I've been away from the bench for a while dealing with the a flooded basement. A faulty sump pump resulted in 6 inches of water down there after that Labor Day monsoon. Fortunately my basement is not finished and modeling area was salvaged. I figured share my latest modeling project since I got back up running. I decided to drag out an oldie but goodie, the Tamiya P-51B.
I'm still in 4th FG mode, so I went with the cover art subject, Don Gentile's famous Shangra La. Gentile was known as the "Ace of Aces" and was the leading ace in the 8th Air Force up until April of 1944 when he "Pranged his kite" and was sent home by Don Blakeslee. He finished with just over 19 kills in 350 combat missions.
I started with the pit. The Tamiya pit is decent out of the box, and in my opinion, better than their D kit. One issue is the floor is depicted as in a A model, which was metal. Merlin powered P-51s had wooden floors. Instead of surgery, I just painted it to look like wood figuring nobody would be able to tell. I also forewent the black rubber coating to add interest. I added a color PE instrument panel and seat belts. I also added a few placard decals here and there.
Fuselage together, no issues.
The kit guns are typical 90's Tamiya, just blobs. I replaced them with Albion Alloy Brass tubing.
I was here quickly. Aside from the lower radiator, these fall together. More on that next.
As with their D model, This is the worst area fit-wise on this kit. Thisis how I deal with it. I sand, rescribe, then replace the missing detail with plasticard.
After I added the red 4th FG red nose, then the white wing stripes, I taped those areas off. I used AK Interactive Real Colors and toggled between the Olive Drab 41 and Faded Olive for a worn look.
The underside got AK Neutral Grey and was faded by adding a bit of white.
I then added the stars and bars with Montex. I'm finding them easier to apply after the paint job now.
Shangra La specific decals were by Kitsworld and performed flawlessly. After an X-22/MLT gloss cote, I gave it an AK paneliner wash. That's where I left off.
