1:18 Petie Conversion to Sweetie Face

Builder's Notes:



"Sweetie FACE is a North American P-51D- 20- NA Mustang, serial number (19)44-73543 representing the plane flown in combat in 1944 and 1945 by four- kill pilot CAPT Heyer in the "Blue Nose Bastards of Bodney" 352nd Fighter Squadron, 487th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force United Kingdom. Owned by pilot Mr. R. Thomas Patten of Nashville TN who flies it at air shows around the nation, it glitters and gleams because Tom personally stripped off all of the paint and personally polished every inch of the plane with jewelers rouge! I'll try to send you a picture of the real bird sent to me by the VEXDEC Gilbert Bros.

The model has been accuratized thanks to VEXDEC principals MARV and Lair Gilbert who created the hyper-accurate nose art, swastikas, data plate and tail P for Sweetie FACE in both 1/18th and 1/72nd scale. Propeller blades from Petie 2nd curved rearward, so they were broken off at the spinner, drilled out as was the spinner, and short lengths of brass rod helped to re-attach the blades in a straighter position. While the blades were off, Sweetie FACE had its nose and rudder spray painted Testors Blue Angels Blue from a spray can. Tauromodel Art. 429 film in "steel" covered all the Petie 2nd markings. Invasion stripes were masked off on the wings, fuselage, landing gear doors and wheel wells. All were spray painted with Testors Black Gloss and White Gloss spray cans. Holes were drilled in the starboard wing underside to accept identification lights made from Michael's Stores sequins as was the landing light in the starboard wheel well. Interiors of the outer landing gear doors were made from Plastruct sheets. Interior gear door struts and gun barrels were made from aluminum tubes within tubes as was the pitot tube."

Changing P-51D-20-NA in 1/18th



from Petie 2nd to Sweetie FACE



Directions for Construction:



Propeller Blades: Break off all four at spinner, drill and insert lengths of brass wire into hole in spinner and cuffs of blades. Reestablish all blades and superglue after all painting, thereby correcting the manufacturer�s error of rearward leaning Petie 2nd blades.



Landing Gear: Saw off at top of oleo, section oleo, drill and install lengths of brass wire in oleo and leg. Remove and discard outer gear doors. Replace with thinner reshaped doors from Plastruct with inside door reinforcements constructed from Plastruct after checking references for proper shape. Aluminum tube within tube retraction struts for inner doors. Add brake lines through the hollowed out oleos.



Cockpit: Remove K-14 gun sight and armored headrest.



Stand: Duplicate airfield concrete with tar expansion joints and oil stains. Add wooden chocks in Chrome Yellow with pull away ropes.



Guns: Drill out locations and replace gun barrels with aluminum tube within tube.



Formation Lights: Drill three holes inner starboard wingtip and place green red and amber Michael�s Stores sequins front to back.



Landing Light: Use a Michael�s Stores clear sequin and scrap photo etch sprue to fashion light for starboard wheel well.



Directions for Spray Painting



Underwings: Invasion stripes: mask off and spray five inches of Testor�s Gloss White paint per side including wheel well interiors. Mask off and spray two one inch black stripes in Testor�s Gloss Black at one and three inch marks.



Fuselage: mask off and spray Testor�s Gloss Black and White stripes from the middle of the bar in the stars and bars down to include inside of letter O on part side and the H on the starboard side. Eradicate Petie 2nd markings from nose and under cockpit, by covering with Tauromodel Art. 429 Steel decal film.



Over wings and Horizontal Tail planes: Mask off and spray paint Testor�s Gloss Black ID stripes over and under tail planes and at wing roots over wings.



Gear doors: Mask off and spray Testor�s Gloss White interior of inner gear door and retraction arm, mask off and spray Testor�s Gloss Black reinforcing strip, white interior and exterior outer gear doors. Mask off and spray Testor�s Gloss Black invasion stripe on outside of outer gear door.



Nose: Mask off and spray paint with Testor�s Gloss Blue Angels Blue.



Sweetie FACE: Obtain Sweetie FACE decal from VEXDEC, cut out all carrier film and install and add new swastika decals from VEXDEC.



Tail: Mask off and spray rudder with Blue Angels Blue. Cover M and serial numbers with Tauromodel Art.429 steel film. Apply Aero Masters serial number 473543: black 4735 port fin white 43 port rudder; black 3543 starboard fin white 47 starboard rudder. Replace M on fin with P from VEXDEC. Spray Testor�s Glosscoat over entire airframe, then dip sliding portion of canopy in Johnson & Johnson�s Kleer for high sheen. There are no radio antennae on Sweetie FACE nor is there any sort of weathering. In fact, see how good a modeler you are by trying to use Bare Metal, Inc. Chrome foil to replicate the jewelers rouged shiny metal of the original show plane. I couldn�t do it!