Mustang Build

Cool, can't wait to see the B, and looking forward to the new pics.

Since I have not used Alclad II before, I figured that I should try on a less expensive kit than the Tamiya 1/32 'stang that I had started. I dug into my stash and found a Hasagawa D and one of many Tamiya B's (both 1/48) to try. To see first hand the difference that the base coat makes the D has only a Tamiya gray (fine) primer base, while the B had a gloss black base over the primer. Both were started with Airframe Aluminum with several other colors as well. Here are the pictures of what turned out: I need to add some more weathering to the Hasa "D" and then paint the final clear coat then it should be done. For the "B", I am wanting to finish as LT Bill Overstreet's "Berlin Express", but the decal sheet that I need (AeroMaster 48-288) is very, very hard to find. I think that I will be trying to use a high res image of the sheet and print it on a laser printer while I am searching. Thanks for looking.

Now that those are behind me, it is time for a bit of an update on where the big Tamiya kit is. I have been pushing myself to take my time and work slowly, and am finding that this kit is packed with detail and still begging for more to be added. To recap, I added HGW belts and raft to the seat, and added Barracudacals placards to give that added bit of detail in there. Now the fuselage is all buttoned up, everything fit great the first time, gotta love the precision of Tamiya. I added some wiring / plumbing in the gear wells, as it appeared very stale and blank. Painted NATO Black first, then followed that up with yellow zinc chromate. It would be easy to let AMS (advanced modeling syndrome) kick in here and go all out in here, as it almost begs for all the lines, etc. Next step will be to mount the wells to the lower wing, and begin work on the PE machine gun bay and ammunition.

Really nice work there.  I'm going to have to change my opinion of Tamiya kits I think....

blkhwkmatt

Since this is the first use of the Alclad, what do you think? It appears to have turned out just fine. Can't get tired of looking at your D.

That's some flippin unbelievable work on your pit and engine. It looks like that Tamiya kit is worth every penny, and you have really gone all out on the extra detail. I could learn a thing or five from you. It's amazing what a few wires can do for detail.

Steve

modelcrazy

blkhwkmatt

Since this is the first use of the Alclad, what do you think? It appears to have turned out just fine. Can't get tired of looking at your D.

That's some flippin unbelievable work on your pit and engine. It looks like that Tamiya kit is worth every penny, and you have really gone all out on the extra detail. I could learn a thing or five from you. It's amazing what a few wires can do for detail.

Steve

Steve,

I found Alclad to be fairly easy to use, although it did take a lot to cover the gloss black on the "B".  It did end up with a mirror like finish though, and I like that.  For some reason the finish on th "D" seemed to be more prone to damage from masking than the other, although I am not sure why.  I ended up masking, then spraying quickly removing the masking and letting it cure for several hours prior to moving on. 

I think that I will be using it again for the big one though as I really like the finish.

 

Thanks for the praise, it is appreciated.

<Matt

 

Sorry for the delay guys.  The finished builds are updated!

I finished one of my Mustangs, sorry I didn't post many in progress photos. I wanted to enter this in the COMMIES Fest here in Denver and was in a bit of a rush. It ended up competing with 2 of my other enteries and didn't win anything but I'm quite pleased with it. BTW, my other entries won a 1st and 3rd so I can't complain! So here are some pics of my Ohio George Montgomery Mustang Gasser. 

Ohio George really surprised everyone at the '67 WinterNationals when unveiled his new gasser that used a new "67 Mustang body instead of a Willys coupe. He used essentially the same Ford 427 SOHC engine that he had used in his '33 Willys car previously. The Mustang was based on pre-production body specs that were released to make the body before the '67 Mustang car was released to the public!

What I'm happiest with is replicating the fogged blue paint job. I used Tamiya transparent blue over Testor's light metallic blue from their lacquer system. I used a small nozzle and low pressure on my airbrush to spray the transparent blue around the wheel wells and door handles. The clear coat from the Testers Model Master Lacquer System was then sprayed over the two colors. The decals were then applied over the final coat.

Instead of the chrome headlights, I punched out some circles from sheet plastic, painted with Alclad Chrome over Testers black enamel. This was seen in several photos of the car and looked way better than those chrome headlights. All the chrome parts were stripped and where applicable sprayed with black and Alclad. The hardest part in the entire build was getting the white and blue stripes on the seats. I ended up using small   strips of masking tape to mask off the seats that had been painted Tamara Pearl White and spraying with Testers Pearl Blue.

I extended the hood bubble back toward the windshield to get a more accurate profile. This seemed like a simple mod but took an inordinate amount of time to get a smooth structure and fix a spot on the left front of the bubble were I sanded thru the plastic! 

I used the engine from the '33 Willys Gasser kit as it had better detail and a blower and intake manifold that matched my references. This ended up causing clearance problems with the hood and necessitated shortening the driveshaft.

I cut off the molded coil springs and replaced them with coils I made from wire.

I added spark plug wires and fuel lines.

I didn't like the frame that was provided for the parachute and ended just attaching it to the rear of the car. The wheel bars should attach to the frame but nothing was provided in the kit. If I had planned ahead better I could have made some modifications to the frame and chassis panels. Oh well, This is as good as it's going to be. I think it's a pretty good replica of my favorite gasser. Thanks for taking a look.

Kenjitak-  Excellent work!  The paint looks great with dark outlines & couldn't be more spot on.  I heard that was a rough kit from some other folks.  You made it look fantastic!!!!!  I'll post the pic in the finish gallery!  

I am a huge vintage drag racing fan so this one I am especially intrigued by (plus I have the kit too but never began it).  Would you mind explaining more about the kit quality & what modifications had to be done to get it as clean as it looks?

 blkhwkmatt-  Your detailing is awesome! The lines you are running make a huge amount of difference!  Well done!!

Thanks CodyJ!

The Malco Gasser kit is a bit of a disappointment especially when AMT really did such a good job on the Ohio George's Willys. The body needed a lot of sanding and scraping to get into shape. It needed a lot of sanding to reduce the front fender peaks. The radiator is poorly detailed considering the number of fuel and water lines that all the reference photos show going into it. As I mentioned, the engine is not very good compared to the Willys SOHC and is wrong on the supercharger. The chassis and interior are pretty good, I used some instrument decals and a shoulder harness photo-etch kit to really make it work. The  rear chassis is really weak. The parachute frame is inaccurate and the rear of the body needs a cut-out for the parachute. The kit has a large piece for the back part of the chassis that holds the battery and it should have provision for anchoring the wheel bars but there is nothing there. Sounds like a lot of complaints but really it is typical for the era compared to other kits of the times. I commend MPC for bringing this out initially and Round 2 for re-releasing it. George Montgomery was a superb engineer/designer and the Mustang Malco Gasser was an amazing vehicle that changed gassers for better and for worse!

Kenjitak- I have never been a car model guy, but I have to say that is some beautiful work there.

Blkhwkmatt-Your alclad looks really nice on both aircraft!

Ken-I am also not a car guy, but yours looks fantastic, particularly the paint job!

Groot

Kenjitak,

Sorry I didn't get to you sooner. My internet at the house is down, probably until tomorrow the 16th, but I did take a look on my phone,

Man, you car guys really do some detail work! I'm just fascinated at the level the car forum goes to in the scratchbuilding area. Nice job!!!! I love funny cars and dragsters. I wish the model companys would come out with more of them. Don't forget to grab a badge, by the way.

You guys are doing great in here. Keep up the outstanding work!

Steve

I talked to my Uncle a bit ago who also builds cars and we both agree that if you are already into cars you are going to want to scratchbuild.  For instance I know what the engine compartment of a muscle car tends to look like so I see everything the kit is missing and say to myself "that wont do, needs more detail to be like the real thing).  My Uncle built a 69 Camaro in 1/12 and just had to go out to his garage for reference! LOL

I bet its the same with people who know planes (which I do not, apart from identification).  I see a 2 parts for an aircraft engine and go... "yup looks good to me". 

Great looking work everybody! Still plugging away over here. I've got the paint stripped (from the yellow mishap), invasion stripes back on, underside and 1st color of the topside camo done! Hopefully I'll get time this weekend to put the 2nd color on and post some pics!

-Andy

That will be great Andy. I really need to get back to my Big Beautiful Doll, I just HATE sanding. I would just about do anything else.

Okay, I should have my 1/32 P-51B in my hands by Monday or Tuesday and I'll get her started.  Its taken me awhile, since I was waiting for the new Revell P-51B to come out, I think it is just a rebox of the old kit with some new decals.

Looking forward to seeing you get started on that B JELLIOTT! As promised here are a couple quick pics of where I am with the mkiii....

 Still not perfect but much happier with the way it came out this time. Worked on trying to let the preshade show through a little. Next up is getting the legs on it and sealing with a gloss coat for decals! Thanks for looking, comments and critiques welcome

-Andy

Looks great rooster. I think the pre-shade is just right  

Looks great Andy!   The lines are so sharp!   Beautiful work!

Nicely done so far Andy.  =]

With the Meteor on hold untill my next Hobbytown run for paint, my A-20 set aside because I started filling and sanding in my sleep,.and the Hurricane sitting while some Micro-sol does its thing, that left me with nothing happening on the bench. I can fix that, perfect time to start my Mustang build. Presenting the Accurate Miniatures P-51.



We all know that the best way to buld an AM kit is to follow the directions, to a tee. So I find it somewhat ironic that the VERY first thing I did was break from the instructions. They would have you put the put the cowling on the fuselage as a singular unit. I instead cut off the locator pins of the cowling pieces, and glues each one onto the correct fuselage piece. I'm such a rebel!



In the cockpit, the sidewall detail comes as seperate pieces. So in order to give depth and some shadowing, I sludged up the inside of the fuselage halves so to get a darker tone from the interior green in contrast to the sidewall detail pieces, which I am not sludging up.

My way of doing this is simple. Using Tamiya XF-1 flat black, I get some on a brush, let it dry alittle on the brush for about 20-30 seconds, then brush it on in no partucular direction or pattern. The end result is a light, irregular, uneven coat. Exactly what I want in this case.



I have already airbrushed the interior green,.and it is drying now. So more to come very soon.

The model being molded in OD kind of negated some of the effect I was going for, but a difference can still be seen.

adj,

I wish I had that kit. I was watching an old episode of "Great Planes" on youtube on the P-51 the other day, and they showed quite a bit of footage on the A. It was used quite a bit in Burma and the pilots really enjoyed it's stability and low level performance, although they had to be careful of ground fire due the the inline engine and the coolant lines. The most vulnerable part of the aircraft was exposed. It was a very interesting show, I recommend it. Anyway, there was one P-51A landing on a mud runway and the mud and spray was just soaking this poor plane. I thought that would make a great diorama. Most 51's are all pretty and polished.

Speaking of pretty and polished, I picked up my Big Beautiful Doll again, bit the bullet and grabbed some sandpaper and started in. I'm at the priming stage now, but with it 107 deg F today, I'm going to have to hold off. The paint will be dry before it hits the surface, and probably just bounce off like sand blasting beads.

A Korean(?) company named ACE is now in possession of the molds for this particular AM Mustang, and they can be found on ebay at a pretty decent price. Now just to make sure everyone knows, this is a plane jane P-51, no bloody A, B, C, or D (the Star Trek fans will get it.) This was one was armed with 4 Hispano 20mm, while the A had 4 .50 BMGs. From the little that I have read from pilots of the era, when under 10,,000 feet, (other than range) the Allison Mustangs outperformed the Merlin Mustangs, or about anything else in the skies in 1944 in just about every way. They were lighter than the B, C, and D.

Let me tell you, the sidewall detail coming as seperate pieces makes for a much easier time doing the detail for the interior. Everything is looking so nice, I just might have to steal the canopy out of my Tamiya P-51B just so I can pose it open for this.

The dive bomber version of the Mustang was the A-36 Apache, although they were all all called Mustangs anyway. Machine guns and dive breaks.

Here is the "Doll". I primed the fuse with black prior to the Alclad. I will spray the wings and tail a silver to simulate the Lacquer silver that was used and the Alclad for the polished aluminum.

I was actually wanting to do the A-36 for this build, but I am going to wait till i get the Italeri boxing, because it has a super nice decal sheet with two very interesting schemes.

Alittle history lesson now.. We all know the Mustang was originally developed for the English. The US got a hold of 50 or 60 of the Mustang Mk. Ia (20mm) and assigned the designation P-51. Many of the USAAF test pilots liked them, and the word made it to the brass. There was one problem though; the USSAF had already used its allocated fighter budget (why you would have a allocated military budget and not just write the Army a blank check during the largest military conflict in world history is beyond me) for 1942 on P-38s, P-39s, and P-40s. Some quick thinking between some of the cooler heads in the USAAF and North American Aviation figured out there was still money in the budget allocated for attack aircraft, and that gave birth to the idea of using the Mustang airframe, with a few modifications, as a dive bomber/attack aircraft, thus keeping the NAA Mustang assembly lines going until 1943 when the Army could order more P-51s. So in a round about way, the A-36 "saved" the P-51. After 1942, there was no reason to keep making them, so only 500 were made. The first American Mustang ace actually flew an A-36.

Just some odds and ends here before bedtime. Its gertting awfully late here in the eastern time zone. Or is it awfully early....?

Here is the seat, with some nice paper belts



Now the roll bar part that goes behind the seat doesn't have any armor for the pilot. No big. Just got some .015 plasticard (which scales out to roughly 3/4 inch. Does that sound right for cockpit armor?) and glued the roll cage on. Let it cure, and with a sharp blade, cut off the excess. Paint, and then I was done. Simply stuff really.







And here are a few pics of the completed cockpit. 1st without the seat to show detail, 2nd with the seat and armor installed.





Now off to bed. Tomorrow, I deal with the radiator exhaust situation.

While watching that episode, one thing I didn't know was that when the Merlin was installed, the plane became very squirrely and unstable. The pilots prefered the Allison version more.