The P-51"mustang" Group Build. 2008

It's Ok with me! Love seeing progress pics, and so far it looks great!

Cheers,

Azgaron

I did go fishing for loose parts, but I didn't catch all the fish.  As far as the rattlers are concerned, I will only care if they end up in the cockpit and are visible.  Then I'll have to open the pit.  

I've done the decaling, and I've prepped the dive brakes.  Models tend to take on new attitudes at this stage, at least for me.  So I'll post another progress pic.  Let me know if I'm going overboard with the progress shots.  I like to take the pics while building for my own entertainment.  They are interesting to look through a few builds later.  If you guys are getting sick of them, let me know.  

If you're wondering, those bomb decals are a challenge (PITA).

Semper Fi,

Chris 

firesmacker - I like your coffee P-51 mug ;)  Yes, read up on using sharpies for pre-shade, good for you if it works....  As for taking pics, my dig cam sometimes focuses on a different plane as the object I want to photograph, especially at close distances. I have to play around on where I "aim" with the cam until it focuses on the model and not the background.

ridleusmc - I had a similar problem with a Revell canopy (P51D).. I used CAREFUL sanding... I did ruin one canpy with scratching overspray, I got a replacement from Revell, good thing to keep the receipt and box (UPC symbol) around until you are done :)  Thanks for the info on the running lights. Hawkeyes posted a method of using lite-brites (stretched) to simualte running lights (looks better than painting the colors). Will try on mine, late summer when I start!

Is the back wheel well "closed" or opens to the inside of the fuselage? Maybe you can roll up double sided tape, insert into the back wheel well (and into the inside of the fuselage) and have the "rattlers" catch on the tape, then use forceps to turn/extract the offending parts? (Yes, I had to do that manuever on mine!)

 raptordriver - nice work Andrew!

IL2windhawk  - Oh that looks nice and small :)  Good job! Canopy looks great....

Nice work ridleusmc! Looking forward to seeing it done!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Saturday should be my most productive modeling day of the week, but stuff happens.  I wanted to get a glosscoat on the thing today.  However, I decided to add the LG and guns before I glossed.  The landing gear went together with little problems (comparitively).  However, the guns... well, lets just say that there's even more rattling around inside my Apache.  She's still looking good (at least I think so), but I've definately hit a snag or two this weekend.  I've found, primed and painted new engine cowl guns.  Plus, I've shaped two of the four dive brakes.  Then, I did some weathering.  Here's how she's looking. 

This one's still challenging me.  

Yeah IL2, Great work.  Those Allison Engine 'Stangs have a classic look all their own, which is just as sharp as the Merlin powered machines.  I see you've adjusted the ailerons and rudder.  It's a nice effect.

Semper Fi,

Chris 

Lookin' good, IL2!  Interesting aileron placement. 

Ken 

Nice work IL2! That canopy looks nice!

Cheers,

Azgaron

great job on the stang andrew.

very nice

jason

Great work up there guys.  I've been checking in from time to time to see the pictures but haven't typed a response.  Here's where my build is now.  I've completed one of my biggest hurdles in the build: bonding on a vacuform canopy.  Those always give me grief, but they are worth it.  At this point, I'm mostly sanding and adding the last spots of putty.  I'm looking forward to applying a primer layer on this plane in the near future :)

I guess a little rattle doesn't really hurt anything.  The steel tubes probably aren't very hard to replace, are they?   

There's another PE set in my stash that has that panel, but I have no idea how get it in there. Maybe I can rig something up.  Tonight all I did was glue and sand the bombs.  I only worked on it for about half an hour, because it's time to do... TAXES AHHHHHH!  

About the bombs.  I'm going for a weathered look for the aircraft, but it doesn't seem like the bombs would be very weathered.  I know they'd probably seen some abuse from handling.  However, how much weathering would a new bomb have compared to a well used airplane.  I doubt most bombs get used more than once.

Semper Fi,

Chris    

You're not the only one, Chris.  While building my 'Stang, I decided to replace the stock barrels with steel hypo tubing.  Well, needless to say, I pushed a few of them in too far and now I have a few lengths of tubing rattling around inside the wings.  Since I don't fly it around the room, it doesn't bother me that much

-Fred

Looking great, Chris! Love to see it done!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Yep, it's somewhere in there.  I can hear it rattling around, which is annoying.

Semper Fi,

Chris

Actually, I think he means it fell into the wing.  If so, ouch.  It would be pure dumb luck if you could shake it out of the wing.  Looks very good despite that headache.

Raptor, really nice job on the P-51.  Don't forget to paint the exhausts. 

Great work Andrew,

You've done well with an oldie, but a goodie, kit. 

Allow me to make a recommendation: under the right wing there are 3 landing lights.  They are represented by circles molded into the underside of the wing.  The forward one is red, the middle one is green, and the aft one is yellow.  It's a small thing, but Mustang guys always look for it.  She looks great. 

