1/48 Monogram P-51D "Detroit Miss"

Well I'm done with this distraction.

Monogram Me 109E by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Monogram Me 109E by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

It is a FUN kit. I'll have to see if I can find the others mentioned on the box side. Its a solid 8/10!

And now back to the reason this thread exists. I'll see if I can make some progress this week. 

plasticjunkie

Fifty year old decals and still good, nothing like good American US quality from yesterday. The newer stuff goes bad after a couple of years. Looking good Mike.

 

Surprising good decals for their age. I mean, less trouble than Cartograph decals, really? The register was not great, but that was easy enough to fix.

I'm hoping the decals for the Stang are going to be as forgiving lol.

I happen to have that 190 in the stash right now! :D

This 109 is definitely a fun kit. It went together really easy and you're left with some self interpretation of the markings. I'd build another one if I had one lol.

That 109E is a fun little kit right? Still I prefer the fw190 -- all those decal/painting options you got right in the box!

Fifty year old decals and still good, nothing like good American US quality from yesterday. The newer stuff goes bad after a couple of years. Looking good Mike.

Hey guys, I've finally made some time to update this build. Unfortunately I haven't done anything this week with it. So here's what I did to it before my most recent distraction.

Monogram P-51D by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I started with a nice, easy to spray Vallejo Irealli Sand base color and built my yellow tones up from dark to highlight.

Monogram P-51D by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Monogram P-51D by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

That's as far as I've gotten with this one because I've been very distracted with this build;

Monogram Me 109E by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Which is the 1970 box release of the 1962 Monogram Me 109E in 1/48 scale. I moved the pilot forward and built that little shelf behind the seat, but other than that I've used a little Perfect Plastic Putty in a few places to close up some minimal gaps. The paint scheme is one of my own choosing using German Camo Dark Green for a base color on the upper sufaces with German Green and U.S. Light Green for the splinter camo and German Field Grey for the splotching along the sides. On the undersides I used German Blue for a base color with German Light Blue for the highlihting and fuselage sides.

The 50 year old decals were a little out of register so I trimmed them and applied them all seperately. They snuggled down easily with multiple applications of Micro Sol. I was really surprised by how well they behaved.

Anyways, I'm almost done with this distraction. It was just so easy to build I kept momentum. Nothing really to explain about that, as we've all been there lol.

Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this update. 

Edit: 

I almost forgot that I was also distracted witht the application of the decals on my Airfix P-40B as well. The main decals are on but I still have all of the stancils to add. Surprisingly the Airfix decals gave me more trouble than the 50 year old Monogram ones. Puzzle that one out! lol

Your plane is looking really sharp.  The yellow looks great, so you do t need this tip, but another way to get a vibrant yellow is to undercoat with a light pink. 

Vallejo can be mildly challenging at times, there's no doubt about that. I haven't had any luck with their flow improver yet. I need another in-line air valve because that helped a lot.

My work station on the table just got cleared so that's going to slow me down because it's all in little boxes now lol.

I'm wishing I'd just sanded the seams on the nose and didn't scribe the panel lines. They didn't turn out as good as I'd thought they would and they are slightly bowed on the port side and down the center of the nose. I won't be doing that with the next one. I've seen amazing results with this kit, including Keydas. 

I'll update as soon as I can.

I'm looking forward to the updated shots Mike. I use Vallejo paints on most of my aircraft builds. I have to clean the needle often and thin it down as much as I can get by with and just go with super light coats. 

Hi There;

     Hey Mike! I have one of those under construction. Yep, been about three years in the building, because of other things, But she's going to be O.O.B. intentionally! I love the idea of looking at Monogram's Kits that had working features and comparing them to my Hasy and Tammy Planes.

     I still have many old Mono kits in stash and I think many more will be O.O.B.. My others will be weathered and detailed and panel line corrected. When I correct Panel lines I fill the line in. I prep the plane for paint and prime the bejayses out of it. Then very lightly have some of those lines noticeable .Then I foil or paint the plane.

     As to panel lines. Everyone has their own way of doing these things and there's always been controversy over do you or don't you. Do what you like. I personally do not emphasize every line on the plane. They don't show up on real planes until you're so close you can see yourself in the finish. That is my guide and garnered from working on Falcon 20s,30s and 10s.That is unless they are old Warbirds where the panels are noticeable from age and fatigue! Or in the case of some where the panels actually overlapped!

No doubt. And I realized I was spraying at too high a pressure. It's all good now though because I buffed it down smooth. It looks better now. 

Sorry I didn't get those pictures posted last night. The wife and I had things to attend to after I got off work and came home to crash early.

Looks good Mike. I think if you thin the Vallejo Air a bit it sprays smoother.  I thinned and added flow improver for the RLM 84 I shot on the 109K I'm presently working on and went on pretty smooth. I usually don't use Vallejo but I had this RLM color I needed.

