'Zebra-striped' Polish Pony - Revell 1/32 P-51B Mustang FINISHED w/full photos

Ah my favorite type of project- dressing up an old kit! Sweet!

stikpusher

Ah my favorite type of project- dressing up an old kit! Sweet!

Part 2 - Cockpit

Despite being developed for the Trumpeter kit, the Aires set seems to fit the Revell version like a glove. Mainly resin parts, with photoetch (and photo-printed on clear) insets for the main panel, along with etch belts that I chose not to use in favor of an old set of Verlinden buckles, with plain masking-tape belts. I added a scattering of Eduard color data-plates (and my own home-made decal versions), along with a very few handles and such. [Two odd omissions from the Aires set--which may be catered for in the Trumpeter kit, which I've never seen--were the main throttle, and the distinctive floor-mounted emergency hand pump beside the seat. I scratchbuilt the pump; for the throttle I adapted an old Waldron Products version designed for the Spitfire.]

On with the show:

Ooooohhhhhh!!! Now THAT'S nice! Definitely following this one.

Devil Dawg

Ooooohhhhhh!!! Now THAT'S nice! Definitely following this one.

Thanks, Gary!

No pics of the 'boring stuff' yet, but the wings & stabilizers are on (w/ most filling & sanding done), just getting ready to fix and drop the flaps.

Just noticed that you live in Towson, Greg. I used to live in Columbia, MD, from 1995 - 1997 (moved there straight outta the Marines to get my first civilian job). That's an EXPENSIVE area to live in. But, you can't beat all the history that you can go visit in that area, either. Makes putting up with all the traffic worth it.

Gary Mason

Devil Dawg

Just noticed that you live in Towson, Greg. I used to live in Columbia, MD, from 1995 - 1997 (moved there straight outta the Marines to get my first civilian job). That's an EXPENSIVE area to live in. But, you can't beat all the history that you can go visit in that area, either. Makes putting up with all the traffic worth it.

Gary Mason

Gary, my part of Towson is the solid middle-class end, not nearly as 'toney' as most of Columbia! (In actual fact, my neighborhood was the home of several of the 'Old Colts' players during the '50s and '60s...back in the days when players worked off-season in bowling alleys and liquor stores to make ends meet, just like ordinary Joes!)

Still, a very nice place to live...and as you said, lots of interesting stuff to see and do nearby. (Plus lots of interesting 'stuff' in the airways above, with regular overflights by MD. National Guard A-10s and more rarely-seen birds transiting to the DC area. I even saw a Skycrane over the house a week or so ago, a first-ever for spotting that particular type!)

Thanks, Joe!

Making steady progress. Here's a generic shot of the beast pre-primer, with flaps dropped and ready to paint. Black on the canopy areas are some nice Montex masks (using that brand for the first time, and delighted with them so far!) Other masking is decidedly 'low-tech': Saran-wrap for the exhausts, post-it paper for the cockpit, and paper towel scrap stuffed into the intake undermeath!

Since I limited myself to the kit's 'shrouded' exhausts, I've decided to 'do 'er up' as an RAF Mustang III which still happened to have that particular configuration. I should add that...as has always been the case...the canopy parts fit for this kit is pretty awful. I hacked the 'hinge holders' for the original greenouse parts off and cleaned up the surfaces to a more-or-less acceptable degree...and narrowed down the 15-degree backward tilt of the windscreen to something a bit less obvious...but a test-fit of the 'Malcolm hood' shows it won't fit well either opened or closed, so that's a bridge yet-to-be-burned when we come to it! Marching on....

Thanks for checking in!

TREYZX10R

Excellent work on the upgrades , this is really popping!

I've yet to try that method, but I've seen others make it work.

I'm eagerly waiting for the green. :)

M. Brindos

I've yet to try that method, but I've seen others make it work.

I'm eagerly waiting for the green. :)

"Ask, and ye shall receive...."

It's a great way to reproduce that 'soft hard line' separation so typical of so many camouflage schemes, and which photos show for the Mustang IIIs I'm doing. Only two tricks are to keep the Silly Putty height reasonably consistent, and to remember to spray away from the masked edge instead of into it; almost no touch-ups or corrections are required.

It was another dry day, so I got a start on the invasion stripes as well: this masking took as long as all the masking and painting so far, put together! I used a grey-tinted 'eggshell' white to take some of the chroma off.

I'm expecting masking the black stripes will take a little less time. It's somewhat a dilemma: it's one of those cases where photos show the stripes on the particular a/c I'm doing are pretty ragged...but if you make it too 'accurate,' it tends to just look like sloppy paintwork on the model. Some 'artistic' license may be called for.

Awesome craftsmanship!

Your Friend, Toshi

Nice!

Thanks, Mike and Toshi!

Just found this thread and so glad I did.

Good to see a 1/32 airplane, and this good 'ol Revell, well, it is outstanding to see what you are doing with it.

So much to comment on, but I'll limit it to saying how impressive you engine detailing is, and I'd never seen that masking method before, so than you for that alone, Greg.

