Been a while... Just Completed a P-51D Tribute...
Hey everyone… I hope everyone is doing well. Civil Air Patrol has taken up a good bit of my time as of late, so I haven’t had a lot of bench time. I’m hoping to start working on that however.
A friend of mine just stepped down as the commanding officer of a CAP squadron. Being that the name of the unit was the Mustangs, and given his years of service to the organization and the community, I decided to build him his own stallion.
There’s a few scratch build items on this build, such as the prop and the gear up attitude. I used the Revel 1:48 kit. It’s okay, but I think I’m going to go with Trumpeter the next time. There were a few fit issues, especially with the gear. That said, it went together pretty well.
The only huge problem I had occurred when I shot a coat of clear coat on the first attempt. The only thing I can think of is the humidity was high and it fogged up on me bad. So, I stripped the paint and redid it. I actually liked paint job a lot better. I actually used a 2 parts Tamiya Flat Aluminum to 1 part Tamiya Sky Gray. After it had time to dry, I buffed it out with a soft cloth.
So, for better or worse, here’s “The Iceman Cometh…”
I actually opened up the manafold exhaust using a hot needle. The two "kill flags" are actually Civil Air Patrol find ribbons. Phil actually has three, but couldn't get one confirmed due to a paperwork snafu...
Phil was commander for three years, June 13 - June 16. I did fix the small mistake... Oops.
The tribute was based on the squadron patch...
And Phil with aviation legend Mary Feik at last years Texas Wing Conference. Sadly, we lost her about a month ago.
We presented this to Maj. Phil Rains a few weeks ago at the squadrons Change of Command. Growing up in Civil Air Patrol during the Top Gun days, we all had "call signs." Phil's was, of coarse, Iceman. To say he was touched is an understatement.
I hope everyone enjoyed the build... Off on an Albatross D-5 for my wife now...
Contructive comments are welcome... Raymond