Mustang Build

that is awesome Rooster. After looking at your work, I wanted to do the same to mine, Revell however, didn't find it necessary to put enough detail in the access panels for me to drill out, Oh well, what do you expect from a model I got from Michaels with a 50% coupon.

Anyway, here's my little pony...see what I did there? my little pony...Ha I kill me.

The pit is typical for an inexpensive Reveliogram, Nice detail, molded in only. The only rescue would be PE, scratch building, or exceptional painting skills, none of which I have.

So here's what I did..... I painted it the best I could.

Well, it's certainly not to the level of whats been going on in here, but it's a start. Tomorrow, time permitting, I'll close up the fuselage and maybe stick the wings on.

Steve

Good call on drillin' out those vents...good call

Brandon that B is looking great! I've just got a quick update for everybody. Progress is slow but pushing forward...Drilled out the cooling vents. Little hard to tell but I promise they are drilled out Should look good once paint is on.

And got the fuselage halves together. Dry fitting wings and such now. Finally starting to look like a plane.

Keep up the great work everybody

-Andy

Brandon-  Nice work!  I see a soon-to-be gallery picture in the near future... :)

68GT- Killer color combo Ed!

Thanks but I think it's the lighting.  It's the first green I was shooting with but this time it was through an airbrush.  The green is more of the rally Green used on a 69 Camaro.

Looking good there Brandon.

68GT - that paint looks great!

I got some time with the P-51B this week. I was able to clear coat it, get the decals on, seal them, then run a panel line wash (really just over the underside and the stripes, since the olive drab is too dark in the shaded areas to make it worthwhile).

I also got the masking off the rear windows and removed the closed canopy that was just tacked on for paint masking. I put on the exhaust stacks and flaps and will be doing the final bits over the next few days. The open canopy is mostly painted - just need the final interior green on the inside of the front canopy, then I'll put it on. Other bits remaining include landing gear, propeller tips, drop tanks, pitot tube and antenna mast.

-BD-

blkhwkmatt,

I'm with Cody, that pit looks amazing . Nice job on the invasion stripes, they are a little tricky to get straight. That's going to be a beautiful build man.

GT,

Wow, that is a great looking green. Kinda metallic Sea Foam green . Goes perfect with the black.

This is probably the last of the modeling for the weekend cause everyone is up now.  I did get a lot done though on various kits.  I got the green on the 95 GT.

I love that scheme Radial9.

That's a boat load detail Matt!

Ed- Nice progress man!

Bob-  Sweet setup and items there!  You look all set!

blkhwkmatt- Wicked cool interior!!!  Superb job!  The detail is extraordinary!

modelcrazy

Well I need to get something on page 2, so While I work on the 1/32 Pony and other things I'm going to build the 1/48 Revell D.

It looks like a pretty easy build. The markings are for either "Big Beautiful Doll" or "Miss Merilyn II". I  will probably go with  "Big Beautiful Doll"

Steve

Well I need to get something on page 2, so While I work on the 1/32 Pony and other things I'm going to build the 1/48 Revell D.

It looks like a pretty easy build. The markings are for either "Big Beautiful Doll" or "Miss Merilyn II". I  will probably go with  "Big Beautiful Doll"

Steve

 Radial9   Very nice indeed  still waiting for my1/32 AM to arrive seems like forever  waiting for some . But this trump mustang  will a welcome change incomparison to the e.u Revell spitfire I'm finnshing. I'll be watching

GT,

That balck and green are going to look amazing.

Radial,

That is quite the impressive stack of AM you have there. Should make for a fantastic build.

I’m wrapping up my Bf109 F-4 for the Messerschmitt GB and turning my attention to the P-51D. I went a bit heavy in the add on department. Figured I can try a bunch and form my own opinions about each option. Might as well give PE a go and see how I get on with it. Besides, I need to start that “spares” pile, don’t I??

Ended up with AM Eduard PE Interior/Exterior Set, True Details Cockpit Detail Set and Wheels, Quickboost exhausts, Ultra Hamilton Prop/Spinner; seats and corrected flaps, Vector Wheel Wells.

Barracuda Decals P-51D-15-NA Mustang “The Millie G” 55^th Fighter Group, 343 Fighter Squadron, 8^th Air Force Flown by Major Edward Giller, Wormingford Airfield, England 1944-45. He was the CO of the 343^rd.

I also show “The Mighty Eighth” by Gerald Astor. I’m about half way through it. A book full of first person accounts of the crewmen and pilots of the air war in Europe within The Mighty Eighth. I will be in the 8^th Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA this coming week. Thought it would be good to get at least a little background prior to my spending the day there. Will take as many pics as I can as requested here a few weeks ago.