Greg

So much to comment on, but I'll limit it to saying how impressive you engine detailing is, and I'd never seen that masking method before, so than you for that alone, Greg.

I wish I could take credit for it.

I'm pretty sure I gleaned it from some IPMS publication, back in the early years of home printers. Being able to match drawing to model contours really helps reduce the 'fool factor' in locating camouflage...something I'm always grateful for!

My nostalgic old pony is finished, so I figure I'll post a 'teaser'; there doesn't seem to be any point in posting the full photo barrage and details until after the web gurus get finished with their overhaul come mid-week.

Here she is, spiffed-up and mission-ready in the colors of the RAF's 315 (Polish) Squadron:

Well, the teaser shot is a teaser indeed! Wow!

stikpusher

Well, the teaser shot is a teaser indeed! Wow!

Thanks, Stik!

gregbale

My nostalgic old pony is finished, so I figure I'll post a 'teaser'; there doesn't seem to be any point in posting the full photo barrage and details until after the web gurus get finished with their overhaul come mid-week.

Here she is, spiffed-up and mission-ready in the colors of the RAF's 315 (Polish) Squadron:

 

Dang, Mr. Bale!! She's bee-yoo-tee-ful!! I'll just send you my P-51 and you can build it for me! Ain't no way mine will look that good.

Gary Mason

Devil Dawg

I'll just send you my P-51 and you can build it for me! Ain't no way mine will look that good.

I'll do anything but the [expletive] canopy. Too much damn trouble!

But seriously, thanks Gary! For being such an aged waffle of a kit, I'm pretty chuffed with how it came out.

I'll put the rest of the shots up in a few days.

The amount of details you added to that old kit is nothing short of impressive.

Very well done!

Here she is: Revell's '60s-vintage 1/32 P-51B Mustang in a 1983 boxing, with the RAF-style Malcolm hood as the included canopy option. The aircraft depicted is the second of three Mustang Mk. III's flown by renowned Polish ace Eugeniusz 'Dziubek' Horbaczewski, C/O of No. 315 (Polish) Squadron.

Besides the engine and cockpit work outlined previously, the only major addition was a nice set of Barracuda resin wheels and block-tread tires to replace the kit's pretty featureless ones. The old kit actually includes underwing pylons--which I had completely forgotten--but no stores; I happened to have a set of True Details resin Napalm tanks unused from another project, so I just 'retro-d' them back to their original 75-gallon drop tank configuration. (This aircraft's last combat outing with Horbaczewski at the controls was a long-range Beaufighter-escort mission to Norway, so the tanks are a fitting addition.)

Paints are Tamiya acrylics; the excellent decals are from Techmod's extensive 'Polish Mustangs' sheet.

[BTW, the rough-edges and uneven spacing of the invasion stripes are actually 'toned down' from what photos show for the real aircraft. There's a short clip on YouTube of Horbaczewski 'rolling out' for takeoff, showing parts of the fuselage stripes on both sides of the a/c...and they look like they were painted by a blind man. (Or an aircrewman in a hurry, who had better things to attend to!)]

Biggest challenge was the kit's pretty awful clear parts; big square 'hinge holders' (for the original greenhouse-style canopy) had to be carefully chiseled from both windscreen and quarter-lights, and those areas made smooth and clear again. The Malcolm hood part was too short length-wise to be displayed closed, and too short in height to fit in an open position. I ended up adding on extensions in the way of the 'sliding' portion of the bubble to stretch the height a bit, but it's still a very near thing.

Despite quite a few published profile illustrations to the contrary, this particular a/c was the only one of Horbaczewski's (3) Mustangs to carry invasion stripes; FB382 was flown from mid-June through July 1944, until 'traded in' for the more-frequently-depicted FB387--the aircraft bearing the well-known victory tally for his four V-1 kills. [It is possible that FB382 was marked for one or more V-1 victories as well, though no photographic evidence seems to exist to show them.]

The third-highest-scoring Polish fighter ace was KIA on 18 August 1944 during a 'Rodeo' mission over France; he was credited with 3 Fw190s during that flight before he himself was shot down, for a final total of 16.5 aircraft confirmed (and one probable) with 4 V-1 missiles destroyed.

Very nicely done bird all around.  Paint is perfection to my eyes,with justenough "wear and tear".

As an aside, my lady grew up in Towson in the 50's to mid 60's.  Her folks had the Dairy Bar business and did some catering.

Hello!

It's good to see a machine in Polish markings, and it's lookin' very nice, too!

I remember reading about Horbaczewski when I was young. They say he was a "city street boy" from Warsaw and he had this nickname - "Dziubek" which can be translated to English as "Beaky" or "Face", because that's how Horbaczewski adressed most of the people he was talking to. The book also said that he also had the habit of holding his interlocutor (the one he was talkin to) by his shirt button... Try to imagine that, someone grabbing you by the shirt button and saying: "Dziubek, how was your date yesterday?".

Anyhow, thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

That’s a beautiful bird!