I finished up the cockpit. I first painted it interior green and then found out that most (though not all) F-51s after the Second World War had the cockpit interiors repainted flat black. So I went back and resprayed everything a very dark grey- almost black. Glad I caught it before I'd sealed the thing up... 

Sealed up, still a lot of work left to do before she's ready for paint. There are marker lines on some panel lines where I'd marked them to fill before-hand. I'm just going to leave them as is now though. 

And I've got a bunch of photos that have been building up on my camera that I really need to post: 

Box, actually it is a F-51D - not a P-51D. Tamiya puts an extra sprue in the box with a Korean War era prop, blades, and rockets for ordinance: 

Decal sheet: 

Jeaton: The NM looks perfect and I love the painted markings! 

That is impressive work!  I love metal finishes, but I hate making them.  

A few more steps, painting on the USAF in insignia blue.

She looks good to me, nice work! 

Thanks, John and CB.  The belts are just the Eduard PE.  I used white glue to secure them, one called Formula 560 that I use to put on canopies.  I have been using CA but I think the white glue works better for me.

I put the Alclad on today.  It took about two hours, putting on very fry thin coats and sanding with about 2500 grit sandpaper when I found the need between coats.  Where the dust and fiber particles come from I don't know, they must lay in wait for natural metal finishes.  Alclad 101 was the overall paint, then I did the panels on each side of the cockpit and tip of the fin were done in dark aluminum.  I'm going to try and hit some spots tomorrow with aluminuim powder to get a random worn finish.  Wish me luck!  Never tried that before, just whole panels with masking.

jeaton01

 

 

 

That’s a nice yellow, jeaton; and those seatbelts/straps that you put in the cockpit are a nice detail!

More progress on the Tamiya 1/48 F-84G.  Cockpit, gun mount, and tail pipe put together, and installed.  Fuselage join glue is drying, used the really hot glue for that.

Another great Tamiya kit.

Gamera

Robert: Great photos there of the M40. I've got the AFV Club kit. It's been in about three GBs so far and over five years and I still haven't finished the darn thing yet...  Good luck with yours! 

 

The thing I liked about the AFV Club version was the inclusion of a metal barrel, Tamiya sells one with some turned aluminum shells as an upgrade kit.  I probably should have just poached it from the partially built AFV Club iteration on my shelf of doom and saved the cash... 

John

That F-80 is indeed 1/48.  Glad to be back!!!  Evidently had an issue with my email linking correctly after I changed it.  Kudos to the support staff.

Thanks, all.  I decided the makings to be used, by going through my file of decals I found a Cutting Edge set that has markings for Lt. Jacob Kratt.  Unusually, he had three kills, two of which were Mig 15's, the other a Yak 3 according to Air Force records as related by Cutting Edge's instructions.  I was going for a less remarkable example, but since I have the decals...and at least the markings are just squadron generic with none of that George Lavin stuff.

Jeaton: That looks fantastic! The canopy parts look perfect!

Nice cockpit panel piece!

jeaton01

Here's a few parts of the F-84G.  The canopy reinforcements are white decal strip, that was about 2 hours work.  Still one more to put on, the circle on the right rear.  I made that decal a little too large so I'll have to make another one tomorrow.  I have the CMK detail set, looks like all I will use is a resin part that fits up in the back of the canopy, and I used the film and PE part for the instrument panel.  I painted up the wheels after ginding down a flat spot on the main wheel tires, this ones' likely to have a heavy loadout!

 

 

 

BK

Here's a few parts of the F-84G.  The canopy reinforcements are white decal strip, that was about 2 hours work.  Still one more to put on, the circle on the right rear.  I made that decal a little too large so I'll have to make another one tomorrow.  I have the CMK detail set, looks like all I will use is a resin part that fits up in the back of the canopy, and I used the film and PE part for the instrument panel.  I painted up the wheels after ginding down a flat spot on the main wheel tires, this ones' likely to have a heavy loadout!

I have never made my own decals, but that would be a nice skill to learn! 

John 3:16 KJV

 jeaton01

No, I'll do one flown by one of the "ordinary guys", got lots of pictures to work from.

Are you gonna be making your own decals then? :)

 

freem

Add or readd me to the list with the Monogram F-80.  For some reason I have been locked out of the forums since early last month and it just got resolved last night.  I'll post some pics of the kit in the box this weekend.

 

Welcome back, freem; and welcome to the GB! The kit is 1/48, right? 

jeaton01

No, I'll do one flown by one of the "ordinary guys", got lots of pictures to work from.

 

Are you gonna be making your own decals then? :)

Add or readd me to the list with the Monogram F-80.  For some reason I have been locked out of the forums since early last month and it just got resolved last night.  I'll post some pics of the kit in the box this weekend.

Jeaton (noticed we've got multiple Johns over here too!) Looks cool! And with a modern Tamiya kit should be pretty trouble-free. 

No, I'll do one flown by one of the "ordinary guys", got lots of pictures to work from.

Nice kit! Are you going to do the “Four Queens” version? 

Time to get this build going!  I sort of cleaned up the model bench and set the box down on it, as in the first picture.  Here we go.

And the box's art and its contents.

John 3:16 KJV

Yeah, they should’ve used Corsairs or even Panthers for Navy planes...

 

or Skyraiders....

Happy New Year! Welcome to the Twenties, everybody! 

Thanks guys! 

I don't want to fill those panel lines in the wings anyway. 

1). It's more work. 

2). As Lawdog said over on the aircraft forum Tamiya put some really nice detail in there. It's a shame to putty it over and cover it up. 

So I'm going to leave it as is. I did though find out the interesting detail that these aircraft the interior was painted flat black over the interior green. Great to find that out now instead of when I close up the fusilage. 

I can't tell anything from the second photo; however, the other two look like the have worn silver paint on the wings.  I would not lose any sleep over it either way.