Mustang Build

Sweeeeet!! 

THanks, modelcrazy. THey are kinda cute when they're in that scale, aren't they? Haha. It's back to 1/48 for me for a while, though.

-BD-

BD, cute little thing. your Flory wash came out great .

Hi all,

I've been absent for a bit, and while I've been building, I haven't been on the forums too much, but have been watching all the builds through the email updates, and all I can say is there are tons of fantastic models coming through in here!

I actually picked up the 1/72 Airfix P-51D model and decided to build it as part of a group build on Instagram. I figured you guys might want to see a few pics of the finished project here. My only complaints with the kit are the control stick (which I think almost everyone in the other group build broke removing from the sprue, myself included), the radio mast (same issue for me) and the gear legs, which were a little warped. That said, it's a great little kit, and it was a blast to build. And the decals were amazing.

Not bad for a kit under $9 built out of the box (well, except for the scratched radio mast).

This is Lollipoop II flown by Spurgeon Ellington of the 100th Fighter Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen).

For the paint wonks: After painting the wheel wells Model Master Zinc Chromate Green, I primered the model in Mr Surfacer 1500 black, then sprayed Tamiya X-1 gloss black over the whole thing. Next came Alclad Duraluminum on the wings, and then the stripes were masked and painted with Tamiya flat yellow. The wings were masked, and the fuselage was sprayed with Alclad Airframe Aluminum. Next, I masked that and sprayed Model Master Insignia Red on the tail, nose and wingtips. The kit came with a decal for the nose band, but I cut it out and used it as a template to cut the tape to mask it because I wanted the same red on the spinner and nose. After that, I masked and sprayed the anti-glare panel Tamiya olive drab. Then the whole thing got a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss, and decals went down. Then another coat of Aqua Gloss, and I masked and painted the exhaust panels Alclad Magnesium, then put a panel line wash (Flory Dark Dirt) on it. After that, I masked and sprayed Tamiya flat clear on the anti-glare strip. I painted the spinner and gear doors with the same process so they would match.

I hope to be popping back in here more frequently now that a somewhat hectic January is over!

-BD-

tempestjohnny

Built this. Now I can work...

I'm Envious 

So I had the day off from work yesterday. Great day for bench time. Except while sitting on my stool I knocked over my cheesy paint rack. Nothing broken just a lot of bottles to clean up.  I've had enough. I went to Home Depot and found $10 worth of lumber on the cull cart.  Built this. Now I can work...

Ortiz & 5, thanx for the advice big help & a major stress relief.

Steve ,thanx.  That stainless /brushed metal look is what is going for. 

So here's an update on the paint. I do not have the money to invest in any new paints at the moment so I could not get the French blue that you suggested Steve. So it was between the two blues that I had on hand. They are both Tamiya paints.  one of which is metallic blue and the other is sky blue. As I mentioned before the sky blue seem to be more appropriate for the task based on the original P 51 blue nose. However, being that I am going for a paint scheme inspired by as opposed to an authentic P 51 paint job I had to take into consideration what I thought would look best on the car. So I ended up going with the metallic blue. decision that I am glad I made. so I have done the blue and unmask the car it came out pretty decent. The only problem is the masking tape pulled off some of the chrome paint because I did not have the presence of mind to clear coat it before adding the blue. That being said I have to go back and touch up the chrome paint. Pictures are to follow.

Thanks for the complements guys 

Larry

I agree with modelcrazy I too hate that when that happens. And it has.

Lostagain .  I had kits that I used more filler then the actual kit had plastic. Buy the looks of cockpit it'll look great in the end . 

Modelcrazy how's the merlin come along? ??

5-high 

Kuyzo,

That looks like stainless steel.

5,

I totally agree with Larry, great looking bombs. I'm glad I didn't put bombs on Moonbeam, I would have felt ummmm inadequate.

Lost,

Great start.

Larry,

Man that sucks. I did that once on an F-100 and had to slap down another $18 for a replacement set of Squadron decals because I peeled off the nose decals.

Chris,

I got you down.

Steve

Sorry for the double posting!

Hi there,

I'd like to join the Mustang group build.  I am building Tamiya's 1/48 Mustang III.

Thanks!  Chris

Hi there, I'd like to join the Mustang group build.  I'm building Tamiya's 1/48 Mustang III.

