Capt Thomas Morris Mckinney 357th FG

[soslipstream]

After penty of mis-fires, I finally was able to get this Allyn P-51 Ashtray Model sent back to its original owner, Capt. T Morris McKinney, who flew with Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson. Amongst the requests to fix the props and build a nice canopy, he wondered if the airplane might get some added details unique to his "bird"? As previously duscussed the Allyn P-51 is in approximate 1/50 scale and slightly smaller than a 1/48 model. But being close enough, I searched for any decals with the red/yellow checkerboard made famous by the 357th. The other issue is that the airplane is an "approximate outline" but not quite scale.

Along with these factors, I found out the hard way that paint does not stick to chrome unless you grind off the chrome surface. This caused an issue as the original anti-glare panel was 90% there but faded. Since a glued surface has a much better chance of surviving, I carefully roughened the original, in-place sticker then re-painted the area with the correct olive drab.

My son, Bennett, created the decal, "Round-Trip Jr." which was unique to Capt. McKinney's mounts.
Capt. McKinney should be recieving the airplane any day now..
-Tom

[soslipstream]

I had wanted to post a picture of Capt. McKinney's P-51 but had a hard time retrieving it. Found it, so here it is...

Note that the Allyn exhaust is set too low and because Capt. Mckinney is 93 years old, I elected to make the "Round Trip Jr." just a little bigger for him to see.
-Tom