The P-51"mustang" Group Build. 2008

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 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

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.

Now some Action.

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

Eric, very nice paint job!

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

Cheers,

Azgaron

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.

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

Cool scheme!

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.

Hi Andrew,

Yup, a quarter the US shelf price, or pretty close to. Could you resist new Tamiyas for $9.99? 1:72s for $7.80? No, neither could I... Unfortunately, he also cheats on the postage and charges for protective packing that doesn't get used, so kits arrive crushed in the mail, and eventually one dosen't arrive at all. It's a lucky dip. But they are cheap.

That package was mailed at the end of March by surface (no point in airmail, it overbalances the savings), so it's never going to show up.

By contrast I deal with a trader in Beijing who saves me enormously on Trumpeter (a quarter US shelf pice on many older armor kits, and I'm talking $100 less than shelf price here in Aus on some deluxe items) and somewhat less on Dragon, and packages always arrive, even if they are never packed as well as I'd hope. The Post Office accepts no responsibility for packages from China unless they are fully insured and packed to withstand a weight of 40lbs placed on top of them -- China Post's rep is that bad... And to claim insurance you have to surrender the goods and then they'll think about reimbursing you. So you get used to new stock arriving looking second-hand. But they are cheap...

Mike

Gee quarter of the price! I would take the hook! If it was reliable.

 So how long have you been waiting for your stang Mike?

Hi Raptordriver,

I hear you! But to be fair, when a Tamiya 1:48 is offered for a quater US shelf price you gotta take the hook... And it's the only package from that seller that's actually gone missing. And at the same time Great Models Webstore have totally screwed up my faith in them by not delivering on my first order to them!

A Tamiya 1:72 Mustang did arrive, though, and I'm considering doing something with that!

Cheers,

TB379/Mike

Jeaton and Windhawk -- superb Hs, guys, squirelly builds of the squirrelly 'stang. Looking at them reminded me I got a RarePlanes vacform conversion many years ago, H fuselage halves to which most of the rest could be added by raiding a D. Even now, I shudder at the thought!

Still hoping to contribute, but that Tamiya -D never arrived, the mail swallowed it between Hong Kong and here, and took a StuG III/G with it...

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

Very nice work IL! That canopy looks nice!

Yes, perhaps some careful painting of the eyes will do the trick!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Although I have been mostly consumed building a B-58 for the IMS2 GB, I have been able to peel away from that kit from time to time.  I've been performing some odds and ends on my Mustang model over the last couple weeks.

A while ago, while reworking the seam around the cockpit, I accidentally separated it from the fuselage.  No biggie, and I intended to rebond it.  However, while shopping at Squadron, I saw a AccMini P-51A vac canopy and I threw it in the shopping cart out of curiosity.  I was suprised by what I received, as the P-51A vac canopy is molded with the adjacent part of the FWD fuselage.  I liked this feature alot and decided to go with this new canopy.  So I cut away the dash part of my kit to match the canopy seam.  Tonight I scratch-built a dash panel that I hope will look OK when it's painted and detailed.  Also, I've been working on painting and weathering the prop, although the photos don't show much of its detail.

Looks like I better give my pilot some eyes!

Good looking Stang John! The NMF looks great!

Cheers, 

Azgaron

Nice model, Jeaton.  Your NMF has a very nice sheen to it.  She looks good next to that F-86!  Another fine pony rides out of this build, eh Raptor?

Answering your question, my kit was the Classic Airframes kit.  It's a really good kit, but it can be hard to find these days.

OK, this one is headed for the display case.  It was a nice build, but for some very delicate Invisa-Clear decals it was almost hassle free.  When I mentioned the H was a Dali-type Mustang, my thought was it looks like a Mustang, but things are just not quite right, like it has gone off just a bit Martin Baker MB-5-ish.  Look at the side view photo and you will see what I mean.  More photos of the build and comments are on my web site here:

http://yolo.net/~jeaton/mymodels/p51/p51h/1p51h/1p51h.htm

LOL - you guys kill me.  I gues nobody loves the H!  Except me...I LOVE the P-51H.  The sharper nose, the tall tail, the twin antennas...sigh, I'm in love.

Jeaton, you model looks awesome, man.  Great work on her!  Looks like you're close to done.

I hope you guys wont mind me showing off the P51H i did a couple years back:

Dirk Great Build Thanks for posting! That starfix kit does look like a mess.

Jeaton, Thanks for posting the WIP the NMF looks great to me. A awsome red paint scheme as well. Resin kits don't sound very hard. Its the vaccumformed ones that do but that is a whole different topic entirely!