Thanks!  Chris

5-high, great job improving the bombs. I wish that I'd seen your post before I mounted the bombs on my A-36. I might just have to do some revision...

lostagain, great start on your B. Cockpit looks great.

Quick update on Ding Hao. I'm at a little bit of a standstill. After applying the decals and giving them a protective coat of Future (which dried for over 24 hours), I applied a coat of Model Masters flat clear (which I've done before). Everything was fine, except that the clear decal film between the A and the J in the squadron code on the starboard side suddenly became silver city. After thinking about it a bit, I decided to gently place some Tamiya tape over the lettering and spray some OD over the silvered area. Of course, even though I tried not to press the tape down too hard, most of the lettering came up with it. I used really tacky tape to remove the rest of the lettering and I'm waiting for replacement decals.

One quick question: I decided to go with the UltraCast resin Hamilton Standard prop on this build. Anyone got any tips for using them?

Thanks,Larry

Thanks lostagain  

Booth time today .getting everything ready for the clear .I'm useing tamiya  ( x-22 thine with x-20A) I still working on the ruff texture leftover from saltmask. 

5-high 

Just joining in this GB, have been enjoying the builds from a distance.

5 high, like the invasion stripes - good to see some realistic wonky ones. The salt chipping has worked well, and I like the weapons detail.

Larry ding hao is looking good, a classic scheme there.

MC, Moonbeam Mc Swine came out so well, great finish and vignette.

Kyozo, looking forward to seeing the finish on the GT-H

For this build I am doing Academy's 1/72 B as 'Thunderbird' Picked up the kit in the secondhand kit shop Leonardo in Tokyo a few years back. Cost me all of 350 yen, but no decals.

First thing was to fill in all the wing's panel lines and carve out the uncuffed prop used on the plane. Used an Airfix B-26 prop as the donor.

The interior green was painted for the cockpit, wheel wells etc and a bit of black too.

It all went together well inside and was soon closed up around the cockpit. A bit of filling was needed on seams and to get rid of panel lines.

It didn't go together as well for me as for Rob S on page 1 - I used loads of filler including on the fuselage join.

So this was during a week off - from here on it is weekends only, will keep you posted...

5-high here have some updates on the trump mk.lll mustang .

finnished up all fiddly bits ,,,basooka lunchers ..was,nt happy with the kits 500lb bombs , so had to make,m better . workin on the salt chipping removal , thats coming along nicely . so here goooo,es .

as you can see the salt chipping came off easly but ,,the finer cyrstals are giveing me a hard time . but no matter ,, a little ebow greese will fix that.

had the maine landing gear done a while ago .i,ve taken alum, heat pipe tape to simulate plated chrome for the gear . now i hope yuo can see it .

before 

after

i didnt use the kits arming fuse props ..i had some trump p47 bombes in my spares . better then the mustangs thick plate spinner crud . i cut the front end off the spares .and punched out new disks and glued the trimmed props on ,, then i fab,ed up the rear armming fuse .then i drilled an 0.20 hole in the frount and rear disks .i streched red sprue to make the cable release .

as you can see here .painted everything up , and im done ,,,much much better .

he,s a pic of the bazooka,s ( so thats how you spell it ).. my post shadings getting better .shaded them by adding a drop or two to the olive drab.

when i was researching Eugeniusz,s mustang i noticed that the prop blades at the bottom had overpray of white ,so i replicated that here

so thats it for tonight . tommaro i start the clear .

5-high,  cheers 

Bvallot  thanks 

There's a alot of PTO schemes to choose from mostly NMF Finnish. Alot of cool ones at that ..I've get a cool book that has lots of PTO profiles ..I just finished the last of the fiddley bits. .pictures tonight. .trumpeters 500 lb bombs  blow in detail ..had to make them look better the kit .

Bvallot I'll see if I can take pics  of the pages of that book ..great book of ww2 airplanes. ..ps ...there's always hope buddy ..always. .hitting computer now 

5-high. 

Kyuzo. .pick out a base coat that you want . Airbrush the base  coat down .then get out the tamiya tape. Or regular masking tape . Pick the size of squares you want. then draw a grid of the squares, with a new blade cut then out and apply them to the cars back end or tail ''' .nose . In a checker pattern ...easy bud ..

