe to go again.

The P-51D on display at the USAF Museum is actually the last F-51D to be retired from the USAF (1957), and was, for a long time, missing tail wheel doors, as they were removed when the tail wheel was locked down following the 1953 T.O. The cockpit on that aircraft was a big help to authentically reproduce the post-1950 black-painted cockpits seen on "Little Lynn" and the "ROKAF/Dean Hess" models.

 

[Bone]

PM sent. I just need the update files, not the whole bananna. Thanks!

 

[Bone]

I have a request, if it's not too much to ask. The gunsight on some of these models has a really dark texture on the aft plate of glass. I'm sure that's technically correct, however, it does reduce forward visibility as far as the sim is concerned. Call it a sim'ism, that doesn't make the best transition from real world to sim world (at least for me). Would it be possible for you to make an alternate texture for the gunsight's aft plate, one that matches the forward glass plate?