Lt. Earl Erickson - P-51B "Janie Girl" (D7-Y) - 339th FG, 503rd FS

[Vraciu]

Lt. Earl Erickson's well-worn and tarnished P-51B-10-NA (42-106710) of the 339th FG, 503rd FS, ETO.  It suffered a gear up landing after an engine failure while flown by another pilot.  Photos do not show powder marks aft of the gun barrels on the wings so none are applied.  Erickson flew 62 missions, scoring one victory and one probable (both FW-190s), and was awarded a DFC.

The airplane is the first of three he named after his wife, Jane (two Bs and one D).  They had been married for 64 years at the time of his passing.

[oboe]

Very nice, Vraciu.  Its quite similar to Bonnie Bea, the 339th P-51B I've been working on.

Something very pleasing about the red/white spinner and checkerboard nose.

[Vraciu]

Very nice, Vraciu.  Its quite similar to Bonnie Bea, the 339th P-51B I've been working on.

Something very pleasing about the red/white spinner and checkerboard nose.

I must have forgotten that one.  Maybe subconsciously I went there.  I was digging for a group that wasn't represented here yet in the Mustang section.   This one wound up at the top of the pile.

At first the colors were hard to get used to because of the 357th but they grew on me.  Something very race car-ish about them. 

Thanks for the compliment, sir. 

[Devil 505]

Very nice.

[oboe]

The 339th has a lot of pretty good subject for bare metal studies:



I think later on, the 503rd FS went to red-painted rudders.

[Vraciu]

Wow.  That's impressive, man.   

[lyric1]

 

[FTJR]

Very nice Oboe.

[Vraciu]

Very nice Oboe.

Thread hikack!!!     

I need to correct my summary above.  Lt. Erickson scored 1.5 victories not the previously mentioned one with a probable.   The 339th entered the war with just under a year to go.  Its list of aces is thus relatively short compared to groups who had been in the war longer.   They still managed quite an impressive combat record.  They were in-theater exactly one week short of a calendar year. 

[Greebo]

Nice ponies Vraciu and Oboe.

[Vraciu]

Nice ponies Vraciu and Oboe.

  Thanks.  Learning as we go...

[FTJR]

Thread hikack!!!     

I need to correct my summary above.  Lt. Erickson scored 1.5 victories not the previously mentioned one with a probable.   The 339th entered the war with just under a year to go.  Its list of aces is thus relatively short compared to groups who had been in the war longer.   They still managed quite an impressive combat record.  They were in-theater exactly one week short of a calendar year.

lol Sorry Vraciu, you told me to look at Oboes video and I skipped the opening post.. Sorry mate, it is good work.

[Vraciu]

lol Sorry Vraciu, you told me to look at Oboes video and I skipped the opening post.. Sorry mate, it is good work.

Thanks, man.  Yeah, I figured you'd like his work.   Good stuff. 

[Vraciu]

I updated the canopy/windscreen frame after realizing it is silver not green.

I will make one more pass over this one to bring up some of the details to the standard I have on Sansing's IV-C, but the frame really needed fixing.  I also weathered the stab stripes.

Sorry for this additional post, but I didn't want people thinking I had not corrected such a glaring error.



I feel like the fuselage shine is too "solid" something.   Any thoughts on how to tweak that?






Compare.




Maybe it is just the invasion stripes that are throwing me off...

[Skuzzy]

The panel lines seem a bit too pronounced to me.