Capt. James O. Tyler - P-51B "Meg X" (WD*L) - 52nd FG, 4th FS

[Vraciu]

This is one of two P-51Bs I'm working on for Devil5O5's May FSO.

______________


Capt. James Otey "Tim" Tyler
P-51B-1-NA "Meg X" (WD*L)
S/N 43-6583
52nd Fighter Group,  4th Fighter Squadron
Madna, Italy, June 1944


This is Capt. James O. Tyler's P-51B-5-NA Mustang (S/N 43-6583) coded WD*L and nicknamed "Meg X" of the 4th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group.   Tyler scored eight victories (two in Spitfires, six P-51s) and was the Commanding Officer of the 4th FS.   This was the tenth airplane flown by him to bear the Meg nickname.   He scored his fifth Mustang kill in this aircraft on 23 June 1944.

After promotion to Major, Tyler returned to the U.S. in October 1944 and served at Bartow Field, Florida, until the end of the war. After hostilities ended Tyler was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and served as an exchange pilot with the Royal Air Force in England.  He then commanded the 2nd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, in the early 1950s. From 1954 to 1957 he served on the faculty of Air University at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and then as Director of Operations for the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing at Naha AB, Okinawa, from October 1957 to July 1958. Col. Tyler was chief of the Plans, Programs, and Requirements Division with Headquarters 313th Air Division at Kadena AB, Okinawa, from July 1958 to August 1960, followed by service as chief of the inspection team in the Office of the Inspector General for the 26th Air Division at Hancock Field, New York, from August 1960 to June 1962. His next assignment was on the staff with Headquarters 26th Air Division at Stewart AFB, New York, from June 1962 to March 1965, followed by service as director of operations for Air Force Iceland at Keflavik, Iceland, from March 1965 to March 1966. He served as chief of the Operations and Training Division for the 33rd Air Division at Fort Lee AFS, Virginia, from March to October 1966, and was Station Commander for Fort Lee AFS from October 1966 until his retirement from the Air Force on 1 October 1969. Tyler was born in Noel, Virginia on 28 August 1919 and passed away on 9 December 2006.

His numerours decorations include a Silver Star for gallantry in combat during World War Two.

[lyric1]

 

[Devil 505]

Looks great, but I would lighten the black marking a bit. They look too bold to me and don't mix well with the rest of the skin.

[xanax]

Very cool and nice to have the pilots background info as well to add a sense of provenance.
Well done.

[Greebo]

Very nice Vraciu, great work.

[oboe]

Very cool.  Beautiful screen shot prop effects.

[Vraciu]

Thanks all.

I'll check the black.  I've already lightened it a lot.  Any more and it is gonna turn gray.  I may have a layer in the wrong place. 

[Vraciu]

Very cool and nice to have the pilots background info as well to add a sense of provenance.
Well done.

Thanks.  Sorry for the paragraph spacing.   I copied and pasted an earlier version of the writeup.   I have a sticky key on my keyboard or something.   It didn't copy the final version when I hit Ctrl C.

[Devil 505]

I'll check the black.  I've already lightened it a lot.  Any more and it is gonna turn gray.  I may have a layer in the wrong place.

What RGB are you using for your black? I use 38/38/38, which I think is still adequately dark but still works with the rest of the skin.

The closest example from one of my skins is my P-40N "Butter Bean II". Our versions of OD green are similarly dark and my black paint still looks black but offers good contrast with the even darker holes in the airframe.


 

[Vraciu]

I'll take a look.  I think I have a layer out of place.  The trim tab on the rudder is supposed to be the same as the L but the L is too dark.   I'll try your color as well.  Many thanks.

[Vraciu]

I had a missing layer.  Let's see if this fixes it.






Edit In:

I toned down the insignia a bit on this second one and replaced one of the wing access panels that was missing from the shot above.

[Devil 505]

Yeah, that looks much better.

[Vraciu]

Awesome.  Thanks for the feedback.  I'll submit tonight avs work on the solid yellow tail OD next.    Then people will have a number to choose from.

[Vraciu]

Final version.

[Banshee7]

Looks great