Tamiya P-51D Tuskegee Airmen WIP

Thanks again for the comments and feedback. I've had family in from out of town and for some reason the Missus frowns upon me working on the plane so I'm taking a few days off. But this is also a good time to plan out the rest of the kit. With that I have a few questions.

The decaling is done and looks good with one exception. Masking off the yellow stripes on the wings caused me to ruin the red decals on the wings (fueling points?). So I need to replace those. Any idea who makes a decal sheet that has those?

Next. Do I need to seal the decals before I begin with washes and weathering? And what should I use?

Finally, after all is said and done, what kind of coating should the plane have? Dull? Satin? Gloss? It seems that if it's NMF it should be a gloss or semi. Again, what are your thoughts and what should I use?

Thanks all. Hope to finish it this weekend and then get on the two group builds I committed to.

Pete

Early morn Pete,

 First off, welcome to FSM.. I see you found a great home!! Wow I am really liking your WIP especially the office!! I definitely like the NMF finish as well as for the tones of the NMF..

 When doing your washes, you should try Tempra kids paint which is water based paint and works like a champ. You can find it at area arts and craft shops like Michaels & Niagara Hobby..

 Looking forward to seeing your completed Stang Pete! By the way, I noticed that you are from Buffalo NY.. I am a bit more North of you in Niagara Falls..

 Flaps up,

 Mike

I've got the icm p-51b/c kit in 1/48 scale, detail is great for the price

Wow I like it! It was probably best to paint the red over the decals so the color matches, I think when I do mine i'll make a template from the decal and cut it out from tape to mask it.

Hello again,

The intermittent weather gave me some time to do some work on the P-51. After painting the nose, tail and non-glare panel I began to apply the decals. The red band that goes around the front of the fuselage was a much different red than what I used on the nose. I used MM Insignia Red versus Tamiya rattle can. Beyond that, the yellow wing stripes were too thick and hid the rivets. So I stripped off the aforementioned decals and painted my own bands and nose art. Hope I get an E for effort. I'm pretty happy with it. The yellow was MM Deep Yellow with a drop of Insignia Red. Plane is now half decaled and the weather is brightening up so I need to get back on the honey-do list.

Cheers!

Nice NMF on that 'stang!

If you are using Testors MM enamels, Insignia Red is often used on military kits, it has a little deeper appearance which may need to be lightend up or go with their standard "Red".

Hello all-

I'm back on the build this week (when not working on the honey-do list) and hitting some of the smaller parts. I have a question for those following. The instructions call for Tamiya TS-49 True Red to be used. To my knowledge, it is only available in spray can. I had hoped to airbrush the red. I have never decanted paint for later use, but would be willing if someone could give me a quick tutorial. Also, if there a good match from Testors for this?

Hate to say this, but wishing for rain so I could spend more time on the kit.

Thanks,

Pete

Looking great so far; will definitely be following your build!

Nice finish.

That one's looking good so far. Please keep us updated.                                        Bob H.

Very nice, great looking NMF.

Nice looking finish!  I'd like to admire that up close!  Uh-oh, now I'll have to build one!  I could only hope to achieve those results!

Yes.  All P-51 variants had aluminum gear bays.  Allison Mustangs would have had aluminum painted, then later in the production they were left in bare metal.  On the first ones with bare metal bays, the wing spar would have been chromate yellow.  After a while this was left in bare metal also.  Unfortunately I do not have the exact serial # when these changes took place, but it was during the P-51B/C production.

I have this kit, a long with a few other tamiya mustangs and the accurate miniatures C version for the red tails. I cant wait to see the end result.

Hey Bronto, did all mustangs (including the allison engined versions) have aluminum wheel wells?

The finish looks good.  If its not too late, repaint the gear bays in aluminum.  They weren't green on the P-51.

Hello again,

Well, before I leave the build for two weeks, I thought I would give an update and share some photos. The plane is nearing completion with all of the major steps completed and a lot of the little parts painted up. Too bad I have to leave because I could probably have it done this weekend. Oh well.

Anyways, I am attaching some photos of the priming, black undercoating and metal painting. The initial priming was with Mr Surfacer 1200. I then undercoated with Model Master Gloss Black Lacquer. Although I knew I would be using Alclad Aluminum which supposedly doesn't need black, I decided to follow opinion and practice of others and see what would happen. I'm glad I did, because the Mr Surfacer went down rough which showed up in the black paint. I used all my micro-mesh pads to smooth out the black as best I could.