Have been following the builds here almost daily since joining. Learning a great deal from those that are done and those builds that are still in progress. Some truly impressive work done and being done! Rob, PlasticJunkie, Brandon, Thuens, THANKS for blazing a trail for this newbie! I’m learning every time I visit here. Will be keeping an eye on Pycho and Matt to see how they get on too!

Cheers,

Bob

I got some more work done yesterday.

That's going to be a great looking Stang GT!

Nice and straight lines!

I didn't like all of the green on the 95 GT so I'm changing it up a bit.  I'm going with a two tone of the green on the bottom and black on the top.

Think I might also go with these wheels also but I'll see when things start to come together.

Indeed The lines look great!

Very sharp lines. Nice 

Well, I went to mask the plane for the stripes tonight. I guess this is one compelling argument for painting the stripes first 

After all that masking, I shot the flaps first to see how it covered, and it took multiple small coats, but after the masking was off, I could barely feel a ridge. I shot the white, and it was pretty stark, as I'd expected. To tone it down, I put in two drops Tamiya buff to 10 drops thinner and misted it over the top a couple of passes. I think it really helped.

Here is the top (and this is actually more accurate to the color of the plane).

And the bottom.

While the airbrush was loaded up with white, I shot the spinner. Next step is masking the cowl and shooting it and the rear portion of the spinner insignia red. I can never get Tamiya flat red to cover over darker colors, so I'll be shooting it with a Model Master enamel. Thankfully Tamiya paints seem to be pretty robust and the olive drab will have had 48 hours to cure by then.

Oh, and yes, I'm going to repaint the rear gear door interiors silver to match the main gear doors.

-BD-

BrandonD

Sorry for the 109 contamination in here

That's OK, I see it as a target  

RobGroot4

Did anyone else notice the cover story for this month's FSM magazine?  Timely indeed!

Yeah, I thought that was cool. You guys who are building the 1/32 Tamiya may find some ideas, also the "New Products" section has the remake of the Phantom Mustang in the original packaging.

Very timely, I wonder if the staff is paying attention to the build, or if it's just serendipitous.

Thanks for the kind words, all!

Theuns - The method is just a slightly modified version of the one I read on doogsmodels.com. Basically, I use a black primer/light base coat, then lay down the first layer of the main color. The black base coat keeps it dark and helps with the later shading.

After that, I mix the main color 50 percent white, and spray the inside of the panel lines. Then I use a 75 percent thinner/25 percent paint (for Tamiya acrylics) and spray coats over the top to blend until the panel shading is where I want it.

It's more paint, but I like it because I find it easier to control the paint by lightening the panels rather than pre-shading the lines, giving me opportunities to have some panels lighter or darker, and also to keep paint out of the panel lines so they hold a wash better. It does take quite a while, though. Preshading is faster.

Here is how the technique looks on a finished model. Sorry for the 109 contamination in here :)

-BD-

I like your technique Brandon.

That shading technique looks fantastic Brandon!! Very well done for sure!!

That od really looks good, love the shading showing through.

As for the alclad, if you put a satin coat over the rest of the plane, it should tone down the shine enough to look like raw alluminium.

Theuns

Theuns,

 Very nice finish on your F-51!

Brandon,

 I like the way your painting method looks.  To make sure I followed correctly you go with a solid coat (in multiple thin layers) of a darker base color, do the panel lines, and then go over with a lighter final color?  It looks really good!

Groot

I got the P-51B assembled, and it took only minor filling and sanding. After that, it was to the paint shop. First, I shot the insides of the flaps in Alclad polished aluminum, and they're way too bright, so I'll have to tone them down a bit. Maybe I'll spray them with Duraluminum, but I really don't want to mask them again. We will see...

Then it was to the underside, which I did with a triple layer in neutral gray over a black primer. After masking that off last night, I shot the top tonight. Again, this was the triple layer technique over a black base.

Here is a progress shot (yes, I paint on the floor. Yes, I'm getting too old for that, and yes, I need to make space on the garage workbench for painting).

The blend coat came next, and while the base olive drab seemed way, way too dark, the lightening coat really helped, and the blend coat pulled it together. It's a darker than in the photos, and is a pretty close match to the color photos of Don Gentile's Shangri-La I found online.

In the photo below, you can see the interiors of the flaps and why I say I need to tone them down.

And the underside. I'm not sure if Shangri-La's wheel wells were in the yellow zinc chromate or the more greenish one, but I did find a color photo of an olive drab P-51B that definitely had the yellow zinc chromate wheel wells, so I'm going with it.

Due to my painting technique comprising four coats, I decided to paint the stripes after everything else was done. I may regret this, but hopefully not. I plan on a misting coat of light gray, then following with full white and finally just dusting it with buff to give it a little bit of a faded look if it is too bright. Hopefully that doesn't give me too much of a ridge, but I also plan to cut down on that with some 6000 grit sandpaper followed by 12000 grit micro mesh. 

I must say, it's nice working on a plane I can actually see.

-BD-