The P-51"mustang" Group Build. 2008

Wow, some beautiful builds here folks!!! I have finally got some work done on my F-6B. Invasion stripes were masked and painted. All panel shading was done post basecoat with an AB. So far so good. Only ran into one small weird problem. The nose scoope was about twice as wide as the spine on the nose. Wound up having to cut it in half, trim it to size, and use alot of filler to get the right shape. Please with it though as it could have turned out alot worse.

 Before shading.........

After shading.........

Still some touching up around the stripes as this was my first attempt at them ever.

Looking good Jester! Seems like the pre/post shade worked out well for you.

Cool scheme!

Nice allison mustang, !  Your invasion stripes look fantastic. 
I wish I was that far along on my build.

I added a few more details to the cockpit while the canopy was off.  I finished the dash-panel that I showed in earlier photos, and I made a miniature map that sits on the pilot's lap.  He's on recon patrol, so I thought it was fitting. 

Last weekend, I was so close to having the canopy re-installed, but I screwed it up trying to make it perfect and ultimately I had to toss it.  I ordered two more from Squadron yesterday, so hopefully I have better luck later in the week.

Eric, very nice paint job!

IL2, nice work! Sorry to hear about the canopy!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Ahh... no sweat.  My canopies arrived yesterday.
Sometimes to do things right, you gotta take a step backwards :)

Now some Action.

Well I am calling this one done. Not as good as I would have liked it but OK I guess. Masking and painting invasion stripes is definetely a challenge not for the faint of heart! This aircraft uses a whip antenna so no string this time. Also, according to AM, it was a heavily weathered aircraft also. May have went a little heavy in this aspect but oh well. As always comments are more than welcome!!

Thanks for looking!

Edit: Was just informed about the gear being backwards with the oleos facing the wrong way. Upon inspection of the AM instruction sheet, they call for them to be installed this way. A heads up for anyone else building the Allison powered Mustangs from AM.

Hi Eric --  beautiful plane, beautiful job! She feels the real deal! Very good photography, also, that'sthe first time I've seen black used as the background color -- most effective.

Makes me wanna drag out an AM and have a go myself (if only I didn't have so much on the bench...)

Cheers,

Mike

Hi Eric --May I ask, do you use black paper? I've been using cardstocks for the fold-ups, but their sealed surface is slightly reflective and black would probably show sheen from the lights.

I have the full set of AM Mustangs, and duplicates of one or two courtesy of eBay, it'll be great when the day comes I have display space and can build at will!

Cheers,

Mike

Hi again,

Foamcore -- ah, that's one of the less-usual materials down here. Must have a look around.

I might try some black shots for the new 109, the RLM 65 would sure show up strong against it!

Cheers,

Mike

Nice mustang, Jester!  Really nice finish on the OD scheme.
You probably could modify the oleos just like Jeaton said, if you felt so inclined. 

Hi all,

I did some bullet-biting and orderd a Tami P-51D (surface from Hong Kong, at a third the Aus shelf price I'm happy to wait). This replaces the one I ordered in March and went missing in the mail. Then I rummaged in my stash and found at least two Hasegawa 1:48 -Ds I wasn't really aware of having. I'm seriously tempted!

Mustang stencil data -- why so hard to find? Aeromaster 148-008 would have been perfect but seems to be out of print, I found two pages of refs to it on Google but with a single excepton every single one was in Polish! Can anyone recommend a good source for stencil data at the quality level of Superscale/AMD/Eagle etc.?

I also have an Aus decal sheet on order for a 1:72 -D, Aus markings, Italy '45 -- another contender for this GB.

Cheers,

Mike

Great Choice to order another STang Mike! as for your stencil data I cannot help but I can research a little bit.

chirp chirp, chirp chirp   Holy cow, page 3 Batman!

Ouch. We still have 6 months................ for the people to finish.

Well, see item #6 on the front page, and see the above posts for how much time is still left.

I believe that will answer your question.

Yes John your more than welcome, can I have the brand and scale please?

Hi all,

A Tamiya 51D FINALLY arrived in yesterday's post -- now I'm contemplating two for this GB, a WWII D and a 1969 Latin job using the Hasegawa I dug out of my stash, because those Aztec decals must be in my PO box by now. It would make a great companion piece to my Salvadorean Corsair, to be built simultaneously.

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

Academy 1/72 P-51D with AM superscale decals doing MIss Marilyn II.

Mike glad it came, and a late one to, sounds interesting.

John, thanks for joining the build It is looking very nice.

Hi Raptordriver,

The Tamiya -D is such a sweet kit I'm thinking seriously about ordering another immediately, one will not be enough! I checked Page 1 but couldn't see a rule about cross-entries with other GBs. Are you allowing them? I was considering doing a Tamiya -D OOB to get the feel of the kit before going into the mods and multi-tone paintjob for the El Salvadoran bird, and I rather fancy one of the Korean-vintage schemes that come with the kit. If cross-posting is fine I'd enter it in both P-51 Mustang GB and Forgotten War GB (which accepts cross-entries). If not, no worries, but I thought it was worth asking.

Cheers,

Mike/TB379