Mustang Repaint N5444V (former Dixie Boy)

[51fixer]

With diligent research, I bet you could find some wartime nose art imitating the Disney font. It was certainly well known by that time. To me it does not stand out as anachronistic on a WW2 bird.

August

I believe Disney artists were scattered around the world in the Army.
IIRC at least one was in the AAF and did noseart at bases in the UK.
Was Baby Duck's noseart done by a Disney Artist?

[Mark Allen M]

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[mustangdriver]

The script is losely based off of Walt Disney's autograph. The script is called the waltograph script.

I found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltograph

[marine air]

I bought a CD last Saturday called "Music of the Liberty Belle" for sale by the liberty Belle Foundation. I was shocked at how many song titles, I have seen painted on the nose of aircraft. "Moonlight Serenade", "Li'l Brown Jug", "In the mood" and "Sentimental Journey". to name a few. SO yes the disney script is very plausible for that time period. THose young men flying the aircraft grew up in the 30's watching Disney movies at the theaters for a nickel every Saturday.
Plus, you could stay as long as you wanted and watch them over and over again and enjoy air conditioning.

[k5083]

With diligent research, I bet you could find some wartime nose art imitating the Disney font. It was certainly well known by that time. To me it does not stand out as anachronistic on a WW2 bird.

August

I believe Disney artists were scattered around the world in the Army.
IIRC at least one was in the AAF and did noseart at bases in the UK.
Was Baby Duck's noseart done by a Disney Artist?

Disney had a program of designing emblems for military units, especially AAF squadrons, but for all the services and even the foreign allies. It was part of the studio's contribution to the war effort, with full time artists working on it in California. A few articles on the subject, crediting Disney with many hundreds of designs:

http://www.skylighters.org/disney/
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsh ... sp?id=7883

We've all seen a lot more disney nose art and unit artwork than we realize, including famous designs like Gentile's boxing eagle and its RAF eagle squadron predecessor. But it's hard to think of an example employing Walt's distinctive lettering style.

August

[k5083]

I bought a CD last Saturday called "Music of the Liberty Belle" for sale by the liberty Belle Foundation. I was shocked at how many song titles, I have seen painted on the nose of aircraft. "Moonlight Serenade", "Li'l Brown Jug", "In the mood" and "Sentimental Journey". to name a few. SO yes the disney script is very plausible for that time period. THose young men flying the aircraft grew up in the 30's watching Disney movies at the theaters for a nickel every Saturday.
Plus, you could stay as long as you wanted and watch them over and over again and enjoy air conditioning.

Frenesi, Shoo Shoo Baby, Pistol Packin' Mama, Peg o' My Heart, and it goes on and on. One of the most pervasive themes in nose art/naming, right up there with girlfriends' names and general innuendo. What other songs are on your CD? I don't see it on the LF web site. I keep a playlist of "nose art songs" on my ipod. A lot of it is good stuff!

The song Sentimental Journey actually did not become popular until right at the end of the war, charting in late March 1945 and becoming the title theme for a 1946 film, and was not a name used on wartime aircraft than I know of. It did appear on Korean war aircraft (cf. Pima B-29) but its appearance on the CAF's B-17 is anachronistic.

August

[John Kerr]

I received this revised photo from a friend, who asked me to post.

[mike furline]

I received this revised photo from a friend, who asked me to post.

OMG -green gear doors!!!! This is going to get out of control!!!!!

[Django]

To 99% of people who will see it fly, it will look great. It's definitely eye catchingly beautiful! I really like the late war 361st yellow nose/NMF schemes personally. I will never understand the need to mix late war markings with full Invasion Stripes though.

The real unfortunate part about this repaint is a (beautiful) PTO Mustang was converted into yet another ETO bird. And Dixie Boy was one of the best. It's a shame that the PTO crews don't get the same attention that the ETO crews get when it comes to Warbird representation.

As for the font selection, it is a bid odd to see Waltograph in this context, and it wouldn't be accurate historically, but there are far worse offenders out there when it comes to lettering on Warbirds. And since this one is a hodge podge of markings anyway, it doesn't really bother me.

I guess when I turn off my brain and block out the years of studying nose art and USAAF markings and appreciate it for what it is, it looks great. Definitely a beautiful Mustang. And I would take this any day of the week over a civil scheme.

[Richard W.]

I'll bet Kandy, at least, is happy with the new name.

[hiav]

Miss Kandy is our 3rd Mustang repaint and was by far the most demanding. We certainly did not want to deminish the fine work that was done prior to our efforts.. If you see her and Darren tell him how much you appreciate folks like him keeping these beautiful machines airworthy.

[Russ Blow]

Looks like a high quality job and the customer got what he asked for.

Invasion stripes are not my bag but then again the best I can do is fly an L 4 which probably cost me about 1/2 the cost of that paint.

After I get my P 51 I will become a critic.

[Mark Allen M]

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