Revell 1/48 P-51D Mustang Finished!

oortiz10

Hey Keyda81, I have BBD on my To Do list too. (Doesn't every Mustang fan?) You did a beautiful scheme justice. Nice work, especially on the checkers. Great job!

-O

 

Thank you!

Hey Keyda81, I have BBD on my To Do list too. (Doesn't every Mustang fan?) You did a beautiful scheme justice. Nice work, especially on the checkers. Great job!

-O

Hoss WA

Excellent work on a very nice scheme. Congrats!  

 

Thank you!

Excellent work on a very nice scheme. Congrats!  

Thanks Baron!

Mike, Putting a clear coat on it made the one piece I tried it on turn gray.  Used the metalizer sealer, and that didn't change the finish any.  I've tried metalizer before, but that didn't quite give the results I was looking for.  Works good for doing exhaust cans though.  Thank you!

Thanks stik!  Beginners luck maybe!

Thanks goldhammer!  I have done a good amount of improving over the years.  I've learned some patience, lol.  Building Mini Whiskey 7 really helped with that.  Showed myself I could do it.

Thanks keavdog!

That turned out fantastic.  By far my favorite of your builds.  Nice work on the NMF - surface prep is everything and you nailed it.  Well done!

Beautiful build.  Impressed with your progress over the past few years.

Bravo Keyda!!! That is some super work that you pulled off here! And first time using the AK Extreme Metal stuff? You could be an ad for the stuff. 

That is a supreme finish. I still haven't mastered a NMF as they keep turning out dull and grey for me.

I'm obviously doing it wrong.

Keyda, if there are any wrinkles in that checkerboard pattern they don't show up in your pictures. That's beautiful!

Nicely done!

Nice finish, Keyda!  Nice job with the decals, checkboards are always a challenge.

Thanks cbaltrin!

Thank you fotofrank!

Thanks Shipwreck!  Just glad I get to share stuff with you fine folks! 

Great build, Keyda. I'm gonna hafta attempt that checkerboard pattern on one of my builds!

Nice job!

UnwaryPaladin, I landed up just leaving the gun doors closed.  The checkered pattern was actually relatively easy to do, just a bit time consuming and tedious.  Helps if you have different width washi masking tape. 

So I finished this up last night.  I didn't do a ton of weathering, kept it mostly clean.  Although being in the warbird community myself I find most warbirds are leaking oil from somewhere, lol.  The few P-51's I have seen were pretty clean though.  I'm assuming their owners spend a lot of time fixing and cleaning, lol.

Not perfect, but what is?  There are still a couple wrinkles in the checkerboard on the nose.  I'm not over the moon with the paint either.  It isn't a very durable finish.  It rubbed off in a few places that I later touched up.  I suppose the next P-51 will have to be a Tamiya kit, lol.

UnwaryPaladin

Looking great! You did a nice job with the gun doors, I've built this kit twice and couldn't get them to fit as well as yours. 

Incidentally, my dad says the gun doors on this kit are not like the ones on the P-51's he worked on in the PA ANG. If I recall correctly, he said they would load with the ammo box, not belts, so they would not open the long panel. He also said the guns were not cocked until the plane was on the runway positioned for takeoff. 

 And I am wrong! Just had dinner with my parents, asked my dad about the gun bay doors. He said the doors are the same, but in doing his job he never had to open the long panel. Another crew would load the ammo belts, his job was to feed the first round and *** the guns just prior to take off. So they probably wouldn't have both panels open at the same time, but that's how I did mine!

 

Your painting turned out fantastic!! Very inspiring, gonna have to try it on the checkered tail and prop hub of the p-47 currently occupying the bench.

Spent the entire afternoon working on painting, and doing touch-ups. 

Started off with painting the red lines around the wing tips, and on the sides of the fuselage.

Then spent a couple hours working on decals.  There are a few wrinkles in the checkerboard on the nose, which doesn't surprise me.  Honestly not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Might even lay down after I let it dry for a while longer.

