Ok, here is the gift I received from Jim, Jmart. He knows me so well! Accurate Miniatures P-51. A guy can never have to many mustangs. If one built a different one every two weeks for his entire life he'd never build them all.
I started work on this one as soon as I opened it, as the bench was freshly cleared. Much has been said about the kit in various forums so I'll not spend time here to repeat nothing more then it's a nice kit and the only game in town for a 48th Allison Mustang. Still.
I spent about my normal time on the kit though this time I didn't do a lot extra to it. Just a few small things.
The tail wheel got a rework with some wire. The cockpit got radio antenna wire and armor for the seat and gereric seat belts made from tape.
I replaced the kit prop, which is to thick, with the lovely Ultracast Curtiss blades and used Moskit Allison exhausts. Though much work, I drilled out the openings in the kit wheels. I like the result very well.
The kit canopy gave me fits. In my obsession to try and blend the clear part to the fuse I fought it and fought it. Removed it three times and tried again. Finally thought I had it good enough. Masked up the clear for painting and went about my buisness.
I dropped the elevators too. Some know, some may not. The reason most pics show the elevators drooped is because there is a control lock on the floor at the bottom of the stick that's used to lock the controls and keep them from bouncing around in the wind while the a/c is parked. To lock the stick it was pushed forward and a pin was inserted. The forward stick movment posed the elevators like you see here.
Another mod I made was the 20mm guns in the wings. The kit representations are cartoonish at best. The springs are way over done and not really springs at all but rings molded around the barrels. I remade them from plastic rod and tiny strips of tape. Paint and drybrush and they look much better when compared to photos.
Paint is MM enamels with some Tamiya acryls tossed in where I felt like it. Weather is very minimal, just a few smudges here and there, some small scratches and a light exhaust stain. I used MV lenses in the wings behind the clear perspex pieces.
When all the paint work was done and sealed with a good clearcoat I pulled off the masks. What greeted me was something that has haunted me for years. A bad fog had entered the cockpit somehow and clouded the windows. Nuts.
I've tried many things to prevent this. This time, after installing the parts I went over all the seams with Testors clear part cement with a brush to seal the area but alas, it didn't help. Somehow the fog of painting still got in. I had to remove the canopy frame a fourth time to clean it up which ruined portions of the paint. After reinstallation I touched up the framing with a brush.
I really like these kits for some reason. I have four, now five, built and in the case with two more in the stash. One of the built kits is a MKIa that I convered from a P-51a using the superb Ultracast conversion and one of the kits in the pile is the AM mustang Ia. Cool! Another brit 'stang! The other is the F-6A which is this kit with a camera. They will look great when added to the others. In the meanwhile, I've been doing some research looking for refs for another mustang, a D or K that was in the Fort Wayne ANG in the early fifties. I have a Tamiya D that will wear these markings.
Thanks, Jim, for the kit! Thanks Jon for sponsering the GB! Comments welcome!