Mustang III skinpack by Emel, July 2010.

RAF Mustang IIIs of No 19 Sqn during the first half of 1944. Although the legendary Mustang P-51 will forever be associated with the USAAF, many RAF fighter squadron's also received it. many units converted to the new fighter plane in early 1944. The first one to receive the first definitive varient the Mustang P-51B, dubbed by the British the Mustang III, was RAF no 65 Sqn in late December 1943. By the end of January 1944 the Squadron was already operational.

No 19 Sqn also began conversion at the same time period and by 15 February 1944 became operational flying combined with No 65 Sqn the first fighter sweep with Mustang IIIs over Brussels and Lille. No enemy contact was made and the operation was uneventful. As the future ace Flt Sgt Basilios Vassiliades commented: "Nothing seen. First fighter sweep by RAF Mustang IIIs."

The skins of this pack depict four of the RAF No 19 Sqn Mustangs in their early pre-Invasion era paint scheme with a compliment of white identification stripes similar to US markings, and the standard RAF grey-green camouflage pattern. Unfortunately the individual histories of the aircraft remain incomplete, but the emphasis of the skins in this case was always more towards bringing back to life, in virtual reality form that is, the four No 19 Sqn Mustangs seen in a very nice B/W Photograph of the era. A familiar picture seen on many publications I'm sure. In this case the photograph is from the French 'Planes and Pilots series, P-51 Mustang from 1940 to 1980 by D Breffort and A Jouineau'. it shows the Mustangs QV-H, QV-I, QV-A and QV-E flying in a very nice tight close ascending echelon formation, obviously flying for the press to demonstrate the new rides.

No 19 Sqn Mustang IIIs:
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1. Mustang III FZ 190 QV-A flown by WO M H Bell, Funtington, May 1945.

2. Mustang III FZ 187 QV-E flown by , Funtington, May 1944.

3. Mustang III FB 113 QV-H flown by Flt Lt D P Lamb, Gravesend, February 1944.

4. Mustang III QV-I*

*No information available at this time. The serial number on the fuselage is purely fictional. Unfortunately the historical details of the aircraft described above remain incomplete. What little information I could find was obtained from another source and may not match with the photo and therefore these skins should be considered semi-historical. 


Notes on the skins & template:
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This pack includes 10 skins. 4 fully marked, 2 generic, 2 finflash and 2 blank skins. Slip the BMP files into the Mustang III folder in your Il-2 Sturmovik/Paintschemes/Skins folder. The skins should work the next time you start the game. 

The template was redrawn from the original P-51 void files. I'd like to thank Jarink, Jorjus, Rudi Jaeger, Duggy and RDDR for their valuable help in showing some of the basic differencies between the Mustang varients and for pointing out some of the "do's and do-not-do's" with the details of the Mustang. 
 
All written historical facts based on information by Osprey RAF Mustang and Thunderbolt aces by Andrew Thomas.  

These skins are not to be uploaded further without my permission. You are permitted to use and publish the skins in this pack with IL-2 Sturmovik missions & campaigns, also you may rework these skins for your private use. No commercial use in any form is permitted with my Il-2 Sturmovik skins. Please do not remove credits. Thank you for downloading these skins and happy flying.

Emel

Contact me by PM at A&A Paintworks, or M4T 