Revell 1/32 P-51D-5NA Mustang - Work in progress

Hi gents,

The office is finally ready for closing up.

Best,

Nikola

Ooooooooo, niiiiiiiiiiiice!

That is some excellent paint work, for sure.

M. Brindos

Ooooooooo, niiiiiiiiiiiice!

That is some excellent paint work, for sure.

 

Thank you very much Mike! Appreciated! I am very glad that you like it. Helps to keep the momentum in a slow process. :)

Best,

Nikola

Simply outstanding 

Fantastic work with the wood grain and worn black. And purely fantastic on all fronts!

How are you finding the kit overall? I haven't built any large scale models and wouldnt mind doing some larger warbirds after I get over the sci-fi binge Ive got going at the moment.

Cheers,

Josh

Excellent!

Josh_the_painter

Simply outstanding 

Fantastic work with the wood grain and worn black. And purely fantastic on all fronts!

How are you finding the kit overall? I haven't built any large scale models and wouldnt mind doing some larger warbirds after I get over the sci-fi binge Ive got going at the moment.

Cheers,

Josh

 

Thank you very much Josh! Appreciated!

I'm very glad that you like it so far.

As for the kit, I like it so far. It's my first 1/32 build so I don't really have anything in that scale to compare it with yet. The plastic is really good to work with, not too soft nor too hard. Some parts cleaning is required, but not too much. 

I noticed some deformations on the canopy  glass though and will have to check what's going on.

Best,

Nikola

jeaton01

Excellent!

 

Thank you Jeaton! Appreciated!

Best,

Nikola

Nice looking office. Amazing detail and beautiful paintwork.  

Hoss WA

Nice looking office. Amazing detail and beautiful paintwork.  

 

Thank you Hoss! Appreciated.

Best,

Nikola

Exhausts drilled out. Turned out OK, although still too thick for the scale but I did not dare to use a larger drill. This was pushing it already. 

Best,

Nikola

Your cockpit it looking great. I'm going to enjoy watching this come together!

Hi Nikola;

       That is one fine job on the office. I bet the rest will be as good. Watching here just for that.

Hi Nikola;

     Here's a tip. Next time take the molded exhaust ports off completely and replace them with one of two things. Do you have Coffee shops near you? Use the little plastic coffee stirrers that are like little straws, very thin wall or brass tubing that you can thin with an X-Acto knife spun around inside or use a round file.

   That way you won't have to drill the scudders out anymore!

You can still go with a larger bit and carefully expand the hole. Don’t rush it, take your time and go light.

Another option more labor intensive is to drill out each stack and replace each with thin brass tubing, each glued on with thick ca. 

The easy way out is just to get resin am ones. Do what makes you comfortable and happy.

Tanker-Builder

Hi Nikola;

       That is one fine job on the office. I bet the rest will be as good. Watching here just for that.

 

Thanks TB! Appreciated. Glad you like it so far.

Will try not to dissapoint. :)

Best,

Nikola

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Appreciated.

I'll see if I'll dare to drill further since the plastic is kind of on the softer side and I am afraid that I'll mess it up.

Best,

Nikola 

Hi gents,

Fuselage buttoned up. The fit is very good and it all went together without any fuss, except that the top part of the fuselage required some extra pressure. Good engineering by Radu Brinzan.

Best,

Nikola

Question guys - did early D's have the entire wheel well in YZC or just the structural elements? 

Thanks in advance. 

Best, 

Nikola

Nikola

Question guys - did early D's have the entire wheel well in YZC or just the structural elements? 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

Best, 

Nikola

 

 

Lol you forgort you asked this same question in the early postings and I answered:

"From what I have read, early Ds had the ZC main spar only.  Complete ZC wells appeared from block 20 on. "

  
The Mustang is looking great  

plasticjunkie

 

 

Nikola

Question guys - did early D's have the entire wheel well in YZC or just the structural elements? 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

Best, 

Nikola

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lol you forgort you asked this same question in the early postings and I answered:

 

"From what I have read, early Ds had the ZC main spar only.  Complete ZC wells appeared from block 20 on. "

  
The Mustang is looking great  

 

 

Did I? Haha, man this is taking long.

Thanks PJ. Appreciated.

I also found this (an excerpt from a much longer text by Dana Bell):

''By 1944, the AAF was receiving complaints about corrosion in a number of aircraft, including the Mustang. Some unspecified action was required, particularly to reduce dissimilar metal corrosion between structural members and skin panels. Some manufacturers gave the structure a coat of yellow zinc chromate before adding the skin. Some left the structure unprimed and gave the inner surface of the skin a coat of yellow zinc chromate. It's not clear how North American handled the problem, but there is one undated color shot of a P-51D (or K) production line showing the entire wheel well primed in yellow.
This is just a general explanation - it won't help you know what color the wheel wells would be on any particular aircraft. But you can make your own informed decisions based on the date you suspect any particular aircraft (and not just a Mustang) was manufactured.''