For the metal finish I used Alclad Aluminum on the wings and started to hit the fuselage with Alclad Aircraft Aluminum. After it set a few minutes I hit it again with just Alclad Aluminum to tone down the brightness. A few hours later I masked off panels and hit them with Alclad Magnesium, Duraluminum and Dull Aluminum. I then hit some of the panels again with the straight Alclad Aluminum. So far I'm happy with the results. I like how turning the plane a certain way shows different metal "tones."

As always I always welcome comments and critiques.

Cheers,
Pete G
Buffalo, NY

 

You only HAVE to have the gloss black for the high shine (chrome, airframe aluminum, etc). I just use it anyway since I like to prime in black for shadowing anyway. He advantage with using gloss black wih any Alclad for me is that it's much easier to ensure coverage.

For NMF I prime with Mr. Surfacer which is great for microfilling and then hit it with black. However, hey make black Mr. S now so that will be unnecessary.

The Alclad gloss black primer is really nice stuff, but Krylon can be decanted and will AB equally well. You just need to remember with decanting that you need to do it a couple of days ahead of time. Spraying aerosol paint out of an airbrush that hasn't degassed will make you very unhappy eventually. It isn't a problem every time, but do it enough and it will be.

My bench time this weekend was a bit limited with some much needed nice weather, but I did manage to get fuselage, wings and horizontal stabilizers on and ready for paint. I'm going to go with a base of Alclad Aluminum (ALC-101) and then hit panels with other Alclads for depth. My question is do I use a regular primer or gloss black. When I did my Nieuport 17 I used Mr Surfacer 1200. Alclad's web site calls for a regular primer, but I know some builders use gloss black. What is the advantage to using gloss black for ALC-101?

Any thoughts and input is appreciated. I hope to complete the paint and get photos up before going out of town for two weeks.

Pete

PS The floor of the cockpit was done in Tamiya Flat Black and some wood was dabbed in to show scuffing.

constructor

Good job on the cockpit. I noticed you painted the floor a dark gray color instead of the wood color.

The floor should be a dark gray /black color.  The wood was covered with a non-skid surface. 

Good job on the cockpit. I noticed you painted the floor a dark gray color instead of the wood color.

My bad. I thought he had switched to a Monogram kit when I saw the name in the post.

PeteG- that's looking really good.   Nice touch with the extra bits added and with the floor scuffing.

You may want to go back and shoot some dullcoat in there as the Tamiya smoke leaves a wicked shine.

Thanks for the info Bronto. I used the D floor board which includes the fuel tank. The cockpit is firmly glued to one side of the fuselage with styrene glue and CA; but I am pretty sure I can still cut the fuel tank out and replace it with B components. I just love to do things at least twice!

AT6, did I miss something?  The title of the article is Tamiya P-51D.  He mentions using a few pieces from a "True Details cockpit set for a Monogram model", which then, I would agree makes it 1/48th.  Pardon me if I'm barking up the wrong tree, its early (for me) here on the west coast!  As for comparison, I remember seeing a "chart" somewhere that put Tamiya at the top and my Fujimi somewhere below; so I went and bought the Tamiya kit for a successful warm up to the possibly challenging Fujimi kit.  My other Fujimi "T-38" still sits in its box after 25+ years due to lack of detail and "sunken" areas of structure coupled with raised panel lines that all need to be sanded off.  Too many corrections and much detail parts and scratch building needed to bring it up to snuff.  (sorry, I'm meandering off topic here)

Being Monogram, that would make it 1/48th. I started oned one in 1988 and still have yet to finish it. Have recently picked up where I left off. For the age of the mold, it is still a very nice kit even if the newer kits have more details.Have thought about trying an ICM Mustang. Does anyone know how they compare to others?

Hey Pete!  Great job!  The front office looks awesome!  Can't wait to see the rest of the build.  What scale is the -51?  Again, great job!

Eagle90

I'll plead ignorance on the both issues. I'm following the directions for the painting, although I don't remember the Hasegawa directions calling for black inside the fuselage. As far as decals, I'd be glad to try something other than the stock. Care to share an item #? Thanks!

Thanks for comments thus far. I'll post updates as I make progress. Sadly, I'll be out of town from July 14-26 so no bench time.