I have to say I'm not a fan of the fact that I had to layer decals.  Never had to do that before, and you have to do it with the "Big Beautiful Doll" script, the WZ and I, and a few smaller ones. 

Other than throwing a coat of sealer over the decals I'm done for today.  Maybe finish it up tomorrow.

jeaton01

I may be living on the wild side but I don't usually put a clear coat on decals when it's a natural metal finish.

 

With my luck I would stick my finger on a decal while I'm doing weathering and final assembly, and pull it off.  I've done it before.  So I feel like I need to seal the decals with something. 

Thanks UnwaryPaladin!  The gun doors fit fine, lol.  The one landing gear door however, but it will be gear down, so it doesn't really matter, just used it to mask off my already painted gear bays.  I will keep that in mind, and not leave the long panel open, just the small one.  If I display it open. 

Looking great! You did a nice job with the gun doors, I've built this kit twice and couldn't get them to fit as well as yours. 

Incidentally, my dad says the gun doors on this kit are not like the ones on the P-51's he worked on in the PA ANG. If I recall correctly, he said they would load with the ammo box, not belts, so they would not open the long panel. He also said the guns were not cocked until the plane was on the runway positioned for takeoff. 

I may be living on the wild side but I don't usually put a clear coat on decals when it's a natural metal finish.

Thanks Mike!  I'm going to try.  I need to touch up a few spots, paint my red lines, then likely go for decals, and then the metalizer sealer to keep it as shiney as possible but still seal the decals. 

Thanks goldhammer!  I would actually like give bare metal foil a try one of these days too.

Second Mike there.  You have nailed the AK metal for a first attempt.  I see more of that finish in your future.

That is top notch work with those checkers! I really hope you can keep the finish the way it is. That's flat out gorgeous.

the Baron

Yep, well-played with the spinner!

 

If Mike hadn't mentioned it, it would likely have gone unnoticed until later on, and I would of been swearing about it, lol. 

Got quite a bit of painting done today.  I also did a little experiment.  Glad I did.  Painted with AK Extreme Metal Polished Aluminum.  My first time trying the stuff.

I wondered what affect clear gloss would have on the finish, so I opted to paint the scoop that goes underneath with a quick coat of gloss, the results were not good.

Compared to the plane you can clearly see it turned the paint into a shade of gray.

So I opted to test out what Model Master Metalizer sealer does.  The drop tank on the left is just the metal paint, the one on the right is with MM metalizer sealer, and the scoop with Testor's gloss clear.

I will have to use the metalizer sealer on top of the decals.  I'm glad something works without totally messing up the finish.  There is a slight difference, but I'm okay with it.

So once I figured all that out it was time to mask off for a bunch of stuff, checkered wing tips, black tail, wing root walk ways, and the OD anti-glare.

Halfway through the checkers.

All done for the night.  I am going to have some touch ups, and I'll need to paint some very thin red lines in a few places, but that is for tomorrow.  With any luck I'll be done before the weekend.

Yep, well-played with the spinner!

M. Brindos

You handled that like a pro. Excellent. I'm sorry for doubting your talent. I kinda feel like a jerk now lol.

 

No worries Mike!

You handled that like a pro. Excellent. I'm sorry for doubting your talent. I kinda feel like a jerk now lol.

M. Brindos

I'm surprised you didn't attach the forward nose piece. You'll have to putty the piece in to blend it to the rest of the nose.

If you go back to my picture you'll see I used melted sprue so I can scribe those panels in.  The nose on this kit is almost as bad as the P-40B. I'm finding I have to be very careful how I plan my assembly.

I have the propeller hub assembly as a separate piece and I had to thicken the shaft so if fits by friction so I could get that nose all solidified.

I am curious. What is your plan?

 

The nose piece was listed further along in the instructions, so I hadn't paid attention to it at the time.  I did install it, and used some putty to fill in the missing chunk.  I sanded down the main seam along the nose, even though there is a natural seam line there.  It was looking pretty bad.  Then I just scribed a line down the middle, and used a pointed scribe tool to add screw heads back in along either side of the panel line. 

Thanks aggieman!

You're making good progress on this classic 'Stang kit.