''Desert Rat'' is from 1944 so I guess YZC all around. Not 100% sure of course. Revell shows all YZC.

Best,

Nikola

He also says:

''As part of the cost- and time-savings measures, all other non-cockpit interior areas were left in unpainted aluminum finish. Since there were several grades of aluminum present, this led to corrosion issues on the Mustang, and at some point (I've not been able to pin down a date or place in production) wheel wells began to appear in overall yellow zinc chromate. I know for sure that this happened late in P-51D production. The problems had certainly been identified during B and C production, and fixes were ordered, I just can't find proof that these earlier models actually got the fix.

If, for any reason, a second coat of primer was applied to the wheel well, it would have been green zinc chromate (by that time, the same as Interior Green). I haven't seen evidence of that during WWII, but it could have happened.

As for aluminum lacquer with a yellow spar, that's the one option that didn't happen and actually makes the least sense. The object was to save money and time, so most corrosion control finishes were eliminated. If aluminized lacquer WAS used, it would have been used to overspray the entire well. (Leaving the main spar in yellow in a lacquered well was made more difficult by wartime shortages of both Magic Mask and Parafilm.)

I'm afraid "current thinking" is wrong on this one - there is no evidence of aluminum lacquered wheel wells with a yellow main spar, while there are plenty of photos of overall yellow P-51 wells.
You've got to ask yourself how the manufacturer would have been able to paint the well aluminum without getting any overspray on the spar, or why anyone should even attempt such a thing.''

Best,

Nikola

Regarding the color question for the wells, it's your model and go with what makes you happy. 
I suspect that even the early Stangs got them painted as pm service occured.

Hoo Boy!

 I didn't know the radiator intake was so detailed in that kit. I will have tocheck it out on mine. But, I gotta say it's looking  good!

plasticjunkie

Regarding the color question for the wells, it's your model and go with what makes you happy. 
I suspect that even the early Stangs got them painted as pm service occured.

 

I agree PJ.

As one fellow modeller put it nicely:

"I think this is a case of - do what you want and are comfortable with. 

Who really knows what supplies were at the factory that day - Line Mgr says -"I don't care! Get it out the factory door! There's 25 more behind it!", at the staging depot for updates and corrections (we called it the "hospital" at the auto factory I worked with) - The painter says "Hey boss, I ran out of YZC/ GZC and that one didn't get done - Reply "I don't care get it on the ship! it leaves tonight!", at the front line the crew chief says "Hey Capt. Jones I can't let this one go up, the wheel wells might corrode. Reply - I don't care I'll take here up now and tonight you can paint it with red barn paint for all I care, just fuel it and arm it 'cause I'm on for tomorrow too."

Best,

Nikola

Well gents, it's finally starting to look like an airplane. :)

Wings are on, as well as the rudder, horizontal stabilizers, elevators and ailerons.

Wheel well is mostly finished with some touch ups and details to be done, but that's basically that, OOB.

The fit is very good, but I must say that the wings required some persuasion to fit in place since I had to do slight sanding and hard pushing in place (very tight fit). This is as close as I could get it. Some sandpaper will finish the job. 

The engineering of the stabilizer connection is interesting as they interlock between each other within the connection to the fuselage (pics below). Basically, there was no aligning required, although I think that the left stabilizer is off by a hairline. Not sure. I couldn't do anything about it though.

Thanks for looking!

Best,

Nikola

Wow, that's looking fantastic

7474

Wow, that's looking fantastic

 

 

Thank you 7474. Appreciated. Glad that you like it so far.

Best,

Nikola

Fellow modeller and I apparently got a bad batch since we both have bad shaped rudder (another fellow's kit had no issues) so there was some fixing to be done. 

Not perfect but good enough. :)

Best,

Nikola

Before:

After:

Nicola, You are doing a great job on this. I built this kit about a year ago and really enjoyed it. I have 2 more in my stash. One question, do you have a link on where I may be able to purchase that stand that is in your photos?

learmech64

Nicola, You are doing a great job on this. I built this kit about a year ago and really enjoyed it. I have 2 more in my stash. One question, do you have a link on where I may be able to purchase that stand that is in your photos?

 

Thank you very much Learmech, appreciated. Glad that you like it so far. I agree, it is very fun to build. :)

As for the berth (jig), here is the link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223618646971

Best,

Nikola