I actually had a full Sunday to sit down with my airbrush.  I guess I have the weather to thank for that.  I started with primer at the beginnig of the NASCAR race.  At the end of the night, I have most of the plane painted, preshades and all.  Here's pics. 

I did lose a dive brake under-panel into the wing, and I'm clueless as to how to fix that.  Thank gosh it's on the underside.

Semper Fi,

Chris

Thanks az, its Aclad II silver, it works perfectly for me.

Nice work Andrew! A very beautiful Stang!

Is that the Humbrol silver that behaved that way? Future is so far the only coat I've managed to paint on top of Hu11 without ruining the paint.

Cheers,

Azgaron

Great job Chris glad it worked.

Here's mine everyone, I had it finished a couple weeks ago, but the monogram decals were to old. To me the decals were great. After they dried good I thought I would use spray can gloss. It actually ate away the silver! But not much, I repainted it, then used future as the gloss coat. Worked out great for me. To me Monograms kit is great. Well here it is.

Hey it flies

Sorry Jeff, I missed the Ben Rothesburger thing. 

The canopy is meant to sit flush with the side of the fuselage.  I got it fixed a few minutes ago, but it was a scarry process.  I Tenaxed one side, then stretched the other.  After I Tenaxed that side I held it still until I was sure the weld was complete.  I was very worried about stretching it, clear plastic is brittle.  However, I have a couple more Mustang kits in my stash, so if the part broke I'd have another. 

The Apache gets primer tomorrow. 

Semper Fi,

Chris

I put the neutral grey on the underside of my 'Stang last night. I need to do a few touchups tomorrow because of some over spray. I really want to do the whole nose/engine section in yellow because I think it will look cool. I have done a lot of searching online and haven't found a single pic of an OD feusalage with a yellow forward end. I don't really care about historical accuaracy. I'm going for "hey, neat". Although I do not want it looking like a clown car either.

Guess I will find out over the next week how it actually looks. Oh well, if all else fails, I can always go for the boring OD on top, neutral grey on the bottom route. 

Regards,

Jeff

P.S.

Chris, the "Regards, Ben Roethlessberger" thing was FUNNY! How dare you ignore my rapist wit...

Edit: Chris in all seriousness, we are both Military Men. Sometimes we have a tendency to overlook the obvious. Are those side part of the canopy meant to be inside of the air frame? I only ask because I did the same thing on a Spitfire I was building. I was going bat-fartingly insane trying to fit it up before the little light in my thick head went off.

Something to think about.

Sincerly,

Romeo Crennel... 

Ken great work there. Paint job is nice.

Chris, sorry for the problem maybe someone else has dealt with this before?

Ok I put the decals on my stang, It will be done tomorrow.

I managed to sneak in a little painting with some warmer weather and a little less wind.  Still have a ways to go.  Discovered that laying MM Buffing Metalizer over a silver aluminum coat sorta defeated the metalizer.    I guess it didn't turn out too bad.  Oh well, I'm learning (or at least trying to).

Ken

I ran into a little problem.  It seems that the center part of the canopy isn't quite fitting right.  The aft windows and the windshield section fit fine.  I line the section up flush with the left side where there are 2 molded on details which keep it flush on that side.  However, there is a considerable lip on the right side.  I tried applying outward pressure to widen the canopy section.  However, I don't want to put too much pressure on the part, because clear plastic is very brittle and will break before it bends.  Here's pics.  Note the lip on the right side of the canopy (first pic).

Do you guys have any ideas on how to fix it?

Semper Fi,

Chris

Chris,

I just used plain old MM olive drab thinned at about 40%. I did the first coat and waited 2 days and hit it again last night with another thin coat. I have the Eduard canopy mask set. All the clear pieces got a Future dip three days ago so I may go ahead and mask and paint those tonight. Thanks for looking. GO STEELERS!

Regards,

Ben Roethlessberger...

Firesmacker,

Great work on your mustang.  She's looking good, and it looks like the preshading turned out well.  A friend of mine in a small, informal model club in Jacksonville, NC used sharpies for his preshading and he never mentioned any problems with bleed through.  He didn't always use primer, and he used Tamiya Acrylics for his base colors.  I choose not to use that method, but I have seen favorable results.  Your model is a great example. 

There were a couple of things about the background of your pics I wanted to touch on.  I see you're in the Corsair GB too.  The Dash 1D is a great choice.  The steelers poster should be taken down.  That's not such a great choice.  GO BROWNS.

OK, sorry to get off subject, but I like the shade of OD you used.  What did you use for the base OD?

Another question for anybody who may know:  Is the interior of the canopy framing (of a mustang/apache) Zinc Chromate or Black? 

Semper Fi,

Chris

Thanks for the advice. I don't have a tri-pod so I kind of mounted the camera on some of the other Stash Monsters. Weird thing is, they look really nice and clear on Photobucket but look like crap when I post them. No biggie, I'll figure it out on my end. Thanks for the comments.

Jeff