Pete  

Kyuzo,

If I understand your question about removing paint correctly, you want to be able to remove the paint without damaging the plastic, right?  Well, I don't know what your location is, but if you're in the States or Canada, you can pick up some stuff called Super Clean degreaser at Walmart.  It's fairly cheap, and a gallon will last you a lifetime!  I've used it to remove lacquers, enamels, and acrylics from kit parts, even clear parts, without any damage to the plastic.  I've even left chrome plated parts to soak, and the Super Clean lifted the plating right off.  Some paint and chrome has been a little more stubborn than others, but a little scrubbing with a toothbrush after a good soaking took care of it all.  A good thing about the stuff is it cleans up with water.  Be careful though, it can be pretty strong stuff straight out of the bottle so wear gloves.  Unless you want your hands to feel like your fingerprints have been melted off.  (It's not that caustic, but it does leave your hands feeling...uh...weird.)

As far as masking and painting checkers goes, I can tell you how I did it on a WHIF Mustang that I did.  First, find some tape that's the desired width of your checkers, or cut strips the desired width of your checkers, and lay that strip of tape out flat on your table.  Once that's done, cut pieces to a length that is equal to the width of your strip.  Viola!  Little teeny squares to use as masks.  Spray your lighter color first.  Once the base color has had time to cure and harden, lay out the squares in the pattern you want.  (Like this and this.)Mask what you don't want marred with overspray, then paint the second color (checkers' color).  When everything's all dry, remove the tiny square masks.  That should give you the checkerboard you're looking for.  (Like this.)

Hope this helps!  If you have any questions, let me know.

Cheers and good luck,

-O

Larry, she's coming together finally. Very nice.

5, Very nicely executed!! Nicely done for that scale as well. I had that thought a while back but I'm diehard committed to build PTO aircraft solely right now which has somewhat limited my paint schemes.  But I am looking forward to it.  I hadn't seen it done yet, but you seem to have nailed it with that method.  =]  Gives me hope.

What's the easiest way to do the checkered pattern that some P-51s don on their tail? 

Thanx Steve. I'll go pick their brains and see what they say 

So if I understand you correctly, you want to remove the black without damaging the rim. I know there is a solution, don't recall the name at the moment, which will remove the paint without damage to the plastic. It will remove all the paint and you can start over. The rim will have to soak for a while, but the alternative would be ruined rims.

This may be a question for the painting and airbrushing section. Some of the guys that haunt that forum are painting masters.

A couple more shots of the 06 GT-H. The first one is to show how it looks after the second coat of paint. The second one is to try and show the difference between with the paint would look like normally as opposed to the brushed metal look that I'm trying to attain. 

Ok guys, an update on the situation with the 97 SVT Cobra. I have been sitting on this car for almost 2 weeks  because of a problem when painting the rims. It only just dawned on me today that why not ask you guys for advice. So what happened was I've got black on part of the smokes that is not supposed to have black on it and as it stands I have yet to come up with a sure fire idea of how to correct this without running the risk of messing up the rest of the rim. So here is a picture of the room as it is now and I would greatly appreciate any input on how to fix this problem.

Also as for the '06 Mustang GT-H I have decided I want to try to create my own  axles so that I can fit it with these wheels which are from a 57 Corvette gasser kit that I have over here. I can tell you now that the rear wheels will have to sit wide  with a little offset but personally I kind of like that look on certain cars.  I will probably paint the tires with Tamiya's tire rubber black to give them more of a well run look as opposed to a shined up  show car look.

I love their "Weathering Effects"

Just FYI,  to anyone interested I highly recommend you to check out AK Interactive's website & check out their product line. So far I've only their Extreme Metals Chrome paint and I love it. It's even self leveling. But all the super easy to use weathering kits (many of which are geared toward specific applications like aircraft landing gear & abandonment weathering) I want almost everything they have! We also have a smartphone app to keep you posted on their products as well as link you to videos on how to get the most out of their products. I just figured that I would throw that out there after seeing the kind of work you guys do and the level of detail and realism that you strive for in hopes that it may help you attain the same level of quality or better with a little more ease. 

Take a break from airbrushing the last fiddly parts .

Kyuzo thanks for the comment, I built two in 2005 .the sound one was for rc plane's. Back then I would repaint and modify parkzone warbirds for peaple. Now my wife uses it for sewing. Last plane I repainted was my bf-109-G6 in hungarian colors. 

Sweet workstation 5.in seriously jealous lol.