Thank you. I do have pictures, but I need to post them. I've not made much progress since I have started a new job working the yard for Platt electrical supply. I'll at least post the links for now.

https://flic.kr/p/2kFARX

https://flic.kr/p/2kFBp5E

I have a few more, but this should slake your thirst for now. There is a bit of orange peel to it I'm going to have to give a little buffing to, but the color is intense lol.

Nice to see this oldie getting some love Mike.  I look forward to seeing it finished.

mustang1989

Looking forward to watching you smooth all that out Mike. 

 

I think I've got it almost ready. One more shot of primer should do. I did get stuck playing with one of the kits I got for my birthday, a Monogram Me 109E in the old light blue "quarter scale" box. I'm finding the kit is a joy to build and I'm mostly done and almost ready for primer. 

I also received an old "quarter scale" Hawk P-51D coated in an Aluminum finish that is only missing the nose tip, but came with extra decals and an Aires resin cockpit. I'm not so sure the kit needs the Aires upgrade, but it's beautiful and I may just build it for display along side my mustangs.

I will be uploading pictures later.

Looking forward to watching you smooth all that out Mike. 

That is an excellent idea, regarding the exhausts, both for this kit and for the P-40.  I never thought of it, but that simplifies things.  And that's the best kind of solution-simple.

I suppose I should have thought of that. It's the easiest solution and kind of a "duh" answer. I will remember that for the next one. 

I wouldn't mind getting into a Monogram Mustang build group. That sounds pretty cool.

I found a way. You have to first create some sort of jig/bracing inside the nose  to hold the exhaust in their proper position.  Then you trim away all the excess backing on the exhaust so it can be inserted from the outside.  

BTW, Do you feel a Monogram P-51D group build coming in 2022?  

I'd like to find a clever way to handle exactly that, but they designed the exhaust stacks the same way they did for the P-40 where they get inserted early in the build because the tip of the nose goes on after the fuse halves are closed up. 

That wouldn't be a problem if the nose tip fit without sanding.

Next time I would modify those exhaust stacks so they can be inserted after fuselage buttoned up. I think they're going to take a beating 

Well I've made a right, proper mess of things. lol!

Monogram P-51D by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Monogram P-51D by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Commence hours of sanding...

Chemteacher

She’s looking great. That was one of my favorite kits when I built as a teen. Great tip on the undercoating with tan for the yellow. Never thought of that. Thanks so much.

 

My top favorite is still the P-40, but this kit in peticular is a close second. I've got the Stuka and the Confederate Airforce release of the Airacobra too. 

And when I get my butt over to Dad's this weekend I'll have the old light blue box release of the Me 109 and the white box release of the 190 to enjoy as well.

You're more than welcome for the painting tip. Anything I do and share is up for grabs lol.

crown r n7

That does bring back youtful days lol 

 

Oh, very much so, yes.

mustang1989

My hat goes off to you for tackling these older kits Mike. Great work so far.

 

They're perfect for skill advancement. Such kits make us all better at building the newer and easier kits that have been released in recent years. I enjoy them a lot.

the Baron

Great project, Mike!  I think this kit still holds up well today.  This was from Monogram's golden age.

Yeah, the canopy.  It's like the canopy on their P-47D bubbletop, too.  I use the kit canopies but I pose them open.  Then the fit isn't really that noticable.

Speaking of undercoating yellows, I use white, myself.  I do that for reds, too.  Whatever we use, it really does help to base first.  I've never had a red or yellow paint that didn't benefit from an undercoat.

 

I always make sure my canopies line up and I've developed techniques that help make that possible. For example, I'm finding that when I modified the canopy on the Banshee that I now have a very large area to cover over the pilot. Ive got some clear acetate that will do the job, but its a much larger opening than the orriginal piece I cut out. I may have to compensate somewhere else to get the dimensions corrected. These are puzzles I enjoy lol.

Now, see, I have issues with getting white to cover properly and thats why I prefer to lay down a light grey first. We all have our little tricks lol.

And youre right, this kit can still hold its own if you give it the effort. I can hardly wait to see how the Airfix kit builds up. Im looking forward to that! lol

cbaltrin

Mike,  I posted pictures of my Detroit Miss on  the old  Show us Your Revell Monogram Builds Thread. You can check it out over there.  There seems to be an issue with that thread though as it always gives you an ERROR message at first, but if you Click on the Order by Decending Tab, it seems to fix the issue.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/p/134679/2152733.aspx#2152733

Also,  Wobly panel lines are definatley not copacetic! 

 

Gawd, now thats a beautiful build! I keep forgetting about that thread lol. Thank you for sharing that!

She’s looking great. That was one of my favorite kits when I built as a teen. Great tip on the undercoating with tan for the yellow. Never thought of that. Thanks so much.