ANG Mustangs

[amariani]

What's a good source for ANG F-51D Mustang (color) pictures?

[+daddyairplanes]

dammit, when i saw the title and who posted i started to get excited thinking you had some new pics

i'll tell you my general search strategy, seeing as i like doing birds without dedicated sites like F-16.net

- of course Google. if youre really up for a slog, hit Joe Baughers site, save the serials to a .txt, then go thru each serial that survived to the time frame youre working and image search that sn

- Facebook. theres lots of fans of (aircraft) pages, a few historic ANG pages and sometimes even going to unit pages can be helpful. even doing a search on FB for say "Texas ANG F-51" may bring up a few results that dont pop on Google

- if you got a few bucks to spare, look on ebay. again, never know what you'll find and if you get a magazine or book on all ANG not just F-51s then youll learn other interesting stuff too.

- ask here at CA (oh yeah you did.  that one might be for the readers at home). someone might have a book or mag and send you some scans

 

granted, your search will be much more fun than my current pair, (F-16A/B ANG, TAC and A-7D/K ANG) given its much further in the past and theres many more aircraft to hunt down

 

 

[amariani]

Started with a simple one, MINN ANG.

[Wrench]

We do already have bunch of them in the d/l sections (along with ANG Jugs) by me.

I can't remember where I got a lot of my info -- just had to try and run down the individual units.

[+daddyairplanes]

thats true, but how many are serial number accurate? and got nose arts?

i got the the feeling he's gonna go that far with this.  seems rather familiar

[amariani]

Any links in the dl section? I only found one so far.

[+daddyairplanes]

i only saw three total, one in Gen2 and two in Gen1, although the Gen2 is an upgrade of one of those

sorry, didnt think to grab links at the time

[+daddyairplanes]

amariani, check pm

[amariani]

For those that may know, red or black? Which one is the correct color?

[+daddyairplanes]

possibly both. many ANG squadrons broke squadrons down further into flights, with colors for each. its been noted in a couple of A-10 and F-16 squadrons, and i've seen several F-4 squadrons do it

given the practice fell out of favor over time, i think its much more likely for the Mustangs

[yakarov79]

possibly both, but maybe depends on the year. Did some research on 111th from Texas. And I thought they changed colors. But turns out that colors were wrongly interpreted from blac&white photos.  - Which leads to repeating mistakes over the years

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Edited April 11, 2023 by yakarov79

[amariani]

Went with black...for now!

[Wrench]

never released this one, as is basicly a overhaul of a pre-existing one. Made all new decals with the correct font and color. But the marking ARE 100% accurate (excepting serials - they're generic)

[+daddyairplanes]

15 hours ago, amariani said:

Went with black...for now!

well if the black checker is a seperate layer (tga or jpg!) rather than a black and white checker layer, then it shouldnt be too hard to change up colors for later.

(scribbles note to self for future Hog work)

[amariani]

[amariani]

[+daddyairplanes]

looks nice

was looking up some stuff, because i think that "High Rollers" logo didnt show until the Phantom era. in that search found this pic

and you might want to pick up on the search. there were quite a few ANG Mustang pics under the image

https://www.google.com/search?q=high+rollers+NVANG&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3ks2zpa3-AhV3lGoFHf9ADokQ0pQJegQIMxAC&biw=1536&bih=703&dpr=1.25#imgrc=tQumL5d4G2OePM

[Wrench]

yeah, I was gonna say the tail serial number presentation is wrong. It should look like mine. All post-war ANG units, even into the jet age (see my ANG Sabres and T-Jets)  carried teh "ANG" notation.

makes me wonder about the authenticity of the checks ... what needed are actual period photos

[yakarov79]

Yup, Wrench's Ponys are quite accurate. 

Checkers were present on some airframes, but never bothered to explore a topic more. Guess it is a post-war unit airframe)

very early they have usually NG above the serial number on the tail fin. Somewhere around 1948 ANG above serial started to appear.

Also in the immediate post-war era markings were usually applied on top/bottom wings, not on the fuselage.

Some units started to display Star'n Bar on the fuselage around 1947.

On fuselage around Star'n Bar first was NG (example TEX * NG) and then again around 1948 ANG...(TEX * ANG)

On starboard top wing NG- plus last 3 serial numbers, and bottom port wing same 

This one has checkers like the 78th FG. - But checkers go nearly all the way to the windscreen.

 

I would not rely on photographs of restored airframes/museum examples they tend to be quite inaccurate. As we all know. 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by yakarov79

[+daddyairplanes]

3 hours ago, yakarov79 said:

I would not rely on photographs of restored airframes/museum examples they tend to be quite inaccurate. As we all know.

tis why the research is a long and lengthy b............... amount of time

@amariani, from the bits ive looked up of period photos, and looking at pics like yakarov posted, you may want to make everything a level 2 decal. theres alot more variation within units than I would have expected, esp for an aircraft that in theory was maintained in house and didnt go to depot every few years

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by daddyairplanes

[Wilches]

13 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

looks nice

was looking up some stuff, because i think that "High Rollers" logo didnt show until the Phantom era. in that search found this pic

and you might want to pick up on the search. there were quite a few ANG Mustang pics under the image

https://www.google.com/search?q=high+rollers+NVANG&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3ks2zpa3-AhV3lGoFHf9ADokQ0pQJegQIMxAC&biw=1536&bih=703&dpr=1.25#imgrc=tQumL5d4G2OePM

Worth to note the fixed tailwheels.

[Wrench]

also note the tailwheel doors are missing -- quite common in post-war mustangs

[Wrench]

taking a closer look at the (flying) photo DA posted, we have ...

wing commander - three stripes

squadron commander - 2 stripes

flight leader - 1 stripe

stripes would be in squadron colors (whatever the hell THOSE are!!! )

all typical 1950s (ish) marking, not only for ANG and Reserves, but active units as well

[Wrench]

while looking for some other pictures on the HD, I came across this. Don't know if you can use, but, here it is!

model kit decals for some P-51D/K ANG unit or something

[+daddyairplanes]

On 4/16/2023 at 9:53 PM, Wrench said:

stripes would be in squadron colors (whatever the hell THOSE are!!! )

im gonna go out on a limb here and say they were.....

dark

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