1/48 Tamiya P-51D Mustang, Big Beautiful Doll, Col. John Landers, May 1945

I picked up Tamiya's venerable 1/48 P-51D Mustang "8th Air Force Aces" at a recent show and decided to take a crack at Col. John Landers' Big Beautiful Doll. I know this has been done a zillion times, but it's a great marking scheme and it came with the kit. 

In February 1945, After multiple assignments in the Pacific and Europe, Colonel Landers took command of the 78th Fighter Group at RAF Duxford, England, where he remained until June of 1945. 

On the left hand side of the fuselage is the kill tally for Colonel Landers. In total  there are 36.5, of which 6 are Japanese aircraft, 14.5 are aerial and the remainder are ground victories. The half kill is for a shared downing of a Messerschmitt Me 262 on 30 March 1945.

I built it strictly OOB, conforming to the new IPMS "Basic Kit Build" rules -- no PE, resin, major surgery, etc.

I made a few tweaks such as hollowing out the exhaust and machine gun barrel tips. I also reshaped the prop blades to remove the excessive cuff angle. 

There were quite a few seams to fill and cleanup actions required. Lots of panel line scribing and fastener additions. I used CA glue mixed with dental acrylic to deal with most of the seams and the results were good. 

Since this is was NMF subject, the surface was prepped with a good dose of micromesh elbow grease, from 1500 to 12000. A couple of coats of black Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 followed, which were then micromeshed 1500 to 12000. Next was a coat of Mr. Color GX2 gloss black for the subsequent metallic paints. 

All paints were Mr. Color lacquers with Super metallics for the NMF areas. The main metal color is SM01 Super Fine Silver. Several panels were also selectively painted SM03 stainless and SM03 iron, along with some that had some metallic black added in. The wings are painted 1:1 silver and light gray. The antiglare panel is OD. 

The decals were by Cartograph and were flawless. The red, white and black trim is all part of the decal marking scheme. 

A gloss coat was followed by a series of oil washes for panel lines and fading and shading. I added some light weathering to capture ~ 6 months of wear that the plane would have seen from its delivery in Dec 44 until its depiction in May 45. 

I added some wear around the wing walks and ammo covers using sponge chipping, colored pencils, oil washes, spatter templates, and a thin black/brown mix to represent wear and grime. 

I used Mr. Surfacer to fill in the wing panel lines that were puttied on the actual Mustangs to improve aerodynamic performance. 

For the seatbelt, I cut out the decal from the decal sheet and glued it to the seat. It's not perfectly realistic, but it's better than nothing or simply applying the decal. After a gloss coat, wash and flat coat, the seatbelts look OK for strictly OOB. The IP using the kit decal is serviceable. I handpainted a bunch of placards and labels throughout the cockpit for some added interest.