The P-51"mustang" Group Build. 2008

Hi Andrew -- great news! Okay, I'll order up another -D to use the AM decals on, and build this one as a cross-entry in kit markings (Col. W. Clarke, CO 18th FBG, serial 474651, FF-651). Feels good to know where I'm going on this, and I can air out the kit for any quirks I need to be aware of before doing a more complex build, which will include a couple of scratchbuilt parts, possibly tip tanks from another source, and a four-tone paint scheme. Hopefully I can get a start in the near future.

EDIT: I made a start earlier, with a round of masking solution and tape on the articular surfces in readiness for pre-painting.

Here's a techncal question that my photos don't seem to answer: would the interior of the cooling duct be painted Interior Green, or left in natural metal? Most photos of well-lit subjects show these areas on deep shadow.

I have the Mustang engineering book, I'll take a skim through but I don't recall field service touch-up instructions of that sort...

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

Hi all,

I checked the Erection & Maintenance book (AN 01-60JE-2) 1952-53 issue, and hiding away on p403 was a paint section, featuring a couple of listings of how various parts were to be treated, and even a WWII-vintage British camo chart! But the paints are not refered to by FS codes at this point, and 'interior' instructions refer to components between Fuselage Stations 101 and 184 (which is the cockpit). It does say that areas of the aircraft not exposed to the eye would not normally be given a color coat, which leads me to suppose the interior of the cooling duct would be natural metal.

I had the pleasure of photographing a Mustang restored here in Australia several years ago. it was put into the colors of an Australian squadron serving from bases in Italy (camo). The landing gear wells were US interior green and unless memory is playing tricks, the insides of the main gear doors were too. How common was that? Not very, unless I miss my guess.

I made a start today with masking for the first round of pre-assembly painting. I'm hoping to put on the interior green tomorrow.

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

Here's a techncal question that my photos don't seem to answer: would the interior of the cooling duct be painted Interior Green, or left in natural metal? Most photos of well-lit subjects show these areas on deep shadow.

Most photos of restored Mustangs show that the interior of the radiator exit flap is chromate green, while the radiator inlet scoop is bare metal.  These are photos of restored birds and not original photos, but generally these guys get the details right. 

Google "P-51 walkaround" and you will find a plethora of reference photos.

Can I enter in my Mustang?

FeldMarSchall Model wrote:

Can I enter in my Mustang?

Yes sir you can, I will put you on the list.

What paint job are you going for, I built the same kit earlier and think its very colorful, can't wait to see thanks for joining.

raptordriver wrote:

FeldMarSchall Model wrote: Can I enter in my Mustang?     Yes sir you can, I will put you on the list. What paint job are you going for, I built the same kit earlier and think its very colorful, can't wait to see thanks for joining.

Thanks I'm glad to be here, I haven't picked out what paint job I'm going with yet.

Getting close to the end of this one.

All fini.  Academy P-51D MISS MARILYN II  1/72

Hi all,

I managed a bit on the Wild Horse today, I made up the wing in preparation for spraying the gear bays. I have some Interior Green to apply to two other models so might as well production-line them. I'm hoping to do the same with some props that need spraying too.

Tempestjohnny -- may I ask what shade of green you used around the nose end of your Miss Marylin II? I have decals for this unit but they're printed in yellow only and the instructions refer to some shade called "Green 46," whatever system that might be. I'd love to add some Mustangs of the 55th to my collection!

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

Mike I mixed it.  The decals I had had the green for the checker so I took regular Testors green mixed in some black til it looked right and painted the nose and spinner to match.  If you can find the small bottle of Testors Dark Green I think that is a pretty close match. 

THe decals I had were very old Superscales.  The instructions said that the cheat stripe was yellow but after looking aroound the net I figured it was red.

Hope this helps  JOHN

Andrew the kit was decent.  Fit was good but some things about the molding just aren't right.  BTW THere are two different moldings.  The one with DOWN FOR DOUBLE on the box is the one I built.  I also have the other one which looks much worse that has the Korean War Mustang on it.

Been awhile since I mustered in this GB, harsh summer/fall for me....

great job on the first page! No such things as too many mustangs...

john - top notch work as usual. I really enjoy your builds and blogs.

IL2windhawk - great work, your pilot came out superb.

Jester75 - great job, love the stripes paint job. Superb photography

tempestjohnny - really nice job in such a small scale.

I will start my Tamiya P-51D 8AF soon... I also have the "Silver Color Plated" version, which means the spues are 'chrome", in some attempt to mimic NMF I guess. Anyone has any experience with that beast? I was thinking of either striping the chrome or Ebaying the kit...

raptordriver wrote:

Good to see you back Jmart for the chrome on maybe you can wash it in acetone.

try spraying it with a good layer of testors dull coat, i use this technique with alot of the chrome rims on the car models i build and it usually looks good, worse comes to worse you can still strip the dull coat and chrome plating off and start from scratch, as for that particular kit i know nothing of how good it is. I've been out of the game for a while on ALL 3 of my group builds due to my deployment and current shipyard period, but i'm slowly getting back into my routine. i changed up from building the tamiya d model in 1/48 with Ridge Runner III markings and have instead opted for revell's big beautiful doll kit (still in Ridge Runner III livery), in order to avoid cutting the nose decals apart for the engine to show through i will instead put a Packard Merlin (super-detailed) on static display next to the completed 'stang. Good to be back

Lol I have forgotton about my own GB, looks like theres four months to go.

raptordriver wrote:

Good to see you back Jmart for the chrome on maybe you can wash it in acetone.

Don't use acetone on the kit or you will no longer have a kit. Soak is in Simple Green or Super Clean to remove the chrome.

Well guys, I'm back in business.

This is THIRD canopy I have glued on to this kit, but I think I've finally accomplished what I'm after.  I rebuilt a lot of the cockpit detail before bonding this canopy, then I puttied and primered this section of the kit to look for imperfections in the bond line.  I found some, LOL.   Fortunately, they should be fairly easy to take care of.  It won't be long now before I'm ready to primer the entire bird.

That's how I roll,  LOL   GO UTES!

I am delighted with the current state of my build as it seems that all the hard parts are now completed.  Now I can look forward to finally painting this bird.  Here are some progress photos:

This is a progress photo of blending the vac-form canopy to the kit.
 

And here is the end result: a continuouse seam-free joint.  To acheive this, I performed several putty, blend, and prime iterations (on the canopy section only) until all traces of the seam were gone.  I say this often, but if you guys havent used Tamiya Fine Primer (spray can), do yourselves a favor and get a can.  This stuff is my secret weapon for erasing seams, because it sands so nicely.  It perfect for eliminating those "barely visible if you hold it in the right light" seams.

And now the whole model is primered.  I have just a few straggler nuisance areas to sand or putty, then I will begin painting.
 

Here's one last thing that I just realized has turned out pretty well.  It's a before and after shot of a brass tube that I installed into the model before I closed up the fuselage.  Recall that my build will be mounted "in-flight".  This arrangement has a slight snug-fit with the support rod, which will hopefully make the attachement to the base secure enough to hold the model in place, yet remain non-permanent so i can remove it and fly it around the house when nobody is looking :)

Ya go UTES! to bad we are outnumbered 3 to 1, in our swim meets.

Thanks for showing how you do your magic tricks. You seem you have mastered filling seams.

Thanks Rap,
In this case I think I got very lucky.  In one place of the vac part I sanded it down so much that it feels like bubble wrap when I press on it. 

If it had been even a little bit more out-of-profile, I would have had to cut out that area and fill the hole somehow.  Thank goodness I didn't!  I'm also lucky I didn't sand through by accident.

IL2windhawk wrote:

Neat trick! How'd you pull this off? Did you have to add extra styrene inside the fuselage to drill through to have more for the rod to "hold" against?

dupes wrote:

Neat trick! How'd you pull this off? Did you have to add extra styrene inside the fuselage to drill through to have more for the rod to "hold" against?

Before I assembled the fuselage halves, I filled that area of the fuselage with balsa, then saturated it with thin-CA.  This results in a very hard substrate that you can drill into.

Here's a photo of the inside of the B-58 from IMS2

raptordriver , navypitsnipe, hkshooter - Thanks for the tips... I will try super clean, once it gets atad warmer outside, dont want to do the de-chroming inside.

IL2windhawk -very nicely done, canopy loosk awesome!

IL2windhawk wrote:

dupes wrote: Neat trick! How'd you pull this off? Did you have to add extra styrene inside the fuselage to drill through to have more for the rod to "hold" against? Before I assembled the fuselage halves, I filled that area of the fuselage with balsa, then saturated it with thin-CA.  This results in a very hard substrate that you can drill into. Here's a photo of the inside of the B-58 from IMS2

Hey IL thats pretty neat, do you do that to all your planes?