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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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. 

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.

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. 

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.