Mighty 8th GB 1-Nov-2010 - 31-Oct-2011

ww2psycho

The Tuskegee Airment Mustang looks like Tamiya Quality, the A-36 looks like it will ned some work. Not terrible fit but it seems like different plastic.

I've noticed AM has different plastic from time to time.....my B-25 even has two different colors in the same kit, and one color seems slightly better than the other

redraider56

ww2psycho:

The Tuskegee Airment Mustang looks like Tamiya Quality, the A-36 looks like it will ned some work. Not terrible fit but it seems like different plastic.

 

I've noticed AM has different plastic from time to time.....my B-25 even has two different colors in the same kit, and one color seems slightly better than the other

The Tuskegee Airmen one is the same way, both seem to be better than the A-36 though. The Fusalage comes in 4 parts due to what I think doogs is talking about with earlier vs later model variations.

ww2psycho

redraider56:

ww2psycho:

The Tuskegee Airment Mustang looks like Tamiya Quality, the A-36 looks like it will ned some work. Not terrible fit but it seems like different plastic.

 

I've noticed AM has different plastic from time to time.....my B-25 even has two different colors in the same kit, and one color seems slightly better than the other

 

The Tuskegee Airmen one is the same way, both seem to be better than the A-36 though. The Fusalage comes in 4 parts due to what I think doogs is talking about with earlier vs later model variations.

The AM B has the same tail. If you ask me it is just, s*** engineering. I'm going to spend hours getting the tail and the front fuselage join to fair properly. Then I'll spend more hours scribing in lost detail. Completely unneccesary. I bought the Tuskeegee  Airman version and that one is going to the bottom of the pile.

Major seams repaired, gaps filled, tail faired. Now I am having a paranoid moment about the dihedral of the stabilizers... not really familiar with the mustang.

So since we got on the topic of mustangs for a bit, does anyone know if an Easy Mask for a Tamiya kit will work on an Accurate Miniatures kit or vise versa? I found everything on squadron but it seems people have problems with them so I'm looking at sprue brothers, but one is sold out.

The Quick mask for the AM has the small vent window in the lower part of the left wind screen. Don't know if the Tamiya kit includes that in the molding.

Is that what that extra framing/window is on the P-51A on the left side of the pilot? I was looking at that and was a bit concerned about the masking. The AM masking says P-51A Apache so I'm not sure if it comes with two different for whichever you're making or what.

The mask I have is specifically for the AM P51 B. There are masks for the coffin lid canopy or the Malcolm hood. The framing I mentioned is a small vent window on the lower left of the windscreen itself. It's on both the P-51 B and the Tuskeegee Airman boxing. I didn't notice it untill I looked at the instructions that came with the mask. How much trouble are you having with fit? I have a model that weighs a pound and a half because of all the putty.

I havent started any of them yet, but my masking skills are very poor so i'm going to try easy masks.

Heres what I'm talking about.

ww2psycho

So since we got on the topic of mustangs for a bit, does anyone know if an Easy Mask for a Tamiya kit will work on an Accurate Miniatures kit or vise versa? I found everything on squadron but it seems people have problems with them so I'm looking at sprue brothers, but one is sold out.

I've had bad experiences trying to use masks from one kit on another. 

If Squadron has what you need, by all means order from them. I've had my problems with them (I HATE their site navigation, not a fan of how long they tend to take, etc), but they're all more annoyances than anything really bad.

ww2psyco: On the B it a little lower than that, but yeah that's it. The easy mask is the only way to g with this kit. You have to mask the windscreen twice. The first time to paint the interior color AND the rubber gasket that ran around the windscreen. The second time to paint the camo.

DoogsATX: I was afraid to complain about squadron's site. It seems like it's kind of a sacred cow on other forums.

All this talk of AM's Mustangs inspired me to bid on a P-51A and an A-36 on eBay yesterday. I bid $18 on both. Since they usually go up into at least the high $20s, I figured it'd never happen. 

I won both. Around $16 each. 

And the stash grows by two...

How is squadron on shipping? I read on one topic that it took someone like a week or more to get what they ordered and he lived less than an hour away.

jbrady

ww2psyco: On the B it a little lower than that, but yeah that's it. The easy mask is the only way to g with this kit. You have to mask the windscreen twice. The first time to paint the interior color AND the rubber gasket that ran around the windscreen. The second time to paint the camo..

I painted the interior before I painted the camo, both from the outside. Never painted a rubber gasket before.

ww2psycho

jbrady:

ww2psyco: On the B it a little lower than that, but yeah that's it. The easy mask is the only way to g with this kit. You have to mask the windscreen twice. The first time to paint the interior color AND the rubber gasket that ran around the windscreen. The second time to paint the camo..

 

I painted the interior before I painted the camo, both from the outside. Never painted a rubber gasket before.

Yeah I've never seen pictures of a mustang with the gasket around the windscreen. Since there were detailed instructions, though I thought I'd give it a shot. I'll post a pic when the first mask comes off later today.

Cool thanks! Doesn anyone know if squadron accepts paypal? I seen sprue brothers does but I cant seem to find anything about it on squadrons website, and the only contact info is for orders.

ww2psycho: Don't know about Squadron and PayPal. I think they accept your Amazon.com account if you have one of those.

After all the fit issues I've had with this kit, I was amazed by how well the four pieces of the canopy fit. They fell inot place with only a little putty needed at the top of the left rear window. Here it is ready for primer.

jbrady

After all the fit issues I've had with this kit, I was amazed by how well the four pieces of the canopy fit. They fell inot place with only a little putty needed at the top of the left rear window. Here it is ready for primer.

Lookin' good! 

I'd strongly recommend that you give Tamiya's -B a try at some point in the future. Talk about canopy fit! I was able to fit the open version of the canopy in place, and have it hold up on its own, without having the glue the windscreen down! Wish all canopies fit like that...

Main assembly is done! 

Overall this kit has been an absolute pleasure to build. The dorsal spine is maybe the one stupid thing I've encountered throughout the build. 

Flaps are just dry-fitted. I won't glue them in until after they're painted.

The wing root. Why can't all kits do this?

I plan on doing a Tamiya P51 B just to compare. The worst part of this build was attaching the tail. I know why they designed the fuselage in four parts They wanted to offer as many versions as possible without making entirely new molds. The thing is that, at least on the kit I got, the tail to fuselagage join was really bad. I had to do so much sanding on side of the fuselage that you can see through the plastic if you hold it up to the light. Definately one kit that won't get moved around much when it's finished.

jbrady

I plan on doing a Tamiya P51 B just to compare. The worst part of this build was attaching the tail. I know why they designed the fuselage in four parts They wanted to offer as many versions as possible without making entirely new molds. The thing is that, at least on the kit I got, the tail to fuselagage join was really bad. I had to do so much sanding on side of the fuselage that you can see through the plastic if you hold it up to the light. Definately one kit that won't get moved around much when it's finished.

The separate tail's weird, though, because as far as I know the B/C had the same tail profile throughout its entire production run. 

Maybe if they were doing it with the P-51/P-51A/A-36, but as far as I understand those have separate lower cowls, but everything from those back to the tail is one piece.

The separate tail section would actually make the most sense for the P-51D, since it added the tail fillet to improve stability. 

But in my experience Accurate Miniatures has a history of bizarre engineering choices. I know there were a few with the Dauntless that seemed like complexity for complexity's sake...

Doogs  The Jug's looking good. I do like the choice you made for the red and yellow.

jbrady  I have had a couple of Dragon kits with seperate tail sections and both have bad joins. But in those cases it was more filling than sanding.

I bought the AM P-51A over the weekend, and out of the 3 Mustangs I have by AM, the Tuskegee Airmen is the only one with a 4 piece fusalage. I havent test fit any of it. I'm waiting for me to finish my Korean War F-84 before I build my Mustangs.

ww2psycho

I bought the AM P-51A over the weekend, and out of the 3 Mustangs I have by AM, the Tuskegee Airmen is the only one with a 4 piece fusalage. I havent test fit any of it. I'm waiting for me to finish my Korean War F-84 before I build my Mustangs.

 If you look at the Tuskeegee Airmen kit you'll see that there is a sprue with parts to build a merlin engine version. Its the spue with the three bladed prop. The cockpit parts change the floor,  the sidewalls, and the rear deck. You can also add the carberator intake on top of the nose. No mention of any of this in the instructions.

Spent most of last night building bombs and drop tanks. Yawn, but I'm procrastinating getting started on the sanding/filling process.

Also did a ton of test fitting on the Jug last night. Happily the wingtip lights fit perfectly. So did the Master brass blast tubes...which look 100% awesome...

Hey Bish,

Better late than never but I've got a 1977 vintage Monogram P-51D (kit 5207) and Bluenose Bodney markings are in the mail.  This will probably be an OOB build (well, I can say that now) of Karl M. "Waldo" Waldron's Goliath of the 487th FS (352nd FG).  So add me to the list and I'll take a quick read of the GB rules.

Don

Took you long enough . You got plenty of time to do the build. I am assumeing thats 1/48th Scale.

Hmm.....lots of P-51s and P-47s.  I'll have to post some pics of the B-17 when I get home to just to change the scenery

Bish

Took you long enough . You got plenty of time to do the build. I am assumeing thats 1/48th Scale.

Sorry.  You are correct.  Scale is 1/48.

Don