Thule AFB - Greenland 1946 - 1/144 USAAF P-51N Mustang and USN B-26B Marauder

[Cliffy B]

Evening gents!  Figured it's about time I start a thread for my ongoing 1/144 project; Thule AFB in Greenland circa 1946.  Air complement to date stands at one P-51N Mustang and one B-26B Patrol Bomber.  Aircraft we will see in the future will include B-25s, B-47s, F6Fs, P-47s, FJ Furies, and others in 1/144 and 1/72.  The USN, USAAF, RAF, FAA, CAF, and RAAF will be represented as well as some others.

Backstory time!

Following the fall of Japan in 1946 the 15th FG was transferred back to the states and were quickly trained in the art of night fighting while their P-51D-20s were modified into new P-51Ns complete with a USN style APS-4 radar in a pod under the starboard wing as well as six zero length rocket launcher stubs under each wing.  The birds also received a fresh coat of camouflage akin to the Atlantic Theater and borrowed from the USN.  Atlantic Scheme III consisted of USN Light Gray lowers with FAA Extra Dark Sea Gray uppers with USN Flat Sea Blue applied in a disruptive pattern over the Sea Gray.  Squadrons flying strictly night missions substituted the Light Gray for Glossy Black.

The 15th FG became the 15th Night Fighter Group and were hurriedly rushed to Iceland arriving only days before the German attack.  They began wreaking havoc on the Kreigsmarine and Luftwaffe attackers but were slowly and methodically whittled down and overwhelmed along with the rest of the Allied forces who had just finished evacuating the British Isles a bare 6 months before.  The Allies just didn't have the resources to properly defend Iceland after the heavy loses sustained in England.  Iceland was evacuated as well after surviving the German siege for two months.  The Allies fell back to Greenland and North America and dug in for the next round of the war.  The 15th barely made it out alive with their aircraft making a non-stop flight to Greenland where they would remain for the following year.  

The group split their aircraft between dedicated day and night squadrons.  The 45th FS drew day duty while the 47th and 78th drew nights.  All squadrons flew CAP for the Isle as well as escort missions for the USN PBJs flying ASW and anti-shipping missions.  These flights proved vital in preventing the U-Boats from choking the Isle off from the supply convoys.  The shear amount of enemy attacks called for around the clock missions.  To the casual observer you'd think the planes never landed.  The Mustangs, Mitchells, and PV-2 Harpoons handled the in-shore missions while the P-61 Black Widows escorted the longer ranged PB4Y Privateers and PBY Catalinas.  They soon found out that their radar pods were just as useful in the daytime as during the night and quickly worked out search tactics to surprise the radar-less German aircraft.  After some more field mods the radars in the fighters were able to perform surface searches as well.  Combined with a patrol bomber mother ship the ASW teams quickly racked up an impressive amount of kills against the vaunted U-Boats securing the supply lines to Greenland for the duration.

For more info on the Mustang and Marauder see my thread for the 2010 1-Week GB http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,29142.0.html

Current builds:

Box shots



Current Flight Line:

P-51N Night Fighter Mustang of the 45th NFS, 15 NFG
Mods: Four 20mm cannons, scratch built drop tanks and USN APS-4 Radar Pod

Build Shots:





Completed Shots:







B-26B Marauder of VPB-19, formally of the 340BG
Mods: Scratch built USN APS-4 Radar Pod, fuselage blast panels for .50cal gun packs, applique armor for cockpit, all .50cal barrels replaced with rod stock.

Build Shots:











So there you have it so far.  The B-26 needs a few more minor touch ups and then she'll be ready for decals.  She along with the Mustang and possibly another aircraft will be displayed in-flight over a water base.  Whether or not to put a ship or sub in the water is still undecided.  Finding either in 1/144 that isn't the size of a car is hard    I think I might give an illusion of altitude and use a 1/700 vessel, hmmm....

The Fury will be revisited after the B-26 is completed and will depicted, if all goes well, about to land on a snow covered and icy runway lined with craters and other debris.

More to come later on!

Enjoy gents!  Cheers!

Any comments, questions, ideas, etc... are appreciated as always.

-Mike

[frank2056]

Mike,
I really enjoyed watching the Mustang and B-26 builds. My only suggestion is that if you're going to black out the cockpits, paint the canopies black on the inside, leaving the outside shiny.

Frank

[Joe C-P]

Keep up the good work! 

[Tophe]

I love your tiny Mustang...

[Cliffy B]

The B-26B is DONE!!!!! 

All in all it was fun pair of builds.  One problem I ran into though; the B-26 decals!  After looking through the decals of my other Minicraft 1/144 kits I noticed all had Cartograf Decals (arguable the best in the business) except the B-26.  I tried using a few and and then trashed the sheet.  They were thick on the sheet with noticeable ridges along the edges of the graphics.  They would not stick to the kit for anything and didn't react at all to Micro Set/Sol.  I used a combo of leftover decals from the Mustang kit and a pair of Stars and Bars from the P-47 kit (COMPLETE junk save for the decals; 2 US and 1 RAF set!!!!!!!).

Completed Shots:









Close up of the paper printed engine faces.  A decent representation in this scale.  Beats nothing at all 


B-26B with one of its P-51N escorts.




Enjoy!

Any comments, questions, ideas, etc... are appreciated as always